The Garden Magazine, May, 1920 
179 
Photo. E. H. Wilson 
THE GREATEST MEMORIAL AVENUE IN THE WORLD 
The Cryptomeria avenue at Nikko, Japan, extends for 24 miles along the old highway leading to the tomb of leyasu, father of the second Shogun of the 
lokugawa dynasty, who died in 1616 when Jigen Daishi was abbot. It was a gift in honor of the mausoleum of leyasu, planted by Matsudaira Masatsuna, 
a petty daimyo who, being poor, could not afford to make costly offerings to the shrines as other greater and richer daimyos did; hence he devised the less 
expensive though more laborious and tedious plan of forming avenues. The planting, completed in 1651, took twenty years to carry out. Fires in houses 
near the avenue here and there have caused gaps in the otherwise uninterrupted stately lines, but as existing at present the Cryptomerias, counted from 
Imaicni to Nikko, number 18,308 If this tradition as to its origin be true, this avenue teaches a useful lesson, and carries hope to the heart of the planter of 
trees, who will see in it a monument more significant and inspiring, if not more lasting, than those which men sometimes erect in stone or bronze.— E. H. W. 
