Modesty within Forest: Crown shyness in Meiji Jingu Shrine 明治神宮

 

I’ll tell you about the forest of Meiji Jingu Shrine 明治神宮 someday, maybe in winter. Though, today’s topic is really for summer. So, I will report to you on my petit adventure with the trees of the sacred forest. “Sacred?” you would ask. The entire premise of Meiji Jingu Shrine is considered holy. A part of the reason would be based on the standard theory of Japanese Shintoism that I mentioned in my old post for Minami Honjuku Citizen Forest 南本宿市民の森 (for May 22, 2015). Having said that, I guess there is more than that for this uber-popular tourists’ destination of Tokyo ... Anyway, Meiji Jingu is a forest in the middle of Tokyo and human intervention like thinning and trimming is kept minimum due to its sacredness. Of course, in the precinct of the Shrine the formidable pair of camphor trees, pines, etc. have regular trimming. But the trees surrounding the inner sanctuary of the shrine are intentionally kept undisturbed since 1920. Natural transition has occurred for 100 years. In 2026, many trees we find in the forest of Meiji Jingu are survivors of the Great Kanto Earth Quake, carpet bombings of B-29 by the US Army, and air pollution during the high economic growth era. Result: it’s a forest of very large and tall trees.

Husband and Wife camphor trees
in the precinct of Meiji Jingu, neatly trimmed.

This large camphor tree is another famous one on the premise.
This one is basically left
whichever direction it wants to spread.
Having said that, the Shrine did a bit of trimming
 in order to prevent collapsing the branched out heavy parts.

As it is prohibited to enter the forest of Meiji Jingu, we can simply walk paved or well-constructed pedestrian ways. And this easy strolling gives us astonishing scenery of nature, especially in summer. It’s crown shyness. We walk the roads surrounded by very tall trees, maybe of 30m or higher. We look up. The crowns of the trees are over there. We find impressive regularity. Their branches are sharing the space very neatly, making mutual concessions to have the max result from individual photosynthesis. The scenery dominates the heavens in the summer of Meiji Jingu.

And this is in the middle of Tokyo.

Shinjuku is over there.

It looks like a satellite photo for a delta of large river.

They are conversing with each other above us.

Hm.

Summer hues of green in Meiji Jingu are really an example of eutaxy, maybe of some spiritual way. Though the main street of the Shrine is always crowded with vivacious international visitors, the strolling paths deviating from tourists’ course are calm and cool even we’re in boiling summer of Tokyo. If you’re tired of your deskwork in the megaloplis, try lunch time ambling in Meiji Jingu, and look up to see the cosmos of sacred forest above your head. It’s celestial.

The well-behaved trees give avant-garde patterns
 of shadows on the ground.

Meiji Jingu Shrine 明治神宮

1-1 Yoyogikamizono-cho, Shibuya Ward, Tokyo 151-8557
〒151-8557 東京都渋谷区代々木神園町1-1
Phone：03-3379-5511 

https://www.meijijingu.or.jp/