Mushrooms in a sanctuary: studying fungi in the forest of Hakone Soun-ji Temple 箱根早雲公園

Hakone is a resort town. Its gateway is Hakone Yumoto community箱根湯本 that has the terminal train station, Hakone-yumoto, for a direct Odakyu service from Shinjuku. The place has lots of spas, restaurants, souvenir shops, et al. Town Hall of Hakone is also there. The area has been for more than millennium an important base for travelers passing Hakone mountains. As such, the Hojo Clan 北条氏 for the Lord of Odawara Castle built in 1521 their family temple there. It is Soun-ji Temple 早雲寺 of zen school. If it is a normal year, their treasures, including a National Treasures and several National Important Cultural Properties, will be shown for public in early November. In 2020, COVID-19 deprives such festivals from us. Though, I happened to have a chance to enter the forest of the Temple recently. It was for mushrooms.

Hakone Yumoto Station

To Sounji, please cross the Haya River from the Station.

The other side of the river is Hakone Yumoto Fujiya Hotel.
 Please go round the hotel to the direction of Hakone Town Hall.

Soon, we meet the Town Hall.

This is a tricky part.
 Please find steps next to the main entrance for the Town Hall.
 It’s a shortcut to Soun-ji Temple.

This signpost will appear soon.
Follow the direction until …

Turn right here and go straight to the Temple.

Soun-ji Temple on our right.
 It’s their back which is a parking for the staff.

Soun-ji Temple, Main Entrance

Japanese old temples and shrines had a vast territory before. In the 21^st century, not many has kept their property in the form of former glory. Still, some have maintained forest that secludes sanctuary from the daily humdrum. It is called Jisha-rin寺社林, the forest of temple and/or shrine. As Japanese Shintoism is animism that recognizes deity in every part of nature, heavy human intervention to a shrine’s forest is sacrilegious, at least to some extent, even in the 21^st century. For Japanese Buddhist temples, imported Mahayana Buddhism incorporated the “native feeling” of Shintoism, and often preach “the existence of Buddha in all the tiny creatures of forest of mandala.” Temple forest is also a sort of refuge from modern destructions. The forest of Soun-ji Temple is one of such places. It certainly has trekking paths for locals to visit the temple. But the intervention is kept minimum. No café, or vending machines for drinks in this tourists-heavy neighbors. Not only that, almost 2/3 of the forest is off limit since 1978. Kanagawa Prefecture designated the forest as Natural Monument for its ancient vegetation, and Euterpnosia chibensis, a tiny cicada that is on the Red Book for endangered species in Kanagawa. The insect makes the forest of Soun-ji their home, the only home for them in Kanagawa.

A map for the forest of Soun-ji Temple.

This is the road coming from Fujiya Hotel.
 This is oneway route and no detour is allowed;
 could you see the yellow tapes there?

The highest point of the route has this gazebo.

The main entrance to the forest itself is basically locked.

Even though, researches and education in the forest are allowed with permit. One day this fall, I joined an educational expedition to the forest of Soun-ji Temple, organized by Prefectural Museum of Natural History. It was to learn and hunt mushrooms in forest. The place is about 130m ASL, populated by large broad-leaved trees including many Quercus salicina. Hakone is a place of lots of rain. The floor of minimum disturbance in humid broad-leaved forest is a good place for fungi. Dr. Takamichi Orihara for the Museum led us to enter such an interesting place to observe mushrooms.

This is an “almost” natural forest of Soun-ji Temple.

Rich forest floor.
The off-limit area maintains the road constructed before 1978.

According to Dr. Orihara, as of 2014, the estimated number of fungi species we have on the planet is roughly 6 million. Out of these, the identified fungi are about 140 thousand. So, we don’t know which is which for the remaining 98% on earth. Corollary: we can encounter “novel species” VERY easily when we do field research for mushrooms. “Er, please do not trust reference books. Nowadays, DNA testing is casually negating the identification of a 2015 book to rewrite classification. We are in very exciting time to study fungi. You may be recorded as a first identifier for a new species and remembered in a history!” I also learned the difference between shiitake mushroom and truffle is like the relationship between humans and sea urchin, taxonomy-wise. Wooooooooow. The spongy forest floor of Soun-ji has several endemic fungi found only in Kanagawa, or Hakone. Many of us found Tylopilus fuligineoviolaceus that is almost endemic in Kanagawa. Elegant white of Amanita verna is true to its nickname, “Killing Angel.” It was a quiet, but exciting hunting in a forest of drizzled rain. The world of fungi is really mesmerizing ...

Lots of mushrooms!

These white something is fungi.
 When it accumulates enough energy
 to have a large sexual organ,
 the place sprouts mushrooms.

Hi there.

These were what we collected in less than one hour.

I have heard several years ago, in Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森, Calvatia nipponica sprouted. Then-chairperson of Niiharu Lovers, Mr. Heihachi Nakamaru, became suddenly busy to attend the news reporters and scholars to introduce the mushroom.  Mr. Nakamaru is now 94 years old, spending his day with a wheelchair in his house next to Niiharu Forest. He fondly remembers that fuss for giant mushrooms, and giggles when he talks the story. There was a young businessman who heard the news and visited Niiharu Forest to see gigantic white balls of Calvatia nipponica. He was shocked. He became almost obsessed to study the world of fungi when he’s off from his office. He is now the leader of Yokohama branch for Kanagawa Fungi Society. He and his group are having regular study meetings for mushrooms in Niiharu Forest. He’s collaborating with Dr. Orihara and Prefectural Museum for fungi research. You see? There is something magical in mushrooms. It can change somebody’s life … 

Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) in Niiharu

If you find environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121
〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657
Phone: 046-248-0323

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/