Stories of trees that formed a forest,
“The story will never disappear.”

Long ago, a baby was born to a king and queen who had longed for a baby.
A baby named Haemaru is told by a prophecy that he will become the Guardian of Stories when he turns fifteen.
The king, who only wanted Haemaru to become a powerful ruler, banished all the stories from the country.
Because I believed that if you grow up without knowing stories, you can't become a guardian of stories.
Haemaru grows up healthy, smart, and confident, but he doesn't realize that he is thinking and acting according to his father's will, not his own.


On his fifteenth birthday, Haemaru goes hunting for the first time and chases a deer deep into the forest.
There you will find numerous trees.
These trees were the stories of those who were driven out by the king 15 years ago.
The story became a tree, formed a forest, and survived.
When Haemaru hears of his destiny to become the Guardian of Stories, he decides to find out what stories are and what he must protect.
The trees tell us stories that will never disappear, stories that they have kept deep within them.


"The Forest Where Stories Live" is comprised of the story of Haemaru, a child destined to become the guardian of stories, and three stories within stories that Haemaru hears.
The reader listens to the story told by the trees from Haema-ru's perspective.
This composition allows us to look at the 'story' itself from a distance.
It allows you to read the story and think about it.
It demonstrates the power of stories by unfolding the phenomena that occur in the mind while reading a story, that is, the process of thinking, imagining, and feeling something.


Listening to the story
“The child’s eyes sparkled.”

The stories told by the trees show Haema-ru a new world he has never experienced before.
In a story, anything is possible.
A new life is born by receiving the energy of a tree, a deer saves a prince in danger, and a boy who is captivated by the sound of a flute gives up his youth to obtain the flute.


Haemaru, who has seen a world he has never seen before and has experienced looking into the heart of someone he has never imagined, feels his own heart awakening.
Haemaru, who entered the forest of stories and came out, became a different person than before.
Now you see the world with your own eyes and think for yourself.
It has grown.


When do people change and grow? Perhaps it's when they experience something and become enlightened.
You can't really know something you haven't experienced.
That's why we constantly create and listen to stories.
To avoid judging everything based on just a small experience, it is valuable to enter the world of a story to understand yourself and others a little better.


Whether you go to the library, a bookstore, or the internet, books are very common these days.
In a world where you can read hundreds of books while sitting down if you put your mind to it, somehow people seem to be moving further and further away from books.
Looking at the book that no one reads and that is gathering dust, the author imagined the fate of the story.
What happens to the stories that lie dormant in the unopened book? The author invites readers into the forest where stories live, awakening them one by one.