Japanese Torreya of Samin-ri, Gangjin

The Japanese torreya grows in Korea south of Naejangsan Mountain and also in Japan. Its handsome form has made it a popular ornamental tree, and its fruit is used as a vermifuge, a treatment for constipation, and a source of oil. The Japanese torreya of Samin-ri, Gangjin, is estimated to be about 500 years old, 11.5m tall, with a trunk girth of 5.8m at breast height; about 1.5m above the ground the trunk divides into four large branches. Two explanations are offered for how the tree escaped felling for some 500 years (as of its designation). One holds that when the headquarters of the Jeolla Provincial Army Command was established here in the 17th year of King Taejong (1417), every usable tree nearby was cut down, but this one, being short and crooked, was unsuited to building timber and so survived. The other holds that, since the tree's fruit was at the time the sole remedy for expelling intestinal parasites, it was protected by the local people. Villagers regard the tree as a guardian spirit of the village and, every year on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, walk around it praying for the village's peace; in high summer it also serves as a shaded retreat from the heat. The Japanese torreya of Samin-ri, Gangjin, is a historical and cultural record of the long attention and care shown by generations of villagers, and being also of high value as biological data, it is designated and protected as a natural monument.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gangjin, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Natural Monument · 천연기념물