An electromagnetic calorimeter complex, FOREST, has been constructed for meson photoproduction experiments at the Research Center for Electron Photon Science, Tohoku University. It consists of three types of calorimeters, which are made of pure cesium-iodide crystals, lead scintillating-fiber modules, and lead glass Cherenkov counters. Each calorimeter is equipped with a plastic scintillator hodoscope to identify charged particles. The design and performance of FOREST are described. The energy responses of test calorimeters have been investigated by using 100-800 MeV positron beams. The energy resolutions of the three calorimeters are found to be approximately 3%, 7%, and 5% for 1-GeV photons, respectively. A cryogenic hydrogen/deuterium target system fitted to the FOREST experiments and a newly developed data acquisition system are also presented. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.