Chinju-no-mori (鎮守の森) are forests established and maintained in or around shrines (Chinjugami) in Japan, surrounding temples, Sando, and places of worship.

Chinju no mori refers to the Forest that surrounded many Shinto shrine. The character for mori is often used. In some cases, the word shrine is written and read as mori, suggesting that Shrine Shinto was derived from Koshinto. The character mori (杜) is often used in the names of Shrines. In this case it refers to a place where a kami is present. It can therefore be a shrine and, in fact, the characters 神社, 社 and 杜 can all be read "mori" ("grove"). This reading is present in the Man'yōshū. This reading reflects the fact the first shrines were simply sacred groves or Chinju no Mori where kami were present.

In modern Shinto, the shintai of shrine Shinto is understood to be the shrine, such as the main hall and Shinto architecture, which are covered with shimenawa, and the surrounding forests are understood to be the chinju-no-mori. In Koshinto, which is the original source of shinto, there are Himorogi, Iwakura, forests, land covered with forests, mountains (such as Mount Fuji, etc.), megaliths, seas, rivers (characteristic places such as reefs and waterfalls), and nature itself is an object of faith. In many shrine precincts and in the mountains, trees with distinctive trunks and branches and large trees are worshipped as sacred trees.

Most Shinto shrines were originally built in such a Shinto shrine or on the border between the everlasting world and the present world, where there is a sacred stone or rock. In the same way as in the ancient Shinto religion, shrines like Omiwa Shrine in Nara Prefecture, which worships Mount Miwa, the mountain itself is considered the Shintai. Some shrines do not even have a main shrine or a Honden, and some use forests and hills as their sacred objects, thus preserving the ancient Shinto religion, which is also known as nature worship and spirit worship in Japan.。

According to Akira Miyawaki, "chinju no mori" is used as an academic term by the International Society of Vegetation Science. 。

Contrary to these examples, there are also examples of Chinju no Mori forests created for shrines via Afforestation. The most famous example is Meiji Shrine. Some trees were brought in as donations from Taiwan and other countries, but the basic policy is to give consideration to the vegetation (potential natural vegetation) that should originally exist in the area, and the forest was planned to look like a natural shrine forest through natural renewal in the future. The plan is designed to make the forest look like a natural township forest through natural renewal in the future. In addition, when Kasugayama Primeval Forest was registered as a World Heritage Site, this point was taken into consideration and it was designated as a cultural heritage site instead of a natural heritage site.

It is believed that the township forests have been preserved as such since ancient times. Therefore, its forest vegetation is considered to have preserved the original vegetation of the area, the so-called original vegetation. Today, when the surrounding nature is often destroyed, township forests are often one of the few clues to the former nature of the area. For this reason, in Forest ecology in Japan, the township forests are emphasized, called shrine forests or shrine and temple forests, and are often the subject of surveys. In many cases, they are confirmed to be valuable in the process and are protected as natural monuments or the like. In this sense, the forests associated with Utaki in Okinawa are similar.

However, it should not be assumed that the original vegetation has been fully preserved. When surrounding areas are developed and only the chinju forest remains isolated, what was once a broad, continuous ecosystem becomes fragmented into smaller sections.