Take our user survey and make your voice heard.
While Studio Ghibli star/mascot Totoro is sometimes mistakenly believed to have roots in traditional Japanese folklore, the anime icon’s appearance and other characteristics come purely from the imagination of director Hayao Miyazaki. However, the setting of "My Neighbor Totoro" does have a specific real-life inspiration.
The wooded areas of Saitama Prefeture’s city of Tokorozawa, as well as those just over the adjacent border in Tokyo, served as the model for the backdrop of sisters Mei and Satsuki’s adventures in the 1988 film. Over the years, the real-life location has even become colloquially known as “Totoro no Mori,” or “Totoro’s Forest.”
However, last Saturday morning the police were contacted regarding an incident in Totoro’s Forest that was far less whimsical than meeting the cuddly titular character or encountering the Catbus. A local resident, a man in his 40s, had been feeding stray cats in the forest when he found a skeletonized human corpse.
The man had actually first discovered the body, which was largely covered by fallen leaves, a week prior. Initially he’d thought the bones he’d seen were from some sort of woodland animal, but he later realized they were human remains (whether the realization came from a second visit to the scene or simply rethinking what he’d seen is unclear).
Following the report, investigators removed the body, and are currently in the process of performing an autopsy in hopes of determining the deceased’s identity and cause of death.
Source: Nitele News 24 via Livedoor News via Jin
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- Keeping Totoro’s Forest safe: Anime legend Hayao Miyazaki volunteers in conservation event
-- Studio Ghibli theme park designs unveiled, five special zones bring anime movie worlds to life
-- The Place Where Totoro Was Born: New Studio Ghibli book includes art by Hayao Miyazaki’s wife
- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2020/06/02/dead-body-found-in-real-life-totoros-forest-in-japan/
10 Comments
Login to comment
Toshihiro
Let's hope that the person's soul is spirited away to peace and doesn't become a malevolent mononoke
Artemis Rogers
Even an amateur sleuth could quickly tell if the body/skeleton was that of an adult or child and if adult, male or female. The lack of detail smacks of intent to hide the details.
I will make try to fill in the blanks with the paltry info provided. 1) If the body was an adult body, I think it less likely the man would think it was just some animal. 2) there were no clothes or other items or the man would have known it was human. So, a naked child and that strongly suggests a murder rather than a suicide. So, murdered child. He may have found the body of the girl that went missing from the campsite last fall. I say went missing, but its guaranteed she was abducted.
Paul
I think it would take 3 to 4 years for a body to become skeletonized.
james
Artemis Rogers, I'm no sleuth, but you made some very good points. Perhaps the man who found the bones returned to the scene of his crime because his conscience overtook him. I'm pretty sure the police are going to broach that angle too.
NegishiHoldout
Paul, try much less than that if it's moist and in a wooded area... Decomposition of a body happens rapidly. My heart goes out to the family of the victim of what most likely was no accident.
Artemis Rogers
It depends greatly on conditions including having scavenger animals around. Insects work fast as well. And that is not yet taking into account what the perp might have done to the body before dumping. An intact body takes typically between 20 to 50 days to become skeletonized. And between 50 to 365 days moths and bacteria will have even eaten the hair.
Ah_so
You may well be right in your view, but I suspect that your logic in 1 and 2 may have been driven by your predetermined conclusion (knowledge that a child went missing) rather than the facts as presented.
1 - we do not know how much of the bones were exposed - if just part of the arm for instance, it would not be clear
2 - It is likely that animals would have consumed an exposed body and possibly moved the bones around.
I think that you have made a very plausible deduction, but it is only one possible answer and possibly too early to conclude based on the above that this is a naked child. Another is that the body was there for years and only now came to the surface. Unlikely, but possible.
This is a rather macabre topic!
John N Swegan
This may be out in left field, but if it were a child that was kidnapped and molested, I'm pretty sure that the perpetrator would have tried to bury her in at least a shallow grave to prevent the body from being found. This is, providing that it is the girl that went missing last fall. A lot of things need to be considered. What was the weather like in Japan between September 21 and when the remains were found: importantly, when did the weather start turning cold. In my meat packing days, the building was kept below 8° to help keep meat fresh. How soon did it start dropping and remain so? Then there's the fluctuation between day and night temps, and wild animals. Cold temps coupled with easily accessible food sources, some animals, especially small rodents like rats and mice, would have many meals on the remains.
If she was abducted, after getting lost heading back to the camp, I think the abductor took her elsewhere, then returned the body after the initial search for her.
WA4TKG
“Just goes to show you....
Artemis Rogers
Facts? LOL. There are hardly any to work with. I made no conclusions at all but only offered what seemed most likely given my knowledge combined with this ridiculous lack of details in the article. Then I submitted the increased but still remote possibility that this was the girl that went missing last year.