Giant Marumigaya tree (a kind of Japanese nutmeg tree) with large round seeds which are extremely rare
The temple was founded in 1283 by DATE Masayori, the fourth lord of the DATE family as his own (Bodaiji) temple in Koori, Date (Fukushima Prefecture).
It was then moved to Yonezawa and Iwadeyama by the DATE family, before being erected in the current Aoba-jinja Shrine precinct in 1601.
In 1873, in order to use the site to construct Aoba-jinja Shrine to memorialize the first lord of the Sendai clan, DATE Masamune, the temple was moved to its current area and the 7,712㎡ grounds were restored.
It was destroyed by a great fire in 1876 and reconstructed in 1900.
The giant Marumigaya tree, which is on the northeastern side of the main hall, is a nationally designated natural monument with an estimated age of 500 years and is a variety of Japanese nutmeg tree which is characterized by its round seeds.
