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Myōkō-Togakushi Renzan NP, Nagano
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A young local researcher gave this birding forest an unusually careful census: junior-high second-year Koharu Miyazawa walked a roughly 3-km route 76 times from 2009 to 2011, recording 98 species and 20,684 birds.
Togakushi-shoma sparked a botanical lab feud: in 1888, Ito Atsutaro published a new genus name for the flower before Yatabe’s competing name appeared. The Tokyo University professor barred Ito from the botany lab; the affair became known as “Excommunication Grass.”
Even winter doesn’t silence Togakushi: researchers averaged 34 singing birds per survey in February, with temperatures near −20°C and snow over 1 m. In December, the average was just 3.3.
The garden’s volunteer association has a nighttime side: it leads walks on the nearby Okusha Shrine approach—not inside the garden—to look for Himebotaru fireflies flashing blue-green in the dark.
The garden’s flower calendar lists Togakushi-shoma, a plant first discovered on Mt Togakushi. Its name carries that origin with it, and the national park identifies it as a regional endemic.
Getting the garden’s trails ready for spring is a community effort: in 2023, about 70 people from forestry agencies, local government, volunteer groups and companies repaired paths, spread woodchips and built a handmade wooden bridge.
The garden was created as a legacy of Nagano’s 1964 15th National Land Greening Convention and National Tree-Planting Festival. Construction ran from 1964 to 1969; the garden opened in August 1968.
This 71.34-hectare garden has two land managers: Nagano Prefecture looks after 11.48 hectares, while the Chubu Regional Forest Office manages the other 59.86.
