There is a Kamishibai about this tree in Toroku. The farming people in this valley were not wealthy but they did ok with wild bee honey, shiitake mushrooms, ricefields, and livestock. But all those relatively healthy activities declined once some people tried to profit from arsenic mining and smelting. After the honey and shiitake mushrooms stopped cooperating livestock and people started getting sick too. Nothing in the village was able to flower, except for wild pear trees. One of arsenic-damaged old ladies was asked to sell this tree to an old man. He wanted to chop it into firewood to heat his bath. The old lady refused to sell this tree, saying that its leaves, flowers, and fruit would return after they stopped the smelting an mining... JuRenJiGaki 十連寺柿