Meiji Shrine

Before Meiji Shrine was built, this area was known as Minami-Toshima Goryochi, imperial property. Except for what is now the Gyoen Garden area, it was mostly farmland, with a landscape that largely looked like wasteland.

To create an “eternal forest” where Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken would be enshrined and people could quietly offer prayers, leading scholars were brought together to plan the project.

Most of the trees planted were donated from all over Japan. About 100,000 trees were offered, and a total of 110,000 young people volunteered their labor for the construction work, devoting themselves to planting trees and building the approach roads that created the forest of Meiji Shrine.

At the time of construction, forestry experts such as Seiroku Honda, Takanori Hongo, and Keiji Uehara considered what should be planted to create an “eternal forest,” and decided to plant mainly evergreen broadleaf trees such as shi, oak, and camphor, which would eventually become the main tree species.

The reason was that by the Taisho era, pollution had already advanced in Tokyo, and large, old trees throughout the city were dying one after another. Looking 100 years ahead, they concluded that Meiji Shrine would need trees that could grow only as evergreen broadleaf species.

However, Prime Minister Shigenobu Okuma, who was then the prime minister, insisted, “Are you going to turn the shrine forest into a thicket? Thickets are not suitable. It should be a cedar forest,” and wanted something grand and solemn like the cedar avenues of Ise Jingu or Nikko Toshogu.

The people involved in the forest management firmly opposed Okuma’s opinion, explaining from a forestry standpoint that cedars grow well in valleys with abundant moisture, but are unsuitable for the Yoyogi area and not appropriate for an urban environment. Only then did he finally agree.

In April 1945, many of Meiji Shrine’s shrine buildings were destroyed by air raids, but the forest became a place of refuge for people and suffered little damage. Perhaps it was spared the spread of fire because it was made up of evergreen broadleaf trees rather than highly flammable conifers.

As part of the 50th anniversary commemorative projects, Meiji Shrine carried out a comprehensive survey of the shrine grounds centered on a tree-by-tree investigation, with the report published in 1980. For the 100th anniversary, it conducted a second comprehensive survey of the shrine grounds, including the fauna, with the report published in 2013, and is studying scientifically how this forest is growing.

At the time of construction, the inner precinct forest consisted of about 120,000 trees of 365 species, including native species. According to the second comprehensive survey of the shrine grounds, this had changed to about 36,000 trees of 234 species. Through natural selection, the trees have grown large and strong.

In addition, about 3,000 species of living creatures, including newly discovered species, endangered species, and flora and fauna rare in Tokyo, were reported, attracting much attention.