Yakushima,
Healing Forest Experience
A sensory film installation that brings the ancestral forest into city life, addressing the needs of urban people with care, wellness, and regeneration.
The concept
Supporting urban people by reconnecting them with the primordial forest and its therapeutic virtues.
Screening of a 30-minute sensory and meditative film experience. A forest treatment that activates the principles of forest therapy, sound therapy, and art therapy, conducted in Spring 2024 in and with the Yakushima primary forest in Japan.
A moment of well-being, calm, and reconnection with oneself through the vibration of the elements, the inspiring beauty of the ancient forest, and the resourcing energy of the living world.
A healing-film made with Yakushima's Tree Spirit
Broadcast of a sensorial healing film made in the Yakushima primary forest
The experience
Feel the vibrations of Life
It is an artistic and therapeutic creation composed by a French-Japanese team. It was created in and with the Yakushima forest, intending to capture and transmit its sound and visual vibrations to the world, doing good and providing care and support to modern life.
The vibrations of the film's images and sounds stimulate the senses.
To feel the energy of the elements, revive the memory of water, air, and earth, the gentle light of the sun, the rustle of the wind in the leaves, the freshness of spring, the softness of moss, the warmth of a stone, and the omnipresence of life.
A visual and sound artwork that invites us on a sensory journey to the primordial forest.
To connect to the original feeling of the elements, the harmony between the reigns, the balance of vital energies, and, in a deep calm, to our inner forest.
Techniques from art therapy, forest therapy, sound therapy, and aromatherapy are activated through the senses of vision, hearing, and smell.
The experience
Inner connection with the forest, and oneself
The experience invites us to let ourselves be guided by the film, to feel the energy of the images and the vibration of the sounds, and to observe what resonates with us. The perception of the forest is intimate and subjective. It is, above all, a reconnection with oneself and one's body.
Only light guidance is offered to accompany the intention.
You are observing the forest as if it were your own body. The deep breaths of the wind on the leaves. The touch of sunlight vibrates on the skin of warm stones. The great water cycle regenerates this infinitely small and infinitely large body, from the silent drop of water on a blade of moss to the roaring flow of the immense waterfall. Consciousness of being part of the forces of life that constantly regenerate, harmonize, and heal. In this protective sanctuary, let yourself be imbued with the wisdom of the thousand-year-old trees, their gentle benevolence, entrust stress and pain to them, unburden yourself, lighten up, and soothe yourself. Perhaps afterward, you can share your experiences with caregivers, visitors, or other patients to harmonize with them around the forest.
Activation
Meeting society's growing needs by integrating healthcare and medical fields, as well as corporate and brand experiences across all sectors.
Activation
Healtcare and Medical fields
Meeting a need for nature-based therapy
Hospitals, Clinics, Medical centers, which by nature repair the Living, have long cut themselves off from the Living in their architecture, organization, and management of the Patient Experience.
Today, these facilities are at the forefront of innovation, adapting to the new challenges of our time and the evolving expectations of patients. Hospitals and healthcare establishments also reflect the societal challenges of the working world, with the crisis of a care workforce under pressure in search of meaning and professional well-being, to which it is necessary to bring tools that benefit the entire chain.
Supporting innovative healing places as they reconnect with living forces
Making the Care industry’s mission more effective by reconnecting patients, visitors, clients, and medical staff with nature is no longer a belief but a pragmatic reality that studies are constantly confirming and deepening.
The increasing presence of plant installations in recent architectural projects, such as therapeutic gardens, is becoming a standard feature in the specifications of care facilities. It was initiated by Roger Ulrich's studies in the 1980s, which demonstrated that patients with a window overlooking nature achieved faster therapeutic results than those with only a city view. Since then, the wave of Biophilic Design and Care Architecture has made its way into the specifications of contemporary hospital projects.
The impact of nature's effects conveyed through media
Recent scientific literature has established that exposure to images or sound stimuli from nature has a positive impact on patients' health, helping to reduce hospital stays.
Studies report effects on several levels. Physical: reduced blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, skin conductivity, and greater pain tolerance. Psychological: improved mood, state of well-being, optimism, and sense of hope for the future. Improved attention and cognition. Reduced stress and adverse effects associated with hospitalization (e.g., irritability). Social: more significant social interaction and involvement in relationships—cf. References in the Annex.
Activation
Corporate and Brand Experience
An answer for a new market
HEALTH IS THE NEW WEALTH
According to this Cap Gemini study (September 2025), wealthy clients are no longer seeking to accumulate goods but to transform themselves.
The luxury business, a pioneer in the market, now prioritizes investments in immersive and personalized experiences that cater to a growing demand for health, personal growth, and inner transformation.
Create Brand Experiences that
EMBODY A VISION
Make sense of the expectations of our times and meet society's collective needs and challenges. Today’s brands must inspire the societal and environmental change that customers need, including a connection to renewing with nature.
The forest care experience can be linked to a product inspired by the world of trees, emphasizing the benefits that a connection with natural forests and ancient trees provides to consumers, even amidst the hustle and bustle of city life.
Therefore, this project offers the opportunity to merge a creative brand activation strategy that thoughtfully combines art, science, healing, and environmental awareness. This opens up new strategic and communication perspectives for companies while helping to create a world in harmony with nature.
A Statement for the
WELLNESS MANAGEMENT
The next major challenge for businesses is finding practical solutions to improve workers' well-being by reconnecting them with the living.
This experience is designed to support anyone who is cut off from nature, living in a stressful environment, or facing physical and psychological challenges—basically, almost everywhere in our modern society, including inside workplaces.
This creates a compelling narrative that supports the company's vision, helps address the wave of resignations (The Big Quit), and attracts a new generation seeking more meaning in their work. What if we transformed the Smoking Room into a Forest Room?
The implementation
A simple, smooth and self-running system
From XL size Immersive set-up in a dedicated room
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Small room to create some darkness for video projection
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Video projector
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Sound system
to XS size Light configuration
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Existing screen with headphones
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We deliberately do not use VR devices for reasons of the mindfulness experience
Adapted to specific places:
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treatment rooms for the hospital or medical places
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retail experience, workplace, showroom
Complementary practices:
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Aromatherapy (Yakushima essences)
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Touch activation (touch plants equipped with sound sensors to hear the plant's vibrations)
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Soft therapies
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Guided meditation or relaxation
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Product experiences can be integrated
Time frame
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The experience is both individual and collective,
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A 30-minute film shown in a loop that can be picked up or dropped off at any time
The project players
Yakushima, Japan's primary forest with ancestral medicinal virtues
It is a rare forest of vitality and connection to the elements, where the great water cycle and thousand-year-old trees regenerate humans within a still-intact ecosystem. Here, you can feel the Earth's soul and the world's origins. A sanctuary of healing since the dawn of time, the cradle of contemporary forest therapy, it vibrates with a soothing, rejuvenating presence.
A World Heritage Forest
Yakushima Forest is located on the island of the same name in the Pacific Ocean to the south of Japan. It is home to a natural sanctuary away from the turbulence of the world, dominated by the exceptional presence of a population of thousand-year-old cedars that can be as old as 7,000 years. It was first designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1993 to recognize its biodiversity and unique ecosystem.
A sacred forest
A forest of ancestral therapeutic virtues
A very ancient spirituality is cultivated here, maintaining an unbreakable balance between humans and nature's divinities. This philosophy is embodied in popular culture by the famous film Princess Mononoke, whose author, Hayao Miyazaki, is said to have come to Yakushima to write the screenplay. Today, this ancestral relationship with nature inspires a secular eco-spirituality that is open to all and increasingly attractive to our Western societies seeking harmonious coexistence with the living world.
According to ancient transcriptions of the sound of « Yaku Shima,» the island was once called “the island that heals.” This therapeutic heritage has been revived, particularly since the 1990s, when Prof. Yoshifumi Miyazaki launched the first scientific experiments on “The Healing Power of the Forest” in Yakushima. He thus theorized Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing), establishing the contemporary medical basis for an ancestral, empirical healing practice. A discipline now recognized and taught in Japan at leading universities (e.g. Chiba University, Center of Environment, Health and Field Sciences).
The project players
Frederic Leyre (Kyoto, Japan)
Project Designer and Producer
Film Director
Experience Designer and Producer, Photographer, Artist-Researcher, Content Creator, Reiki Practitioner.
Drawing on his multi-skilled profile, Frederic Leyre develops hybrid projects between France and Japan that combine research and experimentation to reconnect humans with the Living by linking the intelligence of ancestral forests with today's human intelligence through art, science, and spirituality.
He was born in France in 1972. After taking his first professional steps in music and cultural project management, he spent 25 years working in event communication in Paris, where, in 2010, he founded his own creative and production studio specializing in brand experience for major French brands in the sports, banking, and cultural sectors.
The ecological awareness of an urgent and necessary transition to civilization in touch with Life guides his work on projects that reconnect the world of humans to the world of the forest. In 2017, he won the Faire Paris prize (The City of Paris' booster for innovative urban and architectural projects) for his Greenvaders project, a low-tech, eco-responsible urban vegetation system for worksite structures.
After many trips to Japan, he settled there in 2020 to learn about a culture where ancestral practices related to the forest are still present in many aspects of daily life. During a trip to the island of Yakushima, the world's first COVID pandemic led him to confine himself for four months to the thousand-year-old cedars of the primary forest. Then, he experienced a profound reconnection with the spirit of the ancestral trees, which would definitively underpin his commitment to sharing their wisdom and benefits with as many people as possible.
For this purpose, he created the Kodama Earth studio in 2021. Based in Kyoto in a traditional house connected to the elements, it is a space for designing and planning experiential projects to reconnect individuals, companies, and brands to the benefits of the forest during retreats and learning experiences, and also through devices at the heart of everyday life, in places for work, commerce, learning, well-being, and care.
The project players
Yoichi Kamimura (Tokyo, Japan)
Sound Artist
Sound recording and composition
Yoichi Kamimura explores the inner and spiritual links between man and nature through field recordings entitled “Meditative Hunting.” In recent years, he has researched various natural phenomena, including the drifting ice of Shiretoko, Iceland's glaciers, the Amazon rainforest, and the Iguazú Falls in Brazil. Based on his research, he presents immersive sound installations nationally and internationally, creating “soundscapes” that draw on our biology to create unique sensory experiences.
1982 Born in Chiba, Japan
2008 Graduate of Tokyo University of the Arts
2010 Master of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts
Recent projects: Parallel Streams - Van High House, London, UK 2024 — Awasi Art week by LABVERDE - Awasi, Iguazú, Argentina 2024 —Mori To Kori No Uta - La Boulangerie, Paris, France, 2023 — LABVERDE Speculative Ecologies Residency 2023 - Manaus, Brésil, 2023 — The View Of Hanui - Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, Corée du Sud, 2023 — SIM Residency - SIM Residency, Reykjavik, Islande, 2022 — Awai - Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo, Tokyo, 2022 — La Radio Du Vivant - Jardin des Plantes, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France, 2022 — From Seeing To Acting - Looiersgracht 60, Amsterdam, Pays-Bas, 2021 — HIAP - Helsinki International Artist Programme - HIAP, Helsinki, Finlande, 2021 — Land And Beyond - POLA Museum Annex, Tokyo, Japon, 2021 — Floating Between The Tropical And Glacial Zones - Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo, Tokyo, Japon, 2021 — Michikusa: Walks With The Unknown - Contemporary Art Center, Ibaraki, Japon, 2020 — Hyperthermia - NTT Intercommunication Center, Tokyo, Japon, 2019.
Sound works (CD) and performances: Sound Concert Tour with Olli Aarni in Finland - Porvoo, Helsinki, Finlande, 2023 — Therme Vals - Vertical Music - Berlin, Allemagne, 2023 — Ambient November - Space Odyssey, Reykjavik, Islande — Yoichi Kamimura & Olli Aarni at Temppeliaukion Kirkko - Temppeliaukio Rock Church, Helsinki, Finlande, 2021 — Ecotherapy - Phonurgia Nova Awards 2021, Centre Wallonie Bruxelles, Paris, France, 2021 — Music For Environment - Plaza, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, 2020 — Hyperthermia - Phonurgia Nova Awards 2020, BNF Paris, France, 2020.
The vision behind the project
Around two million years ago, our ancestors began to evolve into the humans we are today. During this process, our brains developed in contact with trees, and since then, we've spent over 99.9% of our time in a natural environment to which our bodies are perfectly adapted.
On the scale of human history, we've only been out of the forest for a few minutes. A few minutes have been enough for the majority of the modern world to evolve in total separation from its natural environment, cut off from the elements and other living kingdoms, trapped by the artificial development of cities and the virtualization of the world, dependent on a system that is destroying the conditions of its own existence.
To meet the challenges of our time and contribute to building a regenerative civilization in touch with the Living, I created the Kodama Experience project to work towards this essential osmosis with the world of trees in a contemporary way.
Kodama Experience imagines and produces projects to experience, understand, and feel the benefits of our reconnection with ancient forests in all aspects of our lives.
Activations include installations, exhibitions, retreats, learning experiences, and events that can be adapted to all possible locations and audiences. These experiences— accessible and easy to set up, invite people and organizations, wherever they are, to reconnect with the world of trees, to reconnect with the living, to support healing and well-being, to open consciousness to ourselves, to inspire a world based on collaboration with nature.
The proposal to integrate the primary forest of Yakushima into the heart of the city, highlighting the experiences of workers, consumers, patients, families,…perfectly illustrates the goal of fostering collaboration with forests. I hope this initiative captures your interest in contributing to a society where humans, trees, and all living beings are connected.
Frederic Leyre
