Growing obsession for moss in Japan
SAKUHO, Japan — Kaori Shibo bent her head down and peered through a magnifying glass in a forest in central Japan, emitting a delighted gasp. The object of her adoration? Moss.
“Oh, this baby’s sporophyte is breaking out! I’ve never seen this before,” Shibo, 41, shouted, her head nearly close enough to kiss a fallen tree log in the forest in Yatsugatake.
She was out with around 20 other people who are part of a growing community in Japan obsessed with plants known as bryophytes, including moss, liverworts and hornworts.
“When you stare at a tiny, tiny piece of green, you find a vast world expanding from there,” explained fellow moss enthusiast Masami Miyazaki.
“It’s like a micro universe,” the 42-year-old added.
The group was out exploring just days into Japan’s rainy season, perfect weather for an expedition to spot some of the many mosses, liverworts, hornworts and lichens thickly coating the forest’s trees and rocks.
The forest, which surrounds Shirakomanoike lake and spreads across the northern Yatsugatake mountain range, is a popular spot for microplant enthusiasts.
More than 500 varieties can be observed in the Yatsugatake mountain range alone, according Masanobu Higuchi, Japan’s leading bryology expert and the hike’s leader.
“I am infatuated by moss not just because of their pretty shapes and colors,” Shibo said.
“I am transported by the fact that you can find them
anywhere around you but never realize how magnificent they are.”
In recent years, moss enthusiasts have multiplied in Japan, with hikes catering to those eager to spot different varieties and shops selling the plants in terrariums well suited to small Japanese homes.
Moss has been popular with traditional Japanese gardeners for centuries, and the plants grow well in the country’s humid climate.
But while moss is a purely aesthetic pleasure for some Japanese, for others it is also big business.
Nicknamed the ‘Moss King’, 64-year-old Oichi Kiyomura spends most days digging through wild bushes, across slopes and even up cliffs, looking for moss he can scoop into trays and sell to enthusiasts.
It’s a far cry from his former career, running nightclubs, but Kiyomura, who is based in the mountains of Nikko north of Tokyo, says his moss business is lucrative.
He says he makes at least 30 million yen ($270,000) a year, hinting that is a modest estimate.
Kiyomura acknowledges some detractors find moss rather pedestrian and uninteresting, but he defends his obsession with the plants.
“I love moss, even more than women,” he joked. “I would live with it even if no one cared about it anymore.”