#DaysInJapan: Totoro Forest

Totoro Forest is a conservation forest located in Sayama Hills, Tokyo, which is categorized as a deciduous broadleaf forest. It name, Totoro, was taken from the main character of the animated movie titled “My Neighbor Totoro” that aired at 1988 by Studio Ghibli. The location of scenes in this movie are actually inspired by actual places in this forest. Hayao Miyazaki, who is the director of that movie, is the owner of the foundation that manage this forest called National Trust of Totoro No Furusato (Totoro Hometown) or simply called Totoro Fund. From the animations he made, we can see that Hayao Miyazaki is very concerned in the environmental conservation issues. That’s why he made this foundation which is named after one of  his animation masterpiece.

Temple that also appeared in the animation

Started from 1991, the Totoro fund started buying the land from farmers for turned it into a conservation area. That’s because, in Japanese law, people are allowed to own a forest, even a mountain. But the tax is very high, so they started to sell it if they can’t pay the tax. The preservation of Totoro Forest was happened gradually in part by part. That makes the Totoro forest have 38 parts by now, spreads in the area of Sayama Hills.

Locations of the Totoro forest from forest number 1 until 38

(map source: http://www.totoro.or.jp/) 

The costs of land purchasing are obtained from donations that channeled through the Totoro Fund. The number of money is also donated to this fund if people are buying the Totoro merchandise. By this fund, people are become also concerned about forest conservation. Some conservation activity like cut the undergrowth every summer and collect fallen leaves every autumn are also managed by volunteers which is made the ecosystem always maintained.

one of the sign in Totoro Forest no. 3

(can't read it tho)

The ecosystem of deciduous broadleaf forest is very fragile. If the forest is not maintained well, some alien species will invade the forest area. The alien species, which are the species that is not belongs to that ecosystem, are spread very fast. And if this happen, it will disturb the balance of the habitat inside the forest. This is the challenge of conservation in this type of forest. So the ecosystem management is always necessary and become important. 

By the increasing of populations, now Totoro Forest also facing the urban sprawl challenge. Some part of forest are now become a residential area. The conservation are much needed because this forest, which is also shown in the animation, is become the role of the original landscape of Japan called Satoyama. In satoyama principle, there is always a forest that located behind the houses, and then in front of the house there is paddy field or horticultural land.



Around the forest area, we also saw some company that built some factory and even an animal sanctuary. This kind of facility can be called ‘an annoying facility’, which is actually not appropriate to built in such a rich land like inside the forest. So, the Totoro fund must take an action and buy the forest land if there is a farmer that wants to sell it, instead of sells it to the residential developer or even industry. The land use changing from forest into another residential area and factories must be stopped.

The Totoro name is very attract many visitors to come to this forest. There is so many people that comes because they curious about the setting of the animation. But some of them come because they just concerned about the environment and conservation. There also some people from urban area that come because they want to get some fresh air and fill they need for healthy green spaces. So the spaces like this are have many advantages not only for the environment, but also the people.

Totoro Forest seen from Sayama Lake bridge

(written for Totoro Forest fieldtrip report from the Regional Environmental Science: Practical Field Training course by Tokyo Metropolitan University)

More about totoro forest, click here http://www.totoro.or.jp/