In the town of Takamori-machi, in the Kumamoto Prefecture of Japan, lies a forest shrine known as Kamishikimikumano. The beautiful Shinto shrine was setting for a popular one-shot, shōjo manga written by Yuki Midorikawa called Hotarubi no Mori e (Into the Forest of Fireflies’ Light).

In the embedded Google Map below you can see the shrine is located just off of a main road in a large forested area of the town.

 

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d4332.494717873581!2d131.15814747123213!3d32.85542914984438!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x3540d7ccee5ea361%3A0x75772fd6f78ac77e!2sKamishikimikumano+Shrine!5e1!3m2!1sen!2sca!4v1413570577069&w=800&h=600%5D

 

 
Photographer ageo_akaihana is a huge fan of Yuki Midorikawa’s work and wanted to visit the real-life inspiration for the film. In the gallery below you can get a sense for this beautiful place. You can find the rest of the gallery on Flickr.