The power of human development is enormous and has had a negative impact on the natural environment throughout the world. In Japan, people originally lived hunting in the forest, then thousands of years ago they settled down and began cultivating rice, opening up forests.

Under such circumstances, the forests around the shrine were intentionally remained natural. This is based on the religious belief that Gods live in the forest and watch over our daily lives to keep safely. So cutting the trees in the forest makes Gods angry. People thought that the occasional earthquakes, floods, epidemics are such wrath of Gods.

Nowadays, the virgin forests is usually remained very limitedly around shrine precincts. As a special case, a fairly large virgin forest remains around Kasuga Taisha Shrine in Nara. It is designated as a national natural monument. So sampling there without permission is exhibited.

This is a laurel forest consisting of evergreen acorn trees. Thousands of years ago, such forests spread out even in the cities of Osaka and Tokyo, which are now only buildings. Why don’t you experience the ancient forest with many large trees?