Tokachi Millennium Forest's head gardener Midori Shintani on shizendo and natural gardening
World-famous carbon offset project with a 1,000-year mission in Hokkaido, Japan
Today we’re traveling to the Hidaka mountain range in Hokkaido, Japan, for a behind-the-scenes tour of the world-famous Tokachi Millennium Forest, led by its head gardener, Midori Shintani.
Tokachi Millennium Forest is a 240-hectare / 1,000 acre environmental conservation project. It includes a collection of gardens, as well as a nature preserve.
The Millennium Forest exists thanks to a kind newspaper businessman named Mitsushige Hayashi. He wanted to offset the carbon of his business, as well as provide a place for anyone to experience nature in Hokkaido, Japan. During Hokkaido's short summer season, TMF receives thousands of visitors from around the world.
The gardens were designed by some landscape architecture greats: Dan Pearson from Great Britain, and Fumiaki Takano from Japan. The Tokachi Millennium Forest is on another level when it comes to landscape architecture, but it's also deeply Shinto and nature-led at its core.
Midori Shintani is one of the most respected naturalist gardeners in the field. It's obvious why. She radiates warmth and expert knowledge. Midori has been with the gardens since their opening in 2008. I came by to spend some time with Midori and assistant head gardener Shintaro Sasagawa. they gave me a masterclass in spring cleaning, the Japanese concept of shizendo, and patience.
“We are just one part of nature. Gardening is, I think, an opportunity to realize that for everyone.”
It's fun being at Tokachi Millenium Forest when it's cold. And also, we're alone. There are usually so many people around. I’m wondering, at this point, what are you focusing on? What's on your to-do list?
This year we are really, really lucky because the snow melted quite early this time.
It's a really delightful moment at this stage because we survived the long, harsh winter. We survived the mountain blizzard. So we want to respect the new season that’s coming to the forest. Right now we are cleaning up, all around, even the forest. We have a lot of different stages of our work. The forest looks very wild, but we actually put our hands in it, and support all the plants, so that they can start growing in the healthiest conditions.
You have a certain amount of native species to the area, and then there are also deliberate plantings. I'm wondering which parts of this garden are natural, and which ones are heavily curated?
There’s a concept that we have in Japanese called shizendo. 'Shizen' means nature, 'do' means level. We often try to understand what kind of level our environments and gardens are at.
And here at the Millenium Forest, I think the forest garden's at a quite high level because there are so many native species that we trust just as they are. But our perennial garden is designed by a garden designer, and there is a vision by human beings. That means that the landscape should be supported or cultivated to follow the vision. That's the difference about what's 'natural'... You know, if we're looking at what's ‘closer to nature’, we at TMF are closer to a place for people, you know?
I love that. It's all ‘natural’ -
It's all ‘natural,’ it’s true.
It's all ‘natural,’ now let's just figure out the level at which it is, right? And on one end of the spectrum we have 'super-wild,' and then on the other one it's very ‘cultivated,’ ‘cared for,’ and ‘influenced?’
Yes, yes, yes.
I love that way of thinking about it.
I think it's important to analyze an area’s purpose. Or visualize it, you know? What kind of story do we find in the background of that place? That's the whole point, I think, it’s how we decide the method or policy we employ when maintaining our gardens.
You know, nature works on such a different timeframe than we do. Do you find that the garden has made you more patient?
Exactly. And I think it's very good for the gardeners because patience is very important as a gardener. We have good training, by nature, I can say.
Like, "Just wait for it... wait for it!"
Don't miss the moment, and timing. •
Tokachi Millennium Forest and Midori and Shintaro are to me, shining examples of what it looks like when humans can have a beneficial impact on nature. We can actually do good. It's time that we all get outside more and explore how.
One more thing: I received a lot of questions from my gardening friends about which tools Midori and Shintaro use at the garden. Here’s a video clip that shows those off, and you can find links to similar tools in the video description.
By Jenna Matecki
Photos by Wesley Verhoeve
If you liked this piece, hit subscribe and you’ll get the Down-To-Earth newsletter teeming with fun nature things every Sunday: