Shirakami-Sanchi, Tohoku (Princess Mononoke)

The 400-year-old beech, one of the best-known trees of the Shirakami mountains on the border of Aomori and Akita, in summer leaf. While Miyazaki took most of his art team to Yakushima, art director Kazuo Oga went north to Shirakami-Sanchi, and its beech woods fed the film's Emishi village, Ashitaka's home in the opening scenes. It makes a good pair with Yakushima: one island of moss and cedar, one mountain range of pale-barked beech, together giving the film its two kinds of forest.