Rainbow Pine Plain (虹之松原, Nijinomatsubara) is a 360-year-old pine forest in Karatsu, Saga. It has a width of 400–700 metres, a length of about 4 km, and a total area of 240 hectares. It was also referred as The Black Pine Forest of 1 Million Trees.[1]
Description[]
In real life[]
Niji-no-Matsubara is said to have originated about 400 years ago when Terazawa Hirotaka, the first feudal lord of the Karatsu Domain, ordered people to plant Kuromatsu (Japanese black pine (Pinus thunbergii)) on the coastal sand dunes to protect farmland from sea winds.
In those days, the Karatsu Domain directly controlled the forest and prohibited the cutting of trees. It allowed the local people to gather fallen pine needles in the forest for fuel if they paid a certain amount of annual tribute.
It became the only pine grove in Japan to be nationally designated as a special place of scenic beauty in 1955, and it has been ranked with Miho-no-Matsubara in Shizuoka Prefecture and Kehi-no-Matsubara in Fukui Prefecture as one of Japan's three greatest pine groves.[2]
In the manga[]
In the first chapter of Zombie Land Saga Gaiden, the Saga Sagako Busters locate a Sagako in this forest and set out to hunt it down. However, Yuko, weak from other battles, falls to the Sagako and fuses with it into an onion.
Later in the manga, it is revealed that this forest is where Tae works as an “office lady” at a burger stand owned by Jofuku, where Yuko also worked. In order to save the stand from decline, they must fight a Sagako that affects the prosperity of the forest, and then sell its parts to customers.
In the anime[]
The forest had to be crossed by Franchouchou during the Saga Floods to reach the Ekimae Real Estate Stadium.
Trivia[]
- TBA
Gallery[]
