Maruyama Park

This guide to Maruyama Park in Kyoto opens beneath the illuminated weeping cherry that draws crowds every April, and traces back to the far older tree that stood on this same spot for roughly two centuries, thick enough that four grown arms could barely circle its trunk. It follows that older tree's rise to become a nationally protected monument in 1938, its decline over the following decade, and introduces Sano Toemon, a cherry specialist fifteenth in his family's line of tree doctors. Look closely at the trunk above you, and count how many arms it might take to circle it.