[Special Feature: 125 Years of Integrated Education] Kinji Fukuyama: Protecting and Nurturing the Hiyoshi Forest, Futsubu and High School Students

Beyond the Hiyoshi Commemorative Hall lies a vast forest of nearly 10 hectares known as the Hiyoshi Forest. Until the early Showa era, this forest was a secondary woodland maintained by local farmers. Even after it became part of the Keio University campus, it has been preserved without significant destruction.

Biological surveys conducted to date have confirmed more than 1,200 species of flora and fauna in the Hiyoshi Forest, including endangered species. Familiar insects such as rhinoceros beetles and jewel beetles are also frequently seen. The Hiyoshi Forest is a precious woodland where the nature of satoyama—often called the original landscape of Japan—remains intact.

Using this Hiyoshi Forest as a stage, activities have been developed for students from the Keio Futsubu School, high school, and university to learn about the natural environment and nurture the forest. I would like to introduce some of those activities here.

At the Keio Futsubu School, third-year students take elective classes during the third and fourth periods on Saturdays, choosing freely from various genres. The Hiyoshi Forest class was added to the elective curriculum in 2001. Since then, it has been held every year, except for a two-year hiatus due to curriculum changes. Four faculty members who teach biology at the university guide the students through the Hiyoshi Forest.

Students learn two main things in the Hiyoshi Forest. The first is nature observation. They find blooming flowers, flying insects, and birds, and record them in their notebooks. Observation is not just about looking. They touch the budding trees, smell the fresh greenery, listen to the chirping of wild birds, and in autumn, they roast and eat chinquapin nuts. By experiencing the forest with all five senses, they learn about the workings of nature that cannot be understood through classroom study alone.

The second purpose of this class is to experience the management of secondary woodlands. These woodlands have been maintained by farmers through undergrowth clearing and periodic thinning. Without proper care, secondary woodlands fall into ruin, and the number of species that can inhabit them decreases. Unfortunately, since leaving the hands of local farmers, the Hiyoshi Forest had been neglected. The maintenance of the woodland performed by Keio Futsubu School students is also the work of protecting the forest on their own campus.

Sickles and saws are used for forest maintenance. However, few students have experience cutting grass or trees outdoors, and some are even touching a sickle for the first time. They begin by learning how to use the tools safely.

At first, the students are fully occupied just using the tools, but as they eventually master them, they begin to see the significance of what they are doing. They gradually come to understand why they clear the grass and why thinning is necessary while they work.

Within the Hiyoshi Forest, the corner where the Keio Futsubu School students are active is called the "Futsubu Forest." In fact, the konara oak and sawtooth oak trees that the students care for were planted by students who took this class in the past. The Futsubu Forest has been built by younger students protecting and nurturing the saplings planted by their predecessors. This winter, the current students are also scheduled to plant saplings. They will eventually graduate, but the saplings they plant will be nurtured by the students who take the class next year. In this way, the Futsubu Forest is passed down through the hands of many students across generations.

Keio Futsubu School students were not the first to grow trees in the Hiyoshi Forest. More than 60 years ago, from 1952 to 1957, large-scale reforestation took place in the Hiyoshi Forest. The main participants were the high school students of that time. They donated saplings, such as cedar, to the high school as graduation gifts. However, for some reason, the plantation was subsequently neglected. Eventually, the cedar forest fell into ruin and frequent tree falls occurred, leading to a clear-cut in 2013.

Currently, activities to restore that site into a secondary woodland are being carried out by high school students. Every year, students from five first-year biology classes use their class time to plant konara and sawtooth oak saplings. Once a month, students from the student council protect the saplings by clearing weeds and performing other maintenance.

This year marks the 10th year since the second high school forest-building project began. While it has not yet reached the appearance of a full secondary woodland, the sight of sawtooth oaks several meters tall standing in rows gives hope for the future of this land.

Having Keio students of different generations learn together in the single "classroom" of the Hiyoshi Forest brings about various effects. Students who became interested in the Hiyoshi Forest through elective classes may participate in the high school forest activities after graduation, and further, help Keio Futsubu School or high school students once they enter the university. With the forest as a mediator, collaboration between various generations is born.

On the morning of August 6th this year, students from the Keio Futsubu School, high school, and university gathered in the Hiyoshi Forest. This was to clear the weeds around the saplings during the summer vacation when the grass is at its thickest. Everyone was drenched in sweat as they mowed the grass, cut away vines, and rescued the konara and sawtooth oak saplings from the thickets. As the work ended and I watched the Keio Futsubu School and university students eating the watermelon distributed as a thank-you side-by-side, I felt once again that I was glad Keio University is a system of affiliated schools.