COVER STORY:Biodiversity is life. Biodiversity is our life.

Caption: Located in fashionable central west Tokyo, the forest surrounding Meiji Jingu is home to diverse creatures including many species of wild birds. Harajuku Station, referred to in the text, is located just beyond the trees, center right.
Credit: TADASHI AIZAWA

Where Creatures Gather: The Guardian Forest of Meiji Jingu

Harajuku Station in central Tokyo. The areas around the station are filled with young people and tourists all year around, as the station affords access to the fashionable shopping districts of Harajuku and Omotesando. Very close to Harajuku Station is Meiji Jingu (Shinto shrine), which occupies an area of 700,000 square meters and is covered by an evergreen forest of some 170,000 trees of 245 species, including camphor trees and oak. The shrine and its precinct are visited by as many as 10 million persons each year.

On April 18, a Green Walk through Meiji Jingu was organized jointly by the nonprofit organization Hibiki, which is involved in greening activities at the shrine, and the Wild Bird Society of Japan.

“Please listen carefully. What do you hear?” Atsuhito Itomine of the Wild Bird Society of Japan quietly asks the twenty or so participants on the walk. Birds can be heard along with the sound of crunching gravel and the voices of visitors from around the world.

“Today in Meiji Jingu, we can find over fifty species of wild birds throughout the year, including rare species.”

Since ancient times, the Japanese people have believed that divine spirits reside in forests. They have built Shinto shrines in these groves and revered them as village shrines. However, the forest of Meiji Jingu was planted just ninety years ago by human hands.

Before Meiji Jingu was built, the area had many fields and fallow land. When Emperor Meiji passed away in 1912 and his consort Empress Shoken died two years later, the people decided to build a shrine here in their honor. The specialists who were in charge of tree planting decided on the tree species and arrangement, with the aim of creating an “eternal forest,” sketching the stages of its expected development 150 years into the future.

And today, Meiji Jingu is indeed like a natural forest, one that is home to diverse creatures.

“The reason why there are so many species of wild birds is because there are many worms for them to eat. There are many worms because there are many plants on which the worms can feed. And there are many plants because the soil quality is excellent,” notes Itomine.

The grove of Meiji Jingu has been cared for respecting this natural cycle.