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A video from Kyoto’s quiet bamboo grove near Fushimi Inari Taisha showed several bamboo stalks covered with graffiti, carvings and scratched markings.
News18
Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto, Japan is known for its quiet bamboo forest hidden away from the busy tourist areas. Unlike the crowded Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, this spot offers visitors a calmer walking experience surrounded by tall bamboo trees and peaceful nature trails.
But a recent video shared from the location has upset many people online after showing bamboo stalks covered with graffiti and carvings. The clip has now started a debate on tourist behaviour and the condition of popular heritage spots in Japan.
Video Shows Graffiti On Bamboo Trees
An X (formerly Twitter) user shared a video from the bamboo grove near Fushimi Inari Taisha, showing several bamboo stalks covered in names, drawings and carved markings.
The video slowly pans across the forest, focusing on bamboo trunks scratched with graffiti from top to bottom. Some carvings appeared fresh, while others looked older and faded. The markings included initials, shapes, random words and symbols carved directly into the green bamboo surface.
The user who shared the video wrote, “I’ve come to the bamboo grove at Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari Taisha. The number of graffiti was far worse than I could have imagined. This place should be designated as a no-entry zone.”
The clip quickly spread online, with many users expressing disappointment over the condition of the forest.
京都伏見稲荷大社の竹林に来ました。落書きの数は想像を超えて酷かったです。ここは禁足地にすべきです。 pic.twitter.com/lq6fRngrqP— 湯浅忠雄 YUASA TADAO (@GrwaNnKqMn5nG68) May 19, 2026
People React With Anger Online
Several users blamed irresponsible tourism and said the place no longer feels protected.
A person wrote, “Japan is being destroyed!!”
Another user commented, “We should charge an entrance fee to foreigners. It’s heartbreaking to see it damaged and withering away like this.” The same user further added, “Anyway, we should charge an entrance fee to cover the costs of enforcement. It’s a place I go to relax, and yet to have this happen, I’m nothing but furious.”
Some comments criticised Japan’s growing tourism targets. “Are they really planning to keep letting in these low-class foreign tourists until they achieve that idiotic goal of ‘60 million inbound visitors’?” a user asked.
Others said the damage had reached a point where simple rules or warnings may no longer help. “Maybe it’s because there’s one piece of graffiti that makes you think it’s okay to write there, but when it’s this bad, I feel like it’s beyond the level of manners or anything like that,” a person wrote.
Another comment read, “Perhaps because we’ve turned it into a tourist spot… I truly believe it should be made a restricted area.”
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