Shiratani Unsuikyo, Yakushima (Princess Mononoke)

Moss swallowing rocks, roots and fallen trunks in Shiratani Unsuikyo, the ravine forest at about 860 meters on Yakushima, photographed in May 2024. In May 1995 Miyazaki and four of his art directors traveled to Yakushima to study its ancient cedar forest for Princess Mononoke, and this ravine is the spot most often tied to the film's forest of the Forest Spirit. Locals call the mossiest stretch the Mononoke Forest. Allow a few hours of steep, wet trail; rain is the norm here, and it is what keeps everything this green.