Quiet Life with WILL: Rokkokuken’zan Forest Park of Kamakura 六国見山森林公園

 

These days, City of Kamakura is inundated with tourists, domestic and international. When I first told you about my adventure in Miura Alps existing from somewhere in Kamakura (my post for April 29, 2016), the end of our mini-through hiking was calm and sleepy towns. No more. JR Kamakura Station is always crowded with visitors. Downtown Kamakura has now lots of fashionable cafes catering to the tourists. My favorite Japanese sweet shop was taken over by a café. Sad. My feeling for losing a confectionary store would be shared with long-time Kamakura residents. In 2026, once a slow and old suburb of Tokyo is full of vivacious tourists. Maybe it’s a good thing for new local business. Though, if you prefer quiet life near centuries old religious establishments …

A sweet shop has gone.
Though, new shops of my interest also sprout.
 This one in Kamakura is for mini-bonsai.
All bonsai there looked so attractive …

When now-homeowners in Kamakura bought their property decades ago, housing areas of Kamakura were just an ordinary residential section that happened to be near sea or old temples. In 2026, the entire city may be becoming a derivative of Disney Land. But. This being Kamakura where the first-ever Japanese National Trust was established for conservations of greeneries, people of the City is quietly resisting to a part of theme park. How? They care for their neighborhood forests that may be near the old tourists’ attraction. It seems to me, they intentionally omit providing parking spaces and toilets for their forests. Today I visit one of such secret camps for guerrillas of anti-overtourism. Well, posting my adventure in their forest could undermine their effort to protect the place … My excuse: it’s really “not easy” to visit there, and their forest is attractive. Anyway, one volunteer I know for the forest said “Heck, I don’t care!” about reporting their forest in this blog. OK. Let’s go to Rokkokuken’zan Forest Park 六国見山森林公園. Here is the web-page introducing the Forest, but do not expect the detail of it, as we can find for HP of Niiharu Citizen Forest. I know it’s intentional!

A sign installed at the observation point of
Rokkokuken’zan Park.

The only transportation to near the Forest is commuter bus service N7 by Enoden from the East Exit of JR Ofuna Station. Its final stop is our destination, Takanodai 高野台(; the time table is here). Please get off the bus at this final stop standing next to Ofuna High School, one of the best public high schools in Kanagawa. When you get off the bus, you are now in a well-designed residential area. There is no sign for “Rokkokuken’zan Park. This Way.” However, when there is a will, there is a way. The terminal stop is a roundabout. You get off the bus and walk Clockwise for the circle. In no time, we’ll see small steps go up on our left. The steps will take us to a residential road deadened just at the beginning of the steps for the bus stop. The only destination we are allowed is to the right. Along the way on our left is a hill on whose slope detached houses are built. Along the ridge of the hill behind the houses there spread a forest. It is Rokkokuken’zan Forest Park. Strolling 5-6 minute from the bus stop, we encounter steep steps going into the forest. Welcome!

Takanodai Bus Stop

Please take these steps.

Just walk the road along the hill.

Here. Welcome to the Forest Park!

Rokkokuken’zan itself is a small “mountain” whose peak, ASL 147m, is at the southeast of the Park. You can visit the park, walk to the peak, and go down to the valley of Meigetsuin Temple 明月院. Though the peak of Rokkokuken’zan does not have a view as we can enjoy the observation point in the Park. From this point, weather permitting of course, we can enjoy the vista of Kanto Plane, Sagami and Tokyo Bays, and Mt. Fuji. The vegetation of the forest is typical for Miura Alps. It has a mixture of evergreen broad-leaved trees, such as Machilus thunbergii, and deciduous trees such as maples and cherries. The mix of them provides just the right amount of sunlight reaching the forest floor. Thanks to the sunshine, the foot of trees has enough variety of grasses, such as sasa bamboos, chameleon plants, Asiatic dayflower, etc. The trekking road within the Park is well taken care of. I had an impression the locals have looked after the place fairly well. There is a local volunteer group, North-Kamakura Spring-water Network 北鎌倉湧水ネットワーク, tend to the vegetations of the forest. Weekly, they mow the grass along the strolling path, thin the crowded trees and branches, and plant cherries, maples, and mountain hydrangea, aka tea of heaven.

From the observation point.
We can see Oshima Island.

After going up the steps, the road is like this to

Ofuna Takano Water Distribution Reservoir
for the City of Kamakura.

After the reservoir,
the route becomes standard trekking road.

Fairly well-managed

I think this route will have beautiful autumn scenery.

Volunteers are at work.

Tea of heaven, or Hydrangea serrata var. serrata is native of Japan. Kamakura has lots of temples where they are proud of their beautiful hydrangea, such as Meigetsuin 明月院. With this atmosphere of the city, they have a Hydrangea Lovers’s Club which is famous nation-wide. They walk mountainous areas of Japan to find a new variety of Hydrangea serrata, collect cuttings, and propagate them with cutting. The volunteers of Rokkokuken’zan Forest collaborated with the Club and planted 500 cuttings of Hydrangea serrata, especially around their symbol tree, an old Cerasus jamasakura. Hydrangeas are still young. But volunteers for the Forest hope in decades the place is beautiful with cherries blossoms in spring, hydrangeas in early summer, and autumn leaves of maples et al.

A baby

It is amazing all the hydrangeas below
were originally found wild somewhere in Japan,
 then propagated from the cutting in Kamakura.

“We scraped lots of grants from many sources to procure the seedlings. It’s a fortune, I tell you. But the Forest will give us beautiful colors from the windows of our home and JR trains in future.” One of the volunteers told me. He continued, “I don’t think I can survive to see such scenery of 30 years later. But don’t you think it is full of dreams imagining our work now could present such result after our life?” Kamakura is an old city 1000 years ago Samurai worriers established. Rome was not built in a day. And so are the flowering forests in Kamakura. Maybe it is inevitable for the city to attract such a crowd of tourists. We could feel safe from touching the evidence of LOOOOONG and continuous endeavor from our ancestors. They are steady and do not care much for the fashion of the day. Especially in this day and age it could be a precious attitude.

Kamakura City Parks Association

1667 Yamazaki, Kamakura City
Kanagawa 247-0066, Japan

Phone: 0467-45-2750
Fax: 0467-45-2760

Email: info@kamakura-park.com

Botanical urbanization: Shin-Tomei Expressway and planting seedlings

Tomei Expressway is THE artery road for Japan. Connecting Tokyo (“To” part) and Nagoya (“mei,” that is), tons of traffic use this road 24/7. It has many congestions here and there despite it is a toll road and does not have a traffic light. To ease the burden of very busy artery, Japanese government is building an alternative toll road named Shin-Tomei Expressway (“New Tomei”). Well, actually, at least in Kanagawa Prefecture, everybody calls this road Daini-Tomei (“Second Tomei”). So, in this post, I call it Daini-Tomei. Daini-Tomei connects Toyota City, the neighboring city of Nagoya and of course where Global HDQ of Toyota locates, and Ebina City in Kanagawa. At Ebina it joins with Tomei Express Way so that we in Yokohama murmur the effect of Daini-Tomei is not much for congestion of Yokohama IC … Anyway, the construction started during the 1990s, and expected to be completed in 2023. The last remaining part of the construction is at the entrance of Yadoriki Community. They are still preparing tunnels there. Rumor says they’ve encountered some technical trouble under Tanzawa Mountains. The date of full opening could be delayed.

Construction site near Yadoriki.
Hmmmm …
the mouth of the tunnels is not connected to any road yet
 … it would take time for completion …

Near above tunnel is the dumping ground brought from the digging.
Before, the place was one of the garbage lots for neighboring towns.
 As of October 2021, machines are still busy there to stabilize the soil.

Having said that, between Ebina and Hadano IC, the main construction work is done and Shin-Hadano IC and neighboring SA will be open early next year. The local economy who are suffering the impact of COVID-19 has high hopes for new artery road that may bring more visitors. Service Area has the name “Hadano-Tanzawa” where bounties, like veggies, from villages of Tanzawa Mountains will be sold. Business chance! City Hall of Hadano 秦野 is busy marketing the road and places. They are also inviting locals to be familiar with the new road. One such event is Tree-planting Festival on October 23 on the embankment slope of the road. About 60 citizens of Hadano City who raised their hand to join the occasion will enter the site that is normally off limit for pedestrians. I’ll act as a forest instructor to help their planting. The other day we had a preliminary checking session for the festival. This week is my story about this adventure. Well, not as humongous as dams, artery road construction site by the national government looked, I would say, …

Unlike Tomei Expressway that runs along the coast in Shizuoka Prefecture 静岡県, Daini-Tomei runs mainly mountainous inlands. It deforested forests, razed small hills and mountains, and punched holes in the slopes of large mountains. The road site in Hadano was once a sleepy satoyama for agricultural community. When the construction started, NEXCO Central, the actual execution manager of the project, collected seeds of deforested oaks and nurtured seedlings from them. Some acorns were entrusted to kids of elementary schools whose backyard became the construction site. Roughly for 10 years they have been reared to be planted on the embankment. Kanagawa Prefecture also adds selectively bred pollen-less cedars (my post on December 16, 2016) named “Tanzawa Mori-no-Mirai (“Future of Forests of Tanzawa”) whose parent tree was found in Hadano City. I have heard these days it is a common knowledge among professional botanists bringing seedlings from the other places could degrade biodiversity of the place. The foreign plants have difficulty to survive in new environment, and so reforestation often fails. The idea of planting trees out of the seeds of locals is commendable. My point is, the environment these baby trees is not same as for their parents. The way to plant them tells the story.

Backyard for Daini-Tomei.
It is still an agricultural community.

The festival site is near Kami Elementary School 上小学校, the oldest in Hadano City whose predecessor was a temple school since the 17th century. We walked very idyllic country road for few minutes and entered the gate that separated the controlled area of the artery toll road from the ordinary rural community. The forests of broad-leaved trees suddenly opened up with still bare earth where huge construction machineries were operating. The embankment was covered by manufactured green cover mulch which was “Ah, yes, it can control weeds.” The planting will be on the space intentionally “cut” for the seedlings, just like tulips in flower beds. “The markings for location of planting will be ready on that day of festival. The visitors just dig a bit by a small trowel, add this slow-releasing fertilizer at the bottom, locate the root, and finish the planting by adding soil mixed with another fertilizer. It should be easy.” NEXCO people said. Er, well, yeah. It was not the thing we normally do for afforesting. It’s more like a gardening in the city centre.

The construction site

NEXCO is busy treating the embankment with synthetic mulch.

Beds for oaks … are you serious?

Come to think of it, the land for the artery road is intentionally piled up and mechanically hardened for heavy traffic. It’s not as fluffy as forest floor which is made of lots of organic material. The place is just like Olympics Village where the land was once sea but reclaimed by dumping enormous amount of rubbish from megalopolis Tokyo. On the embankment of the Expressway, the nutrition for baby oaks would be very poor. They need lots of fertilizer. With such way of planting, even in 20 or 30 years’ time, the embankment will not be the satoyama forest once the place was. That’s the meaning of “development” … OK, OK. If we recreate natural forest, it will be very hard for protecting the national artery road from encroaching wild vegetation. In the end, Expressway is for factory-made cars to buzz. The acorns from the rural forest will call that urban embankment home … They may be very like us.

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/

Resilience: Forests in Komayama Park 高麗山

 

From Shonandaira 湘南平, without using driving road or going back the same route we’ve taken so far, there are two routes to return to the beachside. Two roads divert after we check the highest point of Komayama Park 高麗山公園, Mt. Sengen 浅間山 of ASL 180.9m. So, let’s go to Mt. Sengen first by taking the ridge road to the east. This part of our itinerary could be the most well-prepared route in our adventure of Komayama Park. It is a wide road with several garden trees intentionally planted by humans. Local volunteers take care of such trees, including a row of hydrangea and a field of turf lilies. Also, the place is one of two secretly famous spots for Japanese bird watchers to observe migratory birds commuting between Southeast Asia and Eurasian Continent via Pacific Ocean. For those species spending their summer in Siberia, passing over Komayama Park to the south would be around the second week of September. There are not many obstacles for us on the ridgeway to see the creatures enjoying the final stopover before crossing the Ocean. If you have any chance to come here in September, please try which bird you could find! (Another mecca for Japanese bird watchers is Cape Irago in Aichi Prefecture 愛知県伊良湖崎. The season to go there is also in the second week of September.)

The road is wide.

In winter, the ridgeway of Komayama Park has
 several colonies of daffodils.
 Smells nice!

At the top of Mt. Sengen, in winter.

Roughly 300 or so meters after Mt. Sengen to the east, we come across a Y-crossing. One road directly going down is the route bringing us to Komashimizu Bus Stop 高麗清水. From there by Kanchu Bus Hira 平 33, 35, and 36 services we can return to JR Hiratsuka Station in 20 or so minutes. (Timetable is here.) Although the road is a narrow trekking route, it’s a one-way going down, and physically less demanding compared with another route. We can enjoy this road for its rich forest floor vegetation. If you prefer walking for leisurely nature observation from Shonandaira, I recommend this route.

The Y-crossing to the Bus Stop

Damnacanthus indicus in Komayama Park,
 typical bush tree for warm coast in Japan

Autumn leaves here will be its peak
 in late December.

Komashimizu Bus Stop
 to Hiratsuka Station

Another route from the Y-crossing is visiting Mt. Koma 高麗山, ASL 168m, then goes down to Oiso Town 大磯町 via Takaku-jinja Shrine 高来神社. Whenever you find the name of place “Koma 高麗” in Japan, it is a safe bet it’s a Japanese abbreviation of Goguryeo (高句麗), the ancient Korean Kingdom thrived between the 1st century and 7th century. Why is a Korean name for Japanese places? It’s because the kingdom had several political crises that created many political asylum seekers emigrated to Japan. For Mt. Koma of Oiso, the written historical document recorded such thing happened after Goguryeo was overthrown by Chinese Tang Dynasty in 668. According to Mr. Koichi Nakajima of Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター, members of Goguryeo royal family flew from the Korean peninsula and settled here. As we’ve encountered Yokokuji-yato Tunnel Tomb 楊谷寺谷戸横穴群, and in the mythology for Mt. Hakone called Hakoneyama Engui 箱根山縁起 there are mentions about Goguryeo gods living in Oiso, the place may have been known by Korean nobles as some sort of spiritually desirable place … and some 1200 years later, a crown prince of their kingdom made Oiso his home (; my post on August 14, 2020) … The Koreans with advanced technology developed the area with iron manufacturing. It means, the forest of present day Komayama Park had a massive deforestation in the 7th century (; about steel making and deforestation, please see my post on January 15, 2016).

The ridgeway continues to the peak of Mt. Koma.

Before reaching to the top of Mt. Koma,
 we’ll meet this Y-crossing.
 Please cross the wooden bridge.
 For another road going down, I’ll mention it shortly.

To Mt. Koma

Then, in 717 famous monk Gyoki 行基 established Takaku Temple 高麗寺 around Mt. Koma, with Takaku Shrine. The temple grew bigger by the 10^th century having tens of wooden temple buildings for hundreds of monks in this tiny area. So, people deforested the area further. From then till Tokugawa Shogunate 徳川幕府 was established in 1600, the area of Komayama Park was destroyed so many times for construction, or for the medieval civil wars. By the early 17^th century, it was a bold mountain. Shogunate government decided to be a patron of the big temple-cum-Shintoism shrine, and aggressively afforested the seaside arid hill by black pines (Pinus thunbergii). Thanks to the strict control for forest management by Shogunate, Mr. Nagajima reported the vegetation of the area slowly recovered with pines from Shogun and oaks villagers around the hill planted for harvesting fuel logs. Those are the origin of present-day oaks here. At the time Oiso Town was becoming a celebrity town of the PMs, the forest was still of pines and deciduous broad-leaved oaks with lots of sunshine and humid winds from ocean reached to the forest floor. The place became the property of the prefecture who decided to keep the style of forest management as Shogun did. Though, the big temple at Mt. Koma was abolished and the buildings were destroyed. So, when we walk around the top of Mt. Koma now, we can find large afforested trees of 300-100 years old and a vacant space where once the temple structures stood.

The top of Mt. Koma where
 once the main temple building for Takaku Temple stood.

The steps of the temple remain.

To the Shrine from the remain of the Temple,
 it’s simply going down.

When Japan rushed into the World War II, many of the trees in Komayama Park were chopped as a part of resource mobilization for the total war. Yet, the Shogunate methodology of managing the forest of Komayama Park remained after the war till around the 1960. Then, petrol replaced the logs for energy and the forest was abandoned. Not much care was given. Around this time, massive die down occurred for 300 years old afforested pine trees due to pine wilt nematode. It gave chance for Machilus thunbergii, Castanopsis sieboldii, and Japanese camellia (Camellia japonica) to dominate the area with sasa bamboos covering the floor. The evergreens block the sunshine and sea breeze to penetrate in the forest. Now, remained or forgotten oaks have grown big enough to be a victim of Japanese oak wilt … So, it takes 400 years after the afforestation for the forest to be in the current form. The forest of Komayama Park is of old trees, but it certainly preserves the feeling of “man-made-ness.”

I think the feel here is a bit different from, say,
 the forests in Tanzawa mountains,
 in terms of “wildness.”

Still, it’s impressive forest, don’t you think?

Downtown Oiso is over there.

Although Takaku Temple was demolished, Takaku Shrine survived in the foot of Mt. Koma, which is the goal of our hiking in Komayama Park. The Shrine has two big annual festivals, whose photos and information are available in Oiso Municipal Museum 大磯郷土資料館 we visited. One festival is in summer with boats where fishermen ask good catch and prosperity for the town. Another is in spring for carrying a Mikoshi (portable shrine) from the Shrine to the top of Mt. Koma. From Takaku Shrine to the top of the mountain where once Takaku Temple situated, there are two routes. One is relatively smooth zig-zag trekking road, called On’na-zaka. Another, called Otoko-zaka, is definitely steeper and rocky way sometimes requiring rock-climbing. In spring festival, people carry Mikoshi to the hilltop intentionally using the steeper and more dangerous Otoko-zaka slope. The spring festival was originally for Takaku Temple, not for the Shrine, started in the early 17^th century. Now the route proceeds in the dark evergreen broadleaved forest, but for the first 300 years, Mikoshi should have carried in a brightly sun-lit forest of early spring. There must have been some reason people chose that slope …

Do you remember another road
 we met before arriving the top of Mt. Koma?
 It comes down here,
 behind the main building of Takaku Shrine.

Takaku Shrine

From Takaku Shrine, we can return to JR Oiso Station via National Route 1. If you like, please take small detours here and there along the present-day Route 1. Oiso Town preserves ancient Tokaido Street as commuter road for residential area where several 400 years’ old black pines still stand. Considering the damage pine wilt disease did for Komayama Park, it may be miraculous we still see such old pines just outside ordinary residences … The festivals for Takaku Shirine were cancelled this year due to COVID-19, and no one knows if they’ll be held next year. Who knows what the slow destruction of COVID-19 would do for our culture? But, even if a mountain became completely bold, it eventually has some vegetation on it ... I hope in hundreds of years’ time, we’ll have some recovery, just like Komayama Park.

Route #1 running in front of Takaku Shrine.

A detour along Route #1, which was
 once for the Post Town of Oiso for Tokaido 東海道.
 Now it’s completely a residential area
 with descendants of original black pines.

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/