Aokigahara Forest

While stumbling around on the internet this evening, I happened across a page containing a bunch of pictures of the Aokigahara Forest, at the foot of Mount Fuji, in Japan. For anyone who doesn't know about this forest, it is also known by the names "Jukai" (meaning "Sea of Trees"), "Forest of Death", or more popularly, "Suicide Forest". This forest is known as a major spot for troubled individuals to end their lives; over 100 victims of suicide are found here each year. The main method of suicide in this forest is by hanging, though some are also taken through overdose of sleeping pills, starvation, and dehydration. The link provided above contains some disturbing photos (individuals hanging from trees, human remains, etc.), so I would strongly encourage you not to have a peek if you are impressionable or get disturbed easily.

This forest has always sort of intrigued me in a way. On one hand, it's incredibly sad about the situation within the forest, but on the other, I had always wondered why people chose to go there, to that particular forest. So, putting off my other homework, I decided to have a peek around the internet to see if I could find any answers.

An image of a skull found in Aokigahara Forest, Japan

Straight away, I found a link on youtube to a short, two part documentary of sorts about the forest (I'll post these videos at the end for anyone who wishes to watch them). The 'host' is a Japanese geologist by the name of Azusa Hayano. He does patrols through the forest to check for remains, or to see if there are any individuals camping there. In the video he mentions that if a person brings a tent into the forest, they are usually still struggling with the idea of committing suicide or not. Near the beginning of this video, he mentions that in the old days, suicide was a practice of the samurai's, and that poorer families would often abandoned elders in the mountains, who would be left to die. As Hayano enters the forest, he stops to read a sign that is in place to help prevent further suicides. It says that ones life is a precious gift, and that one should speak to others rather than dealing with problems on their own. The sign also includes a number for a suicide prevention hotline.

The first thing that I noticed when Hayano ventured off the maintained paths of the forest was the amount of tape strung around trees. Apparently, individuals who enter this part of the forest wrap this tape around trees so that they may find their way out if they decide not to go through with it. Hayano mentions that if one follows the tape, one will almost always find something at the end, whether it be remains of an individual, or signs that someone had been there. Throughout the video, Hayano and his camera member come across the remains (a skeleton, still wearing clothing), an upside down doll nailed to a tree (representing the torture of society), suicide notes, a suicide manual, various tents, a living person in a tent (whom they later rescued), and, what touched me most, were two bouquets of flowers and a box of chocolate left for the deceased. It wasn't so much that there were goods left for someone who had taken their life, but what Hayano said about this: "You think you die alone, but that's not true. Nobody is alone in this world." I absolutely agree with this, and it really makes the sad reality of this forest come to light. People think they are alone, but they aren't. There are still people who love them. Hayano asked the same question I did. He wanted to know why people came to die in this "beautiful forest." He still hasn't found the answer.

After watching through the videos, I found a website that had some pictures and short captions about the forest. On this site, I found a couple of reasons why the forest may have become more popular and romanticized. Apparently, a 1960's book, Kuroi Jukai tells a tale of two lovers who both commit suicide together in Aokigahara Forest at the end. Another very controversial book in 1993, The Complete Suicide Manual, recommends Aokigahara as "the perfect place to die." I think this might explain why so many people come here to end their lives. Perhaps they feel it is honorable to die here, and for their souls to remain in the forest.

Because there are are so many deaths here, both in the distant and recent past, there are ghost stories surrounding the area as well. These angry spirits - yurei - are said to remain in the forest, and prevent others from leaving. I found this article that talked a bit about the yurei and also an interesting practice that took place if a body was found in the forest.

"However, even in these haunted woods, regular humans still have a job to do. Forestry workers rotate in and out of shifts at a station building in Aokigahara, and occasionally they will come upon unfortunate bodies in various states of decomposition, usually hanging from trees or partially eaten by animals. The bodies are brought down to the station, where a spare room is kept especially for such occasions. In this room are two beds: one for the corpse and one for someone to sleep next to it. Yup, you read that correctly. It is thought that if the corpse is left alone, the lonely and unsettled yurei will scream the whole night through, and the body will move itself into the regular sleeping quarters."

Kind of a creepy idea. Not entirely sure I could snuggle up to a corpse to keep it company... but that's just me.

Well, that's about the sum of my knowledge about the Suicide Forest. If anyone else has other information or knowledge to share with me, please feel free to post it. Or even just post comments and thoughts about the forest itself. Do you have any questions about what is going on here? Possible explanations? I'd love to hear ideas! For now though, I will leave those interested with the videos I found on YouTube, and I must get myself some sleep.

References:

CNN, 2009. Desperate Japanese head to 'suicide forest'. [online] Available at: http://articles.cnn.com/2009-03-19/world/suicide.forrest.japan_1_suicide-taro-aokigahara-forest/2?_s=PM:WORLD [Accessed 28 February 2012].

Davisson, Z, 2012. The suicide woods of Mt. Fuji. [online] Available at: http://www.seekjapan.jp/article-1/767/The+Suicide+Woods+of+Mt.+Fuji [Accessed 28 February 2012]

Forde, M, n.d. Aokigahara: Japan's forest of death. [online] Available at: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-aokigahara-forest-death [Accessed 28 February 2012].

Image:

[Aokigahara skull] n.d. [image online] Available at: http://funzu.com/index.php/crazy-pics/aokigahara-forest-of-suicides-29102009.html [Accessed 28 February 2012].

YouTube Videos:

NNekromantik, 2010. Aokigahara - Suicide forest 1/2. [video online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6CK1KdAha78 [Accessed 28 February 2012].

NNekromantik, 2010. Aokigahara - Suicide forest 2/2. [video online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V1eXOXYI3bc [Accessed 28 February 2012].

Protection after death

Over reading break while I was in Tacoma, Washington, I was listening to the Seattle Komo 4 news in the car when I heard an interesting, but terribly sad, story. The "prequel" to this story had been in the news for quite awhile. It began with a missing woman - Susan Cox Powell, in 2009. To this day, I don't think they ever found out what actually happened to her, but her husband, Josh Powell, had been questioned about the matter. Recently, Josh, who had two young sons with his currently missing wife, attacked both sons with a hatchet and then set his residence on fire, killing both his sons and himself in the process.

The news of this was broadcast for days; the funeral for the boys took place on February 11, 2012. They were buried in a cemetery in Puyallup, Washington and the newest story regarding this tragic tale, caught my attention. At first, I thought I had heard wrong, but when the story repeated, I learned that I had not. Apparently, a detective, Ed Troyer (some of you may have heard of him during the shooting of police officers at a Lakewood coffee shop a few years ago), and a Sheriff, Paul Pastor, along with some money from Crimestoppers in Tacoma, purchased the burial plots next to the boys in the graveyard so that their father could not be buried next to them. The relatives of Josh Powell want his body to be buried in the same cemetery as his sons, and had selected a grave plot 25 feet away from them. The family of Susan Cox is apparently trying to seek a temporary restraining order to prevent Josh from being buried anywhere near the two boys.

Personally, I think this was a noble gesture on the part of the police and Crimestoppers, to protect these boys from their father, even in death. If I see individuals buried together (in a more modern context), I automatically think of family; people who loved and cared for one another. Not a broken family with a father who murdered his sons, and then killed himself. A father who may or may not have been involved with the disappearance of his wife.

Was this the right thing to do? Are there any moral issues with this? Did the police even have the right to purchase these plots when the family of Josh wanted him to be buried there?
What are your thoughts on this matter?

It is a tragic story, to say the least. I simply cannot comprehend what goes through some people's minds. I only wish for justice and peace for these boys who obviously lost their lives much too young.

St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church and Cemetery Monument Analysis

For our monument analysis assignment, our group decided to go to a cemetery outside of Victoria and its surrounding area. We chose to go to Salt Spring Island and check out a small cemetery near the Fulford Harbour ferry terminal. A short walk up the road is the cutest stone church on the whole island, in my opinion. The St. Paul's Roman Catholic church is the oldest church on Salt Spring Island, founded in 1878, built between 1880 and 1885 and dedicated on May 10, 1885.

The cemetery has three sections; the first is next to the church, the second is East of the church at the end of the driveway, and the final section, which contains newer graves, is located North East of the church up a separate driveway. We could not find anyone to contact to see about surveying the graves, and since we had seen other photos and blogs of people who had gone and taken photos, we figured it would be fine to go do our own analysis. A few hours into our project, an older gentleman showed up and stood watch over us as we continued our analysis. He didn't say anything to any of us, so we figured he must have been there to make sure we were not doing anything to damage the monuments. I later mentioned this to my grandfather, who lives on Salt Spring, and he was not surprised that we had a silent supervisor. According to him, the cemetery had been vandalised a few times before. It is still beyond me that people could have such little respect for the dead.

View St. Paul's Catholic Church Cemetery, Salt Spring Island in a larger map

The cemetery at St. Paul's has a relatively small number of marked graves. Near the front of the church, there is a memorial plaque for some 67 graves in the cemetery that are no longer marked.
After taking a look around at all the different sections of cemetery and the types of monuments there, we decided to focus on thirteen graves that had shell necklaces placed on them. From the research we had done prior to going to Salt Spring, we knew that the graves with shells belonged to a group of settlers from Hawaii known as the Kanakas. While the majority of the Kanaka graves had shells placed on them, not all of them did. For the purpose of our analysis, we chose to omit those graves without shells.

The sample of graves we chose to look at included babies to old adults. The monuments included obelisks, upright headstones, flat headstones, plaques and cement sarcophagi. The dates range from 1892 to 2009, the majority in the early 1900's. Two of the graves had no dates listed.

After the examination of the monuments, we wondered about the change in monument type over time. Our main question we wanted to answer was if the plain cement sarcophagi corresponded with a time of distress, such as World War II. When compared to the sarcophagi, we had noticed that the other monuments were more elaborate and decorated. After examining our data, we noticed that all of the visible sarcophagi, with the exception of one - Alfred Douglas - dated between 1943 and 1945 at the earliest dates. One of these sarcophagi contained two names - Doris and Jerome Pappenberger - and dated to 1945 and 1956 respectively. The Alfred Douglas sarcophagus dated to 1907. This data seemed to confirm our hypothesis that these less elaborate graves corresponded with the war. Staying with this theme, it seems that the three obelisks we analysed were erected in the early 1900's; the Pallow monument's earliest date was 1907, Noukin dating to 1909, and the Peterson obelisk with the dates of 1903 and 1908. It seems that earlier monuments were more elaborate than the ones dating closer to the mid 1900's. Based on this assumption, one can assume that the two monuments of unknown date - Edie Tahuney and the Gibson monument - may have dated to an earlier period due to their style.

L: Noukin Obelisk 1909; C: Mary H. Headstone 1892; R: Matilda Roland Sarcophagus 1943

I would like to find out more about why these particular Kanaka graves contain photos and shell necklaces today. Is it because they were some of the first settlers to Salt Spring? Are there still relatives living on the Island and paying their respects? Were these individuals of higher status than some of the other Kanaka settlers? Is there no particular reason at all? I feel these questions could be answered with more research, especially in the archives, but also by checking into local museums or perhaps interviewing some of the current locals on the island.

I also happened across a book written by Tom Koppel, a Salt Spring Island resident, about the Kanakas. It is called Kanaka : the untold story of Hawaiian pioneers in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. This book apparently contains photos of the settlers as well as chronicles the lives of some of the families who came to live on Salt Spring. It is available in UVic's special collections in the library. If I look more into their history, this book would definitely provide some good information.

I would very much like to continue research about this cemetery and about the history of the people buried there. St. Paul's is a beautiful church with a beautiful cemetery. It is filled with many different monuments dedicated to those young and old. Perhaps I can return some time soon, and examine the other graves in more detail.

References

Salt Spring Archives, n.d. a. Salt Spring's Hawaiian Community. [online] Available at: http://saltspringarchives.com/multicultural/kanaka.htm [Accessed 19 February 2012].

Salt Spring Archives, n.d. b. St. Paul's, Salt Spring Island's First Church. [online] Available at: http://saltspringarchives.com/cemetary/stpaul/index.htm [Accessed 18 February 2012].

Memento Mori

Until last night, I had completely forgotten about a rather macabre Victorian tradition - post mortem photography. While doing a quick internet search to see if I could find anything more about this, I happened upon a short little article that had a nice concise explanation as well as a bunch of photos. Just a quick warning, if you get freaked out easily, I probably wouldn't recommend looking at many of the pictures (there are quite a few of deceased infants and children). I generally enjoy weird and macabre things, and some of them were even a bit creepy for me.

Over the past few years, I have come to learn and appreciate the Victorian's strange obsession with death and funerals. Funerals were rather elaborate and the whole idea of death was a very public one. We must remember that this was a time of disease and a high mortality rate, especially among infants.

With the invention of photography, lower income families were able to have portraits taken of their loved ones after death as a keepsake (until this point, you would have had to hire someone to paint portraits, which would be costly). According to the article I found, early portraits were usually a close up of the face. It also states that the individual being photographed is usually depicted to appear as though they are sleeping, although, I have seen photos where it appears eyes are wide open. There are later examples that I have seen that include living family members posed with the deceased. Examples of photos from the article also show a number of portraits that include individuals propped up on chairs, or in coffins.

So, I thought I'd conclude with a video, it's about four minutes long and begins by giving you background on what Victorian post mortem photography is all about, and then has a slide show of some of the photos you can find on the internet. If you're interested, take a look!

If anyone knows anything else about this, I'd love to learn more, so point me in the right direction!

Greyfriars Kirkyard

Well, today we are off to do our monument analysis at what I think to be one of the cutest little churches and cemeteries on Salt Spring Island. So, with that in mind, it got me thinking as to where else I'd like to go and do a monument analysis if I could pick anywhere in the world.

After a bit of thinking and searching, I decided that it would be interesting to go to Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh.

What intrigued me about this particular graveyard was the attempt to deter body snatchers, and the monuments that surrounded it. Don't get me wrong, there are lots of other neat monuments, including a mausoleum that I'm rather fond of, but something about protective iron gates over top of graves - called mortsafes - is not something you'd think to expect when going to visit a loved one.

An image of a mortsafe at Greyfriars Kirkyard

The whole idea surrounding the worry of body snatching, the process and the reactions, as morbid as it is, is something I find to be quite fascinating. Perhaps something I will look into in the future.