KYOTO - Graffiti has been discovered on a bamboo grove near Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto, a popular area that draws large numbers of tourists to the shrine’s famed Senbon Torii gates.
Located in Kyoto’s Fushimi Ward, Fushimi Inari Taisha is known for its striking approach lined with thousands of vermilion torii gates forming tunnel-like paths, making it one of the city’s most visited attractions for both domestic and overseas travelers.
A nearby hiking trail connected to the Senbon Torii route has also gained popularity among visitors, but a serious problem has now emerged in the surrounding bamboo forest.
Reporting from the scene, journalist Haruka Tsuta said that numerous bamboo stalks bear carved graffiti, with some etched from top to bottom. Among the markings are what appear to be initials written in the Roman alphabet, as well as numbers believed to indicate years, possibly left as records of visits.
The carvings are thought to have been made with sharp, hard objects. Similar damage to bamboo forests in Kyoto was also confirmed last year. At the famed bamboo grove in Arashiyama, around 350 stalks were damaged in much the same way. Once bamboo is scarred, it does not regenerate on its own, raising the risk of collapse, and the city was forced to cut down some of the affected stalks.
The bamboo grove in Fushimi is privately owned, and its owner, Akira Nakamura, 79, expressed anger over the damage. “I didn’t think it was this bad. It’s really troubling. It’s a matter of morals,” Nakamura said.
According to Nakamura, at least 100 bamboo stalks have been damaged. Although fences have been installed around the grove, some graffiti appears to have been carved after people climbed over them.
Nakamura said the damage began to be noticed around the time when the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic started to ease. Many of the mountains around the Fushimi Inari area are privately owned, making it difficult to implement uniform measures such as repairs or warning signs.
“Even though this is private land, people are entering and carving graffiti,” Nakamura said. “I want them to stop.”
As graffiti damage continues to spread through Kyoto’s bamboo forests, Nakamura appealed to visitors with a simple message: memories should be engraved in the heart, not carved into bamboo.
Source: YOMIURI
