This is the very forest we are trying to save, Sayama Forest.
But it is not just about one specific forest. Totoro Forest represents the spirit of our childhood.

I have visited Sayama Forest in July and it was really nice to see what Totoro no Furusato Fund is trying to do for the forest. The left bottom picture shows this little section they bought in the forest 10 years back. As little as it seems, its location makes it hard for any big commercial development to come in the area. They also support local farming with their volunteer workers. They educate the local community…

It’s not about saving a tree or a forest with tons of money. For them, it’s about handing off an ongoing life style to co-exist with nature to our next generation.

I hope this Totoro Forest Project can be more than the money we may raise at the auction but be a symbol to send the same message to the art community and beyond. All the photographs except for the last are taken by my talented photographer friend, Arito Suzuki. Another talented contributor who put his professional expertise into this project. Check out his web gallery…. his photos are absolutely exquisite.

Here is an essay by Karen Paik from our book Totoro Forest Project.

The Sayama Forest, which inspired the landscape of Hayao Miyazaki’s film My Neighbor Totoro, is located on the outskirts of greater Tokyo, one of the world’s largest and most populous metropolitan areas. Occupying roughly 13.5 square miles of greenery in what is otherwise a sea of urban development, it is a mix of cultivated forest, rice paddy fields, wetlands, grassland, and village known as satoyama. The area has been the subject of preservation efforts since the 1970s, but because land is at such a premium in the Tokyo area, it is under constant threat of encroaching development.
Satoyama has been the country’s archetypal landscape of rural life for the past several centuries. It supports many plant and animal species that are culturally significant in Japan, and that do not thrive so readily in other habitats. However, as Japan has become a more urban society, development and the movement away from small-scale agriculture has led to the rapid disappearance or deterioration of the satoyama landscape—and with it many plants and animals considered integral to Japan’s environmental heritage. The campaign to save the Sayama Forest is thus not only about preserving a major piece of green space in one of the world’s largest urban areas, it is also of great symbolic importance to the environmental movement in Japan.
Following the success of My Neighbor Totoro and the attention it drew to the traditional satoyama landscape, the National Trust of Totoro no Furusato (Totoro’s Homeland) was established in 1990. Starting with seed funds contributed by five initial donors, including Hayao Miyazaki, the trust began a multi-pronged attempt to preserve the area for future generations. Shortly over a year later, the trust was able to make its first purchase of land for permanent conservation. In 1998, the National Trust was incorporated as the Totoro no Furusato Fund.
Today, the organization divides its efforts between fundraising for further land acquisition, environmental research, and public outreach and education programs, including community-based conservation and care of the Sayama Forest.
Grassroots environmental activism is still an emerging phenomenon in Japan, and the Totoro no Furusato Fund is at the forefront of local attempts to preserve this uniquely Japanese ecosystem. It is hoped that efforts like the Totoro Forest Project will bring attention to the cause and help develop greater popular support for the group’s work.
“Seeing this project take shape has been very exciting,” said Professor Toshihiko Ando, the current chair of the organization.

“When I spoke with Hayao Miyazaki recently, he described My Neighbor Totoro as a movie that portrayed a paradise for children. We feel that the partnership of art and the environmental movement is central to our mission of preserving such environments for today’s children and the children of the future.”