In Kamikitayama Village, Yoshino District, there lies a highland known as Odaigahara. With Hidegatake, at 1,695 meters, as its highest point, the ridge extending from Masakigahara reveals a landscape unlike a dense forest — instead, low dwarf bamboo grass spreads across the plateau, dotted with the pale, standing trunks of dead spruce trees.

There are no walls to block the view here, no fences to mark a path. Standing on the ridge, it becomes hard to tell exactly where the grass ends and the sky begins. As far as the eye can reach, there is only openness, continuing on and on.

The wind passes through without end, and the shadows of clouds drift slowly across the grass below. Standing in this place, one cannot help but wonder — perhaps the line marking "this far and no further" is drawn not by the mountain, nor by the sky, but by one's own line of sight.