Hands-on Heritage Chizu Tottori
Sharing Japan's Living Landscapes
The town of Chizu, in Tottori Prefecture, is a place where the rhythms of forest life are inseparable from the landscape itself.
Chizu's forests embody the rich culture and spirit of Japan.
The landscape has been shaped by both nature and human hands—generation after generation has worked on the land and inherited skills and stories from ancestors.
By helping to restore historic buildings and learning traditional forestry techniques with Chizu cedar, you will participate in new forms of culture as they emerge.
As you experience the craftsmanship and wisdom rooted in the town, you will become part of a legacy that will carry into the future.
Let your hands connect with the land, and help pass this vibrant landscape on to those yet to come.
Chizu’s Forestry Culture and History
Chizu is a place of striking beauty, where nature and people exist in harmony and rich forestry traditions have shaped the culture.
Local residents have honed unique seedling and reforestation methods that harness the special properties of Okinoyama cedar. Branches weighed down by heavy snow take root and flourish, giving rise to a distinctive interplay of cedar plantations and thriving natural woodlands.
From mountain hamlets dotted with thatched-roof farmhouses to the atmospheric old post town and traces of historic highways and forest railways, Chizu’s landscape tells a story of everyday life entwined with forestry.
Since the Edo period (1603–1867), these time-honored practices have helped to forge the local culture and create the area’s present-day scenic landscape.
Chizu: Where Journeys Begin
Chizu has long served as a crossroads of people and cultures—a place where new stories begin.
Once a bustling stop along the Inaba Road and a key route for traveling samurai, the town has a long history of open exchange and has thrived with the fresh flow of ideas and traditions.
Today, those early echoes of the town’s history still resonate, quietly nurturing fresh creativity in the streets and forests.
Time spent here, among thatched-roof villages and the heritage of Chizu cedar forestry, can spark personal reflection and revelation.
Chizu enriches the spirit, inspiring you to see the world—and yourself—from a different perspective.
You are invited to sow seeds of new possibilities in a town where the people and the land have nurtured one another for centuries.
