Kunugi Tree

The junior high school I am due to work at in about an hour is named "Kunugi." Until recently, I thought it was just a name, like "Cheldelin," "Crescent Valley," or "Western." However, the other day I noted the large tree in the parking lot, covered in careful lines of rope that took a crew of three men all day to wind around and up the tree's trunk. I asked about this tree, and was told it was very important. Lo and behold, it's the Kunugi. It is home to stag beetles (a popular pet for Japanese children--google it if you don't believe me) as well as mushrooms, and produces wood popular for charcoal. Furthermore, it includes a bit of Japanese folklore:

The Kunugi Tree, a kind of Oak, is said to have stood on the island of Tsukushi in Japan. Its shadow at dawn and sunset is said to have cast a shadow for hundeds of miles. Hundreds of thousands of people could walk on it when it fell. One of its stems was like a long hill range.