(Voice actor) Mr.Akira Daniel Duncan

In Yoyogi-Kamizonocho, Shibuya ward, there is a vast site with a huge forest. This 700,000 square meter site is home to the Meiji Jingu Shrine. The Meiji Jingu Shrine is a relatively new shrine, built in 1920. Emperor Meiji and his wife Empress Shoken are enshrined here. There are many visitors every day, as Meiji Jingu is located in the middle of a big city. The number of visitors is most notable on New Year’s day when it is customary for people to visit shrines for the first time of the year, 3 million people visit the shrine. That’s how popular this spot is. Meiji Jingu Shrine is popular for a certain aspect as well. It is that most of the site is a forest. There is an extensive forest in the middle of a city and one step into Jingu, a solitude spreads in all directions. Although one cannot just freely wander into the Jingu forest, the atmosphere that the vast forest casts, and the air that the forest brings are pleasant, and lets one forget that one is in the middle of Tokyo. -- There is this much forest left in Tokyo – Some feel this way when visiting Meiji Jingu. But this is a mistake. Before Meiji Jingu was built, this area was a wasteland. It is an artificial forest that was groomed after the construction of Meiji Jingu was decided. At the time, many trees were sent from all over Japan for forest-building. The number was 100,000 trees of 365 species. There were southern-native trees and some that did not match the climate in Tokyo, so currently there are about 230 species, but still a forest with a wide variety of trees was born. In the Jingu forest, creatures that aren’t normally seen in the city, such as raccoons and Steller’s sea eagles, can be seen. Such a rich forest was made by human hands. Actually, there was a possibility that the atmosphere would be very different from what it is now. Then-Prime Minister Shigenobu Okuma suggested to make the Jingu forest a cedar forest like the ones in Ise Grand Shrine and Nikko Tosho-gu. There is a sublimity to walking through a long row of cedar. Shigenobu Okuma must have had that image in mind. But forestry specialists opposed this idea. Conifers are ever-greens, which makes it difficult for sun light to penetrate the forest in the winter. If there were various trees, the fallen leaves would become nutrients, making the soil rich and preserving the richness of the forest as well. There was another reason that the forestry specialists held on to their analysis. That was because the thoughts of those involved in the design of this forest were taken into consideration. What were those thoughts?