600 years old pine at Kinkaku-ji, Kyoto

Trees with special shapes, the result of hundreds of years of careful trimming and shaping, can be found in many places in Japan, especially inside traditional gardens or temple courtyards.

One spectacular example is this Japanese white pine, on which the shaping work started over 600 years ago, during the time of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the 3rd shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate. Its location is at Kinkaku-ji, in Kyoto, on the place where originally stood the shogun's villa.

The pine was shaped like a sailing ship, with the crown suggesting the mast and one of the branches suggesting the ship. As you can see from the photo, because of its huge weight the branch is today supported by poles... a true living work of art...