The 270-year-old pine withstood the tsunami on March 11, 2011, while all the other trees in Takata Matsubara forest – about 70,000 – were bashed down.
Its survival caught public attention in Japan and was seen as symbol of hope amid the widespread destruction.
Sawmiller Yatomi Seizai is cutting the trunk into nine sections and removing the core. A carbon pole with be inserted in the middle and the different sections reassembled before it is returned to where it originally stood.
