Sanbe Azukihara Buried Forest 三瓶小豆原 埋没林公園

The Sanbe Azukihara Buried Forest is a lost world of trees that lay hidden until just a few decades ago at the base of Mt. Sanbe . The museum dedicated to them lies 15 meters underground.

You can access the museum by train, followed by a bus ride and a short walk.

The forest and its museum are located at the base of Mt. Sanbe . A 40-minute bus ride from Odashi Station in the direction of Satsume. Get off at Azukiharaguchi and walk 20 minutes down the side road.

You enter a small door and descend a long, curving stairway that reveals a magical world of giant, ancient trees. At the bottom of this cavernous space are trunks that lie while other trees stand upright as they did thousands of years ago.

The tallest, over 12 meters tall, and the widest, with a diameter of 2.5 meters, are both cedars, commonly called sugi in Japanese, as are most of the other thirty trees that have been excavated here.

Sometime around 4,000 years ago the nearby volcano, Mt. Sanbe , erupted violently. The surrounding area was buried under volcanic ash and debris, destroying all life. Due to its topography, this little valley was buried more slowly, which is why many of the trees remained standing.

This buried forest was accidentally discovered in 1983. The top of one of the massive trunks was found just a few meters down.

A second, smaller exhibition allows you to see close up the stump and roots of a tree whose trunk has been removed and is on display at the nearby Shimane Nature Museum of Mt. Sanbe.