ABOUT
TORCH
Here you'll find fields and mountains that open up to the vast sky.
In this place where you can become one with nature,
Whether it's work or play, you're free to do whatever you want.
What you can do with TORCH
Rather than a campsite,
A playground where you can camp, work, and meet friends in the mountains and fields.
TORCH Camping & Coworking Space is a beacon of light, a "place" that includes a camping field and event space for enjoying the outdoors in the mountains and fields, a coworking space where you can work in nature, and facilities that can be used for workshops, training activities, and more.
We hope that by combining Nikko's magnificent nature with outdoor activities, people will meet each other through play and work, and that new sparks will be ignited.
The thoughts behind TORCH
Like a bonfire lit in the mountains and fields of Nikko, bringing together diverse people.
Nikko, where we were born and raised, flourished as a tourist destination during the Showa era thanks to its natural heritage sites, including Kegon Falls and Lake Chuzenji. Now, Nikko's shrines and temples are once again attracting attention as a World Heritage Site.
However, we believe that the true beauty of Nikko lies in the fact that timeless nature has existed here for a very, very long time.
Lake Chuzenji, Kegon Falls, and the Nikko mountain range were all born from the eruption of Mount Nantai. High priests such as Shodo Shonin and Kukai, who saw the gods in this magnificent nature, opened the temple grounds, and over a thousand years, this led to the construction of Nikko Toshogu Shrine, and continues to the present day. All of this was brought about by the great nature of Nikko.
In other words, Nikko's nature has always been here, unchanged, operating on a time axis completely separate from human activity. When we realized this while walking along the shores of Lake Chuzenji, our perspective on Nikko, which had previously been focused on "how to revitalize Nikko as a tourist destination," completely changed. We began to think, "We want to light a fire here and create a place where people drawn to Nikko's nature can gather."
TORCH Camping & Coworking Space is located on the mountainside leading to the Nikko mountain range, with its peaks exceeding 2300m in elevation, and Lake Chuzenji, Japan's highest lake at 1269m.
Originally, this area was a wild, wooded area carved out of the trees growing on the slopes, a playground filled with childhood memories. Instead of building a new tourist facility, we wanted to develop this wild area itself into a playground and a place where people could gather and enjoy themselves.
Furthermore, in this modern age where we can work online from anywhere, we wanted to create a space where you can deepen your work by drawing inspiration from this environment where you can become one with nature, just as many Shugendo monks, including Shodo Shonin and Kukai, attained enlightenment amidst the magnificent nature of Nikko. We also wanted to create a space where you can work freely while enjoying nature.
The mountain slopes were transformed into a camping area, allowing people to enjoy the outdoors. The older buildings were renovated and repurposed as a co-working space and event rental space, opening in the fall of 2022 as "TORCH Camping & Coworking Space."
We believe our mission is to ensure that the flame we have lit here never goes out, and that diverse people gather to keep burning their own unique "ways of life."
