ABSTRACT
Just offshore from Hiroshima, the island of Itsukushima in the Seto Inland Sea is one of the holiest places in Japan, a shrine to Shintoism since the 6th century. Today it is also recognized as a World Heritage site. Its huge, red-painted temple gate uniquely stands offshore in the shallow waters of the bay, making a famous backdrop to wedding photographs and, on the day we visit, a home for a couple of kites whose forked tails are clearly visible as they fly leisurely around the pillars. Magnificent though the temple is, we are actually as interested in the forests that cover the rest of the island. Virtually all of Japan’s lowland forests disappeared centuries ago under villages and rice paddies and today the only really old trees are found on land owned by the Buddhist and Shinto authorities. Being wooden, Japan’s temples need periodic renewal and so the sacred forests have been protected, sometimes for millennia, partly to provide the occasional piece of high quality timber. In the process, the authorities have created one of the earliest forms of protected area in the world, providing irreplaceable habitats for plants and animals that have disappeared elsewhere.
