From Meiji Shrine to Harajuku: from nature to pop fashion and culture

In the early morning the air in front of a big “torii”, a gate of a shrine, was chilly. I bowed toward the direction of a long wide way between tall trees, and I began to walk slowly along the way. There were almost no people and little sound except for bird-calls. I felt that the trees were inhaling and exhaling in the silence of faint light. Those made my body become very sound and I thought; “ I seem to be at Ise Shrine( the most famous shrine )”.

However the sudden big sound of a running electric train hit me and made me remember the true place; “ here is Meiji Shrine”.

 

Meiji Shrine
Meiji Shirine is neighboring the Yamanote-line of JR and is located in the big west area of Harajuku Station. The size of the land is 700 thousand meters square, it is one and a half times bigger than Tokyo Disney Land. It was constructed in 1920 and enshrines Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken.

As I walked toward the sanctuary on the long way, my mind became honest thanks to goodness of nature. When I arrived at the sanctuary my mind was filled with natural gratitude and I spontaneously said to the guide-man of the shrine; “good morning”.

The sanctuary

The square of the sanctuary with two big sacred camphor trees is flat and wide, and it is a wonderful place, where you may want to look at 360°scene turning your body as if you were in Piazza San Marco in Venice. What may make you do so seems to be a sense beyond five human senses, a sense to feel the pure energy of the forest surrounding the square. And the forest has a historical story.

The guardian forest

Before the construction of the Meiji Shrine the land was a wilderness( look at the picture above). When the Japanese government at that time decided to construct Meiji Shrine the guardian forest of Meiji Shrine was also planned.

The following notes are kind of complicated due to the union of science and nature, so it’s ok to skip it. Please read it if you are interested in the history or learning of the scholarship of the forest.

A Japanese guardian forest is formed by a lot of wild broadleaf trees, but the soil of the land was so poor that broadleaf trees couldn’t grow even if they were planted directly.  

Then authorities of the woods and forest scholarship planned a 150-year program in which they would simultaneously plant three type trees in the poor soil. The goal they aimed at was an eternal forest which has been going on with its life for several centuries, moreover a millennia.

The picture above shows the process of growing and dying of the three type trees for 150 years. The first type was pine trees which is strong against the poor soil but very weak against shade. The second type was needle-leaf trees which have a good point of fast growing but a weak point against shade. And the third type was broadleaf trees which slowly grow in the rich soil, which had been made by the needle-leaf trees and nuts.

The first pine trees had supplied nourishment to the poor soil, and gradually had died because of the shade of the needle-leaf trees which had grown. Next the needle-leaf trees had grown and gradually had died because of the shade of the broadleaf trees. As a result, the broadleaf trees have lived because of their strength against shade.

At last after 100 years the broadleaf trees would begin to grow by their own life circle and after 150 years the guardian forest of the broadleaf trees would be completed.

The implementation of the plan started in 1915 when Tokyo Station was built. When the plan was announced to Japanese people many people everywhere supported to implement by their donation of their trees. Moreover one hundred ten thousand people participated in the planting. At last the earliest forest of Meiji Shrine was completed in 1920.

Now the guardian forest is a dense woods and some ponds. Many species of broadleaf trees, flowers, birds, insects and fish and many raccoon dogs coexist. And it has gotten the circle of its own life. It is 50 years earlier than the plan.

Why did they have to make the forest? There is no record that explains it, so I want to build up my opinion. I think that God is in church in western society, but in Japan Gods and deities are not only in a house but in forest inside a “torii”. Therefore, they have to make the forest.

That is to say, I was in the sacred area from the time when I passed under the torii.

Harajuku

The other side over JR railway from Meiji Shrine is Harajuku and Omote-sando, where young people enjoy showing their senses of themselves, watching new fashion and touching young sub-culture. From the Japanese naturalistic region to the Japanese urban youthful region. Easy transition between the very sacred area and the pop area is one of the attractions in those regions.