KESENNUMA, Miyagi Prefecture--The city government here will spend 24 million yen ($194,000) to preserve a tree shaped like a dragon that survived the 2011 tsunami but was succumbing to rot and decay.
KESENNUMA, Miyagi Prefecture--The city government here will spend 24 million yen ($194,000) to preserve a tree shaped like a dragon that survived the 2011 tsunami but was succumbing to rot and decay.
Workers on July 29 used a chainsaw to carefully cut off the “head” of the “dragon pine tree,” and then felled the rest of the tree.
The core of the foot of the trunk will be removed and replaced with a steel rod. Special resin will be applied to the tree bark for preservation purposes. Workers plan to create a replica of the dragon’s head using reinforced plastic, officials said.
The end result will be returned to the scenic Iwaisaki cape, where the tree stood, for public viewing in January next year. It will serve as a symbol of reconstruction.
The restoration process will be similar to the one used for the famed “
The dragon tree was part of a coastal pine forest that was destroyed by the tsunami triggered by the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake. Many of the trees were felled to remove fishing nets and other debris, but the dragon tree remained.
When a photo of the tree was posted on the Internet around early 2012, viewers labeled it the “dragon tree” because its branches looked like whiskers and horns, and the tree appeared ready to fly into the sky.
A photo of the tree taken by a local photographer was used on postcards and cellphone straps sold at souvenir shops. It was also used for the jacket of a CD by singer-songwriter Ikumi Kumagai, a Kesennuma native.