Also known as the Sea of Trees, Aokigahara is a vast 35 km2 forest on the largest island of Japan that is widely believed to be one of the most haunted places in the world. It is the second most popular suicide destination after the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and is renowned as being “the perfect place to die”. Due to the wind-blocking density of the trees and the surprising lack of wildlife, the forest has a reputation for being eerily quiet. Over 500 people have killed themselves since the 1950′s. That’s a conservative estimate since authorities can only get a body count by stumbling upon corpses. It’s widely assumed that the trend was started after the publication of Seicho Matsumoto’s novel “Kuroi Kaiju” (Black Sea of Trees) in which 2 lovers commit suicide in the forest.
Miyuki Ishikawa was reputed to have stayed there, deep in the forest in the mid 1950s, before eventually making her way to Thailand and later on to Lousiana to what has eventually become known as the The Stuart House hauntings.
The government has taken several steps to cut down on rates of suicide in the forest, even going so far as to post numerous signs encouraging people to get psychiatric help. The signs seem to have had little effect and in 2002, authorities discovered 78 corpses. In 2003 there were 100 corpses found and the number has since peaked at 108 in 2004. Who knows how many bodies they miss each year? There’s even a group of people who make their living by scavenging money and jewelry from the dead.
Spiritualists believe that the emotions and life energy of all the people who’ve died in the forest have been infused into the trees and permeate all of Aokigahara. According to them, this generates paranormal activity and has many detrimental effects on those who enter the forest. It’s also easy to get lost due to the large number of iron deposits in the volcanic soil, which renders compasses useless because of magnetic interference.
The massive size of the forest, combined with little to no human habitation means that the desperate souls who enter the Sea of Trees are unlikely to be rescued or found once they kill themselves.
The increase in suicides has been linked to Japan’s economic difficulties in recent decades. The practice of suicide also predates Matsumoto’s novel, with ubasute being practiced well into the 19th century. “Ubasute” was the abandonment of the elderly and infirm on mountains or in forests where they were left to die of starvation, dehydration or exposure. It was allegedly practiced primarily during famines and droughts but there is no definitive proof that this was widely practiced in the region.
Several Japanese parapsychologists say that there is something that walks the forest, something best left alone .Regardless of whether it’s true or not, there are many who believe in the haunting of Aokigahara.
Aokigahara is the perfect place to set a horror movie, as it has become the second most popular location (the Golden Gate Bridge is currently ranked number one) for wary travelers to shuffle off this mortal coil by their own hands.
The forest has become so legendary as a prime suicide location that several signs have been erected and drilled into the trees pleading with travelers to reconsider making the Sea of Trees their final resting place. Others who choose to explore the supposedly haunted forest simply for the thrill of it may run the risk of coming across some of the many corpses there that have yet to be discovered.
Its haunted reputation stems not just from its sinister nature but from the legends that surround suicides in Japanese mythology. According to Japanese lore, those who leave this earth in a way deemed unnatural are doomed to remain on earth as wandering specters.
When a body is found, it is placed in a bed at a forestry station located nearby, next to an empty one for a loved one. Japanese lore states that the spirit, known as a yurei, will howl and scream into the night if left alone throughout the night.
The forest is mentioned in Wataru Tsurumui’s book The Manual of Suicides, and was even the subject of the 2004 movie Jyukai — The Sea of Trees Behind Mt. Fuji. Bodies are still being found there, often hanging from the trees and in varying states of decomposition. Many of those who venture into the sinister forest due to curiosity and not thoughts of ending it all can often stumble across skeletal remains and personal items, such as credit cards, wallets and rail passes.
