Japan Heritage story
Yoshino: the forests that people grew, and that grew them
森に育まれ、森を育んだ人々の暮らしとこころ
Japan's tree planting began in Yoshino, in southern Nara. For about 500 years people have grown dense, straight cedar and cypress there, while leaving the sacred mountain tops as wild forest.
Key facts
- Theme
- Forests and timber, Festivals and rituals, Food and sake
- Era
- Yayoi, Kofun, Nara
- Region
- Kansai
- Official name in Japanese
- 森に育まれ、森を育んだ人々の暮らしとこころ
- Official subtitle in Japanese
- ～美林連なる造林発祥の地“吉野”～
- Official area (in Japanese)
- 奈良県（吉野町，下市町，黒滝村，天川村，下北山村，上北山村，川上村，東吉野村）
The story
Yoshino is one of Japan's rainiest areas, and its trees grow slowly, with fine rings and strong wood. For centuries they were cut only to build shrines and temples such as Kinpusenji. When castle building boomed in the 1500s, the natural forest was felled and rafted downriver, so people began to plant. The oldest record is from late Muromachi times in Kawakami village, where a planted forest about 400 years old still stands.
Yoshino foresters planted about 10,000 seedlings per hectare, two or three times the usual number, thinned them again and again, and waited 80 to 100 years or more before the final harvest, twice as long as elsewhere. The result is round, straight, evenly grained timber, once prized for the barrels that carried sake to Edo. Yet the peaks and ridges, seen as the heads and paths of the gods, were left as wild forest.
What to see
- Planted forest at Shimotako: rows of cedar about 400 years old in Kawakami village.Google Maps 下多古 川上村 奈良県 (opens in a new tab)
- Kinpusenji: the great temple of the Yoshino mountains.Google Maps 金峯山寺 (opens in a new tab)
- Yoshino Mikumari shrine and Niukawakami shrine: shrines to the water and forest gods, honoured by emperors since Heian times.Google Maps 吉野水分神社 (opens in a new tab)
- Yoshino-date houses: homes built against steep slopes with stone-walled terraces.
Plan your trip with the Nara prefecture guide and see more nature and shrines and temples.
Good to know
- Look at the planted slopes: the even rows of straight trunks are the craft itself.
- Small mountain shrines to the forest god are everywhere; a quiet bow is enough.
- Roads in the eight villages are narrow and winding, so allow extra driving time.
Questions travellers ask
Why is Yoshino timber special?
Dense planting, repeated thinning and harvests after 80 to 100 years or more give round, straight trunks with narrow, even rings.
Where is the oldest planted forest?
In Shimotako, Kawakami village, where a forest about 400 years old still stands.
Where it comes from
More heritage stories from the same area
- Aizu's 33 Kannon pilgrimage: faith with a day out
- Asuka: the women who shaped the birth of Japan
- Date Masamune's dazzling culture in Sendai and Matsushima
- Gyoda: the town of tabi storehouses
- Hida no Takumi: 1,300 years of master woodworkers in Takayama
- Iga and Koka: in search of the real ninja
- Izumo: the sacred land where the sun sets
- Kamenose: crossing the landslide heart of the Tatsuta Kodo
- Katsuragi Shugen: where mountain asceticism began
- Michinoku gold: where Japan's gold story began
- Mount Takao and Hachioji, the city of silk
- Nyonin Koya: the temples where women prayed instead of Mount Koya
Local foods from the same area
Crafts from the same area
Sources
We checked the facts on this page against these sources.