From “buying” to “participating” in graves. A new type of burial, “The Forest that Returns Life,” will begin where you will create a landscape in which you will sleep.

From “buying” to “participating” in graves. A new type of burial, “The Forest that Returns Life,” will begin where you will create a landscape in which you will sleep.
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Hayachinenda General Incorporated Foundation Press release: October 4, 2024 From “buying” to “participating” in graves. A new type of burial, “The Forest that Returns Life,” will begin where you will create a landscape in which you will sleep. I want to entrust a beautiful landscape to my afterlife and convey the richness of cultivating a view of life and death before I die. Briefing sessions will start in October 2024.
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Near the burial area of ​​the “Forest that Returns Life,” horses live that nurture the landscape together with people Hayachinenda (Tono City, Iwate Prefecture) is a general incorporated foundation that connects mountainous areas and urban areas and operates under the theme of “re-weaving the story of life and nature.” This fall, Hayachinenda will begin a burial project called “Forest that Returns Life,” in which he and his friends will cultivate a beautiful forest in which they will one day sleep. Rather than “buying” a grave, we propose a new way of funeral service in which people meet friends and “participate” in activities that restore connections with diverse lives. Burial project “Forest that returns life” This project’s activity base (*) is a broad-leaved forest located about 20 minutes north by car from JR Tono Station. This is a former firewood forest that has become difficult to maintain as people have migrated to cities, so we have been recruiting members since around 2020 and are gradually making improvements.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/148176/5/148176-5-075b2fdeb4102169b893e879fd66d19d-1620×1080.jpg Forest maintenance time by members Members who participate in the burial project can bury their remains in the “Forest that Returns Life” after their death. The powdered remains are directly mixed with soil and buried without a gravestone or grave marker. Even after the deceased is buried, fellow members visit the forest every month and continue to care for it while valuing the distance between them and nature. Beyond these activities, we aim to restore the sense that people are part of nature, and to turn the forest and its activities into social common capital that can be passed down from generation to generation as landscapes. *Hayachinenda has received cemetery management permission after repeated discussions with Tono City so that it can be used as a burial ground while maintaining and managing the rich broad-leaved forest. (Permit Number: Tono City Reikan No. 6 / Business Entity: Religious Corporation Komagata Shrine / Management Entity: Hayachinenda General Incorporated Foundation) Street activities, online activities There is also a place in the city (Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo) where members who have difficulty visiting the forest can gather without hesitation. Here, members talk to each other while observing and listening to the seasonal conditions of the forest, and new connections are being formed between people. In addition, online, we set up time to invite a variety of guests to learn about the themes of “life” and “nature,” and engage in activities to foster a sense of life and death together with members. We hope that our members’ time in Tokyo and online will feel nostalgic and feel like a new home.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/148176/5/148176-5-f4564ffd9b94420751da3032d26288d3-1620×1080.jpg Gathering of members in the street The wishes behind our activities Since around 1990, private graves have appeared in Japan that do not assume the inheritance of family graves, and the way funerals are conducted has changed significantly over time. Furthermore, in recent years, a variety of funeral services such as ocean scattering and space funerals have become available. However, in today’s world where people live separated from their communities and nature, we feel that in order for life to regain its connection with others and nature, it is necessary to have a funeral that is nurtured together rather than purchased. . Hayachinenda’s burial project “Forests that Return Life” is an activity in which people go beyond their geographical and blood ties to go to the forest and gather in the city to regain a new perspective on life, death, and nature.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/148176/5/148176-5-dd0037fb05048b7a651d30e1cc718572-1620×1080.jpg The “Forest that Returns Life” burial area is a forest of broad-leaved trees, mainly Quercus and maple, where various lives live. Briefing session schedule list Online project briefing • October 10th (Thursday) 19:30-21:00 • October 12th (Sat) 14:30-16:00 • November 7th (Thursday) 19:30-21:00 • December 5th (Thursday) 19:30-21:00 Held on Zoom. Advance application required. Tokyo project briefing session • October 13th (Sunday) 14:00-15:30 • November 10th (Sunday) 14:00-15:30 • December 1st (Sunday) 14:00-15:30 Held at Kappazaka Terrace (Kappazaka Terrace #2, 2-10 Ichigaya Nakanocho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo). Advance application required. Tono field excursion • November 16th (Sat) – 17th (Sun) 1 night 2 days • December 14th (Sat) – 15th (Sun) 1 night 2 days Held at Queen’s Meadow Country House (122, Kamitsuki Umaushi 14, Tsukubaushi-cho, Tono City, Iwate Prefecture). Advance application required. Forest that returns life special site ​
Contact information
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/148176/5/148176-5-7a71038730cc6ab6c13ca5b4cb3a658a-1180×1066.png Hayachinenda General Incorporated Foundation Tono Office: 122, Kamitsuki Umaushi 14, Tsukubaushi-cho, Tono City, Iwate Prefecture Tokyo Office: Kappazaka Terrace #4, 2-10 Ichigaya Nakanocho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Email：contact@hayachinenda.org tel：03-3359-5905