Creating Forests in Tsunami-Damaged Shrine Grounds400 Volunteers to Plant 3,000 Trees

The Nippon Foundation and Yamada Shrine, which had its main building destroyed and grove washed away by the tsunami triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake, are holding a tree planting event to restore the woods on the shrine grounds.

The event is part of the Nippon Foundation’s Shrine Grove Resuscitation Project, which it has carried out since 2012 as one activity to support reconstruction from the earthquake and tsunami, and this will be the project’s second location in Fukushima Prefecture. This project is being carried out at shrines in the three prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima, as part of a plan to revitalize the groves that protect shrine grounds, and the tree-planting is being overseen by Akira Miyawaki, director of the Japanese Center for International Studies in Ecology. By restoring the groves of the shrines where local residents gather, we aim to revitalize local communities.

Approximately 400 local residents and other volunteers are expected to participate on the day of the tree planting. We plan to plant 3,000 trees comprising 25 varieties, including tabunoki (Machilus thunbergii), shirakashi (Quercus myrsinaefolia; bamboo-leaf oak), and akagashi (Quercus acuta; Japanese evergreen oak) in a roughly 615 square meter area within the shrine grounds. The Nippon Foundation is providing ¥6.8 million for ground and soil improvements needed to plant the trees, and has also given the shrine ¥174.6 million for the reconstruction of the shrine’s main building.
The day’s activities will also feature greetings by various people involved with the project, and performances of a local traditional performing art.