Aokigahara is the second place in the world where more people go to end their lives. The first is the popular Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco (USA).
Aokigahara is a 35-square-kilometer forest located northwest of Mount Fuji between Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures in Japan, about 100 kilometers west of Tokyo. This natural space of great beauty, known as the Suicide Forest , has a dense mantle of pine trees that treasures and hides a long history of unfortunate stories and Japanese mythology full of demons.
In fact, there are 1,000-year-old poems that speak of this Japanese corner as a ‘cursed forest’ . Such is the influx of people who come every year to kill themselves in this dark forest, that the government installed various warning signs in several languages to try to change the opinion of those who come for this reason. Some of the messages say: ‘Your life is a beautiful gift from your parents. Please think about your parents, siblings and children. Don’t keep it to yourself. Talk about your problems’, ‘Don’t suffer alone, first, contact someone’ …
The Japanese government has even closed certain areas; tourism is only allowed in guarded areas. Even so, suicides continue to occur, reaching almost a hundred deaths a year (although the government refuses to give concrete figures, this is the estimate).
An ancient forest
Despite being an unwanted gruesome scene, the forest is filled with ancient trees, lava formations, and underground caves. And it is that the surface of the forest is formed by a thick layer of volcanic rock. Its formation is due to the lava flows of the repeated eruptions of Mount Fuji during the years 800 and 1083 , being the eruption of the year 864 -which lasted 10 days-, the one that contributed the most to create what we know today as Aokigahara.
Inside, silence and darkness reign, as wildlife is almost non-existent and the area is full of cold, rocky caverns. In this deep sea of trees it is very easy to get lost , hence the hikers who enter it often leave colored ribbons tied to the trees to facilitate the return of repentant suicides.
Something even more disturbing, if possible, is to walk through the forest and see the details as a souvenir that the relatives of the suicides deposit right in the area where they ended their lives. The scene is bleak.
Where does this historical practice come from?
This choice of the Aokigahara forest to die is partly inspired by the tale Kuroi Jukai ( “The Black Sea of Trees” ) by Seicho Matsumoto, published in 1960, whose story ends with a loving couple taking their lives in this place. However, others believe that it comes from the Ubasute practice of the 19th century, in which the elderly were abandoned in the forests to die there, especially in times of drought and famine, making it a place ‘enchanted’ by souls. of the children and the elderly who were abandoned.
There is also the ‘ Complete Suicide Manual’ (published in 1993 and currently banned in Japan), which describes the forest as a “perfect place to die”.
