STUDY TOUR in Nanmoku Japan International Student Society

On the 30th and 31st May,
we organized our second “study tour” in Nanmoku,
whose population is the most aging in Japan.
However, Nanmoku has beautiful nature, traditional
agriculture, delicious vegetables and heart-warming people.
As long as we study in Tokyo and just follow the news about this small town,
it’s difficult to acquire how complicated the situations are
and how their feelings with regards to the shrinking society are.
That’s why we decided to step out Tokyo
and to meet the local people on the spot this time.
M.T
13:00
14:00
16:30
17:00
18:00
Eriko
YAMAGUCHI
Keisuke
KATO
30th
Nanmoku Village Office
Meeting Mr.Igarashi
Visiting Sengataki Waterfall
Visiting old private houses
Meeting Mr.
Auberge Kajika-club
Koshi
TAKATSU
Yasuka
TATEISHI
Ao
FUJII
31st
9:00 Restaurant Seseragi
Learning through fishing,
chopping firewood
and baking pizza
14:00 Folk Culture Museum
15:00 Visiting Mr.Igarashi
16:30 Back to Tokyo
C’est le Beau Village
NANMOKU!!
Sérieuse réduction de la population
＊
Notre seconde stage a été organisée dans un
petit village de la préfecture de Gunma, au
nord-est de Tokyo, à la fin du mois de mai 2015.
La raison pour laquelle nous avons choie la
destination est tout d’abord que ce village est
considéré comme une « espèce éteinte ». Selon
une enquête gouvernementale, le taux des
personnes âgées dans ce village est de plus de
69 pour cent, autrement dit, plus des deux tiers
a atteint un bel âge. Ce village manque
sérieusement de productivité.
Le vieillissement de la population au Japon
est en augmentation depuis les années 80; mais
les Japonais n’ont pas encore trouvé de
solutions efficaces, il est donc nécessaire de
construire rapidement des maisons de retraite,
de développer les transports en commun locaux
et d’augmenter le nombre de personnes jeunes.
Aussi à Nanmoku, la mairie a fait en invitant des
citadins. C’est l’opération 'I turn' en anglais. En
fait, elle a ouvert des postes spécialisés tels
qu’infirmiers, professeurs, etc.
Ca prends juste 2h et demi en voitur de Tokyo!
Le village Nanmoku est à côté de Tomioka,
et sa filature de soie a été ajoutée à la liste du
patrimoine mondial de l’UNESCO en 2014.
Ao
FUJII
Tradition et Histoire de Nanmoku
＊
Avant la seconde guerre mondiale, Nanmoku
a connu une grande prospérité. L’agriculture du
Konnyaku (la pâte mucilagineuse du tubercule),
la sériciculture et la sylviculture étaient les
principales activités. Cependant, à cause de
l’évolution technique, on a introduit des
machines modernes dans la plupart des
domaines qui ont petit à petit remplacées les
industries uniques de Nanmoku.
Maintenant beaucoup de travailleurs de ce
village sont partis en centre-ville de Gunma afin
de faire vivre leur famille.
La beauté de Nanmoku
＊
Malgré la situation très sérieuse, je n’ai eu
aucune impression négative pendant notre
séjour, parce que toutes les personnes que nous
avons rencontrées à Nanmoku ne sont pas
tristes. Il me semble plutôt qu’elles se sentent
satisfaits de leur vie actuelle. Elles peuvent
toujours manger les produits du village qui ne
contiennent aucun produit chimique, pêcher
dans la rivière juste à côté de leur maison ou
fréquenter les voisins très proches. C’est bizarre
que les fonctionnaires discutent toujours de
problèmes
sur
le
vieillissement,
le
dépeuplement rural et qu’ils cherchent toujours
à proposer de solutions ; par contre, ils ne
peuvent pas avoir une vie aussi épanouis que
les habitants de Nanmoku. Je voudrais exprimer
ma reconnaissance aux habitants du village de
Nanmoku, qui m’ont enseigné la richesse de la
vie.
Activities in Natural Environment and
Sightseeing in Nanmoku-mura
Koshi
TAKATSU
After we visited the cafeteria that is under
construction, Mr. Motegi took us Senga-taki, one
of the most famous waterfalls in Nanmoku-mura.
Nanmoku-mura is surrounded by high
mountains, so there are many waterfalls in the
village and people can see some of them easily.
“In summer, children can play in the basin of the
waterfall, in winter, you can find the beautiful
frozen waterfall,” Mr. Motegi said.
In terms of the historical sights, the Suwashrie is said to have more than 300 years of
history. There are many shrines called “Suwashrine” all over Japan, but no one but
Hoshiosuwa-shrine in Nanmoku-mura does the
same sacred ritual and celebration as the head
Suwa-shrine in Nagano. The traditional
celebration called “Onbashira-sai” is held every
6 years. On the celebration day, men cut down a
sacred pillar from a mountain and women
support them. All villagers carry it out, literally.
One of the most popular waterfalls in Gunma prefecture,
Senga-taki.
We have shared precious experiences
in Restaurant Seseragi
with Mr.Yoneda!
On the second day, we experienced river
fishing, wood chopping and pizza cooking. Mr.
Yoneda, the landlord of the Kajika-house, offers
a variety of activities in nature for lodgers,
mainly children. For instance, cooking konjac,
woodworking and so on. We really enjoyed river
fishing because most of us hadn’t experienced it
before. Pizza cooking is done in redecorated
wooden school building that is already closed.
A special oven has newly equipped, so people
can choose fresh vegetables what they want to
eat. Children who grew up in urban cities must
be spent enjoyable time through those
experiences.
The last sightseeing spot we visited was the
folklore museum of the village. About 30-40
years ago, the village was flourished by some
industries, like konjac, Japanese paper and
whetstone, and so on. In the museum, a large
number of tools that had been used are
displayed. In addition to old tools, many items
related to the village are preserved. We found
old textbooks that were used before the WW2,
military goods, Japanese traditional dolls, etc.
We could touch most of the exhibits, surprisingly.
The Great Importance of
Living with Nature
Keisuke
KATO
playing video games and they rarely play outside.
In short, all of the children and even their
parents can refresh themselves in this inn.
While I am staying, I talked a lot with Mr.
Yoneda and my friends about what the prolific
way of living is. The answer to this question is
necessarily not, I think, the abundance in
substances or money. It is true that materialistic
richness is significant, but it is never the only
answer to the question: what is happiness? I
came to relate to the significance of living in the
We have recognized the beauty and grandeur of nature
through many activities in Nanmoku.
countryside full of magnificent nature. I am
trying to rethink what the happiness is, because
There are five guest houses in Nanmoku-mura I have only experienced living in Tokyo.
and I stayed one guest house named Kajika.
Kajika is the name of fish living in the river
Nanmoku running through the village. The
reason why I chose this guest house is I was
recommended to stay here by an officer who
works in the village office and knows a lot about
the Nanmoku-mura. On searching this inn on
the Internet, I could find why he recommended
me; all of the guests staying here wrote their
review praising this guest house. Of course I can
recommend you to visit and stay here.
The key point of this good evaluation is many
Specialty of Gunma prefecture called
Okkirikomi(white
noodles with vegetables)
experiences guests can make and the managers,
Mr. Yoneda and his wife. Though they were not
born and grow in Nanmoku-mura, they know
well about this village and understand the
importance of living in the countryside like here.
They provide the guests with balanced great
meals full of fresh vegetables because they
know what those living in the urban areas are
lacking of. Moreover, they supply many
opportunities of doing activities they cannot do
in the urban areas. For example, children can
play in the beautiful river, try wood-chopping
and so on. Mr. Yoneda knows that most of the
children in the urban areas spend a lot of time
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!
I-turn as the Modern Promotion
of Local Creation
“I-turn”---we often hear the word in recent
years. Mr.Igarashi had moved to Nammoku
village by utilizing the system. Mr.Igarashi, who
had been working at a company in Yokohama
which deals with overseas products, had been
looking for an ideal land all over Japan for two
years to do natural farming. From the first time
he visited Nammoku village, he decided to settle
down there. The rich nature, mountains and
farmlands attracted him.
This July he will open a cafe that offers a
cuisine with vegetables he made. We JISS
members visited there and heard his experience
and thought about I-turn to the village and
natural farming.
What I was most moved by was his ideas
about natural farming. He said, "How beautiful it
is to utilize nature and to circulate it to get
natural things like vegetables without pesticide.
Here in Nammoku, we can obtain fallen leaves to
make fertilizers from near mountains. " I strongly
felt the respect to nature from what he said. In
addition, it reminded me of the extremely
obvious thing but something I had forgotten –
people are also a part of the nature. Living with
nature might be vital for human beings.
M.T
While Nammoku village has been in the
"honorable" position as having the highest aging
rate in Japan, it was never pessimistic. The
village exploits the attractive nature to promote
I-turn users.
According to the chief of the general affairs
department in this village, Nammoku will take
disadvantage of the highest aging rate and
create jobs in the nursing care field to boost the
number of I-turn persons in the future.
We cannot help paying attention to the local
creation in the village.
Mr.Igarashi was born in Yokohama and decided to
move in Nanmoku, where he can realize the life
with natural agriculture.
• “U-turn” ... Movement of going
•
back to hometown
“I-turn”... Immigration to local
area of those who come from urban
area
Kominka in the Nanmoku Village
and Mr.Kakegawa
In Japan, there is a recent increasing trend of
utilizing so called "Kominka(Old Japanese
traditional style houses)." Some are renovated
to be nice cafes, others are renovated to be
safer and more comfortable houses. In the
Nanmoku village that we visited, there were
many Kominkas that had been or were
undergoing renovation. For example, Mr.
Igarashi, who had moved from city to begin
natural farming, was renovating a house that he
had rented for about 100 dollars per month to
open a cafe. While we were in the village we
stayed at a nice guest house, which was also a
Kominka.
To hear about the life in Nanmoku village,
we visited Mr. Kakegawa, a local celebrity who
has lived in the village for his whole life. He
warmly welcomed us and served fresh drinks
and treats. It made us feel like we were at
“grandpa’s house”. He told us about life in the
village. His house was very old but the structure
was well built. We visited several other old
houses, and many of us were impressed how
beautiful they were.
Nanmoku village has long history over 1300 years.
Eriko
YAMAGUCHI
In the countryside, there are lots of old
vacant and abandoned Kominkas. This happens
because many of the younger generation moves
to a city to work and never comes back. I have
the same problem. My family’s house in my
hometown is very old. Since neither I nor my
sister plan to go back to our hometown to live
in that house, in several decades the house will
no longer have any residents. I used to think
that it would have to be torn down when the
time comes. But after this trip to the village,
I have changed my mind. These kinds of old,
Japanese traditional style houses should not be
torn down. They have lots of virtues that small
apartments or new concrete-made houses do
not have. There must be people who are willing
to live in old houses, especially people who are
born and raised in a city. This trip made me
realize the potential of these houses.
Kominka has been reserved thanks to
earthquake-proof construct
Muraokoshi
- Revitalization of The Village
Nammoku Village is somewhat different
from other villages suffering from decrease in
population; there are several incomers who
promote revitalization of the village.
Mr. Igarashi, one of the incomers whom we
met in this study trip, is now launching a
project of opening a café. It is characteristic in
re-using an abandoned house and almost all
the people engaging in this project do not
originate from the region but from other areas.
Several other projects have been held by these
incomers recently. Why are the incomers so
energetic in revitalizing the village?
Facing with aging population, Nammoku
Village has invited people from other regions to
live there. According to Mr. Moteki, an officer
of the village office, by introducing incomers, it
is aiming at balancing its population and
making it sustainable. They offer a housing
service for incomers by using abandoned
houses, which is called “Akiya Bank” (“Akiya”
means an abandoned house). Some people
were offered a work place as well. Thanks to
their effort, 24 people of 13 family units have
already moved to the village.
Yasuka
TATEISHI
The population of Nanmoku is being shirinking
at high pace.
Surprisingly, many of the incomers are
willing to contribute to the village and
launching some projects in practice. There
might have been some friction with other local
people, but they have managed to build a good
relationship with them. Although aging
population is a serious problem for the village,
they are well motivated to the revitalization.
“We would like to welcome a few people who
deeply consider the village than hundreds of
people who aren’t interested in the region”,
said Mr. Moteki.
Before arriving at the village, I thought
people are highly discouraged by the fact of
aging population. However, what I have
witnessed was the contrary: with the aid of
new incomers, people in Nammoku Village
were somewhat optimistic in their future. I
would like to count on the future of this village,
as a model role of Japanese aging society.
Many style of stone walls
are reserved in Nanmoku.
Special Thanks
Mr. Taketsune Motegi
Mr. Onbe
Mr. Igarashi
Mr. Kakegawa
Ms. and Mr..Yoneda
＊
Nanmoku village Official Site
http://www.nanmoku.ne.jp/
NHK special report
http://www9.nhk.or.jp/nw9/marugoto/2014/11/1107.html
Gunma prefecture Official Site
http://www.pref.gunma.jp/
Restaurant Seseragi
http://seseragi.nanmokushoko.com/
なんしぃちゃん画像出典
http://www.nanmoku.ne.jp/modules/kanko/index.php?content_id=18
Written By
Koshi TAKATSU Eriko YAMAGUCHI
Keisuke KATO
M.T.
Ao FUJII
Yasuka TATEISHI
Edit By
Ao FUJII