CULTIVATING FORESTS (164-166)


In this way the powers that be of the Meiji government, landlords, and the like deprived the mountain village farmers of Iwate of the forests, the foundation for their life in the mountain villages. Within the six Tôhoku prefectures (Aomori, Iwate, Akita, Yamagata, Fukui, Niigata), outside of Iwate, the total area of forestland under individual ownership in each prefecture ranged from 20-40,000 hectare, yet in Iwate it exceeded 60,000 hectare. Moreover, the majority of these lands were held by landlords with vast holdings, with individual ownership in the thousands of hectare, occasionally the ten thousands. Particularly in the northern reaches where due to paucity of arable land the peasants relied heavily on the forests for a livelihood, their dependence on these landlords increased in direct proportion as they became swept up in producing charoal and timber for sale on the market. Even if charcoal prices went up, that profit ended up in the hands of the landlord, with the impoverished getting nothing but wages as cheap labor.


Thus, the conditions continually in place from around the Meiji Restoration that made this the "Dekasegi Belt" were put more firmly into place. By "dekasegi " is meant leaving home for long periods of time to earn money elsewhere. There were dekasegi involving skilled occupations like sake brewing, carpenters, divers, etc., but more common were such basic industries as mining, timber, the fishing in the north seas and other types of dangerous hard labor. Again, joining the navy has to be considered another type of dekasegi . In that connection, if you have the opportunity, take a moment to ask one of the baked sweet potato vendors in the streetsof Tokyo where they are from. You'll find most are from Iwate.


The family of Bujima Hayashioe (61), Shimo-Heii county Tanoda village Numabukuro, has been carrying out burnt-field cultivation on this land for over five generations. Up until his grandfather's time they were able to support themselves without dekasegi , but with the father's generation, dekasegi had begun. Hokkaido=Koatsu's herring and fishing grounds or Dochiri island's sea otter hunting was their main employment.


Bujima-san had finished elementary school and the next year of Taisho, the 14th year (1925), the parents and five children, a family of seven, went to Sakhalin to do dekasegi. This was because while their debt was growing, they couldn't see any prospect of getting their finances in order. Laboring in the mountains in Iwate made less than 50 zeni (1/2 yen) per day, but by going to Sakhalin, in one day 3 yen were made. Sakhalin's short summer was (spent at) herrings and the like's fishing ground where they worked, and after that there was the mountain's temporary work quarters that had the forest construction industry.


The young Bujima at first helped his father by sawing the branches off of felled trees, but before long, he was doing a full day's work himself. A broad ax and a saw were used, and it only took two hours to cut trees one meter in diameter. Clearing branches and snow at that time was done by horse and plow, NAITOKI was a rocking horse that was used on sleepy days of rain, and kites were made and the valley progressed. When it became dark, the young Bujima would have aching arms and would not be able to sleep. As for the severe winter season with subzero temperatures that would reach 30-40 below, two pair of army gloves on top of overcoat gloves made of dog skin, legs were covered with a thick canvass blanket and "bokko shoes" were worn, but the remaining limbs became frostbitten. After the frostbite, the skin was peeled off. The skin peeled off the tip of his nose too. The remaining standing trees and trunks were being frozen. One side of the iron ax and saw were reaching the low temperature. As a result, in the severe winter the saw was broken and the ax had been split. In order to stay mobile with the deforestation that progressed, the cottages of the temporary work quarters were somewhat simple log cabins. When awakening in the morning, the collar of the futon, would be covered in a thick layer of ice from their breath.


When the snow began to melt, more than the cold, attacks of the painful gnats began. The sugar mosquitoes were also painful but it was the gnats that were produced in large numbers. They went to the mountains and wore cheese cloths on their heads to cover from the cold but, there still remained openings from where (the cold was) invading and oppressing.


Bujima-san lived through these ten years of his youth in this way and early forest building of as a laborer working abroad and sending money home. Neither workers nor residents of ___________, there were the Ainu clan from Hokkaido, further from northern Sakhalin to Russians and Chinese.


The summer of the 8th year of Showa (1933), there was an abnormally large catch of herring. The family was at last able to have a 1,000-yen balance remaining as money in hand and returned home. They went around repaying the debts, which were on the scale of 50 to 100 yen. But, outside of some change in the basic circumstances of the village, this certainly didn't mean they would have it easy. Fujima-san continued to leave for dekasegi , and (worked in) tunnel construction of the vicinity of Miyako, or mining clay for the making of fireproof bricks, etc. Then in 19th year of Showa (1944), he was temporarily called up for sea duty and sent to a naval base, but soon saw the end of the war in defeat.


The Kotsunagi Incident (161-163)

Well, what happened to the private forest being owned by people? This produced an even severer result.


The valley between mountain often utilized by the people living in Mountain Villages was not the property of a specific individual. Just like the water and air, they were common part of the village's real estate property. There, through the "disposition" that accompanied the land tax reform it became fixed that the ownership would be forcibly given to someone. In accepting ownership, they were taxed according to the extent of the area of land they owned. Impoverished peasants that have no relation to money and the like obviously do not have the strength to pay. Further, even when they have the means, because the land was originally divided according to common ownership, they were at a loss when they filled out the forms. As a result, property rights in the name of property rights, after going through many cases, the vast mountain forests were grabbed by individuals.


After the Nago system, the area of the Iwate (especially in Ken/prefecture North), and the practice is rare that the owner becoming the representative of that entire mountain for what is called the master as the Nago lord (landlord). As for the needy peasants of Nago, they didn't have any money but still had taxes to pay to the Nago lord. But even for everyone at the place for paying the apportionment, some sort of form was adopted and passed. Consequently, for convenience sake of the owner, their "representative" name was registered. As for the representative of the Nago lord (still the village headmaster) though they were becoming numerous, families who had a bit of money cajoled and transferred their property rights to the owners. If based on the _________ clan (in folklore), from the Taisho to the early days of Showa led to the folk customs and Hanko family of the old family that fled the capital for the countryside dangled this (before them), and were said to have used this however they pleased. For example, the heart of the Iwate of Yamaguchi Prefecture, then the mountain pass of on the opposite side of the Yamada exodus, Fujimoto people are even now more clearly remembered though there were 50 village headmasters.


The random form of "Owners" was born here. The law after the Meiji gave superiority to this ownership, for convenience sake and for extent of the title. It was okay for the villages to sleep like those to the feudal period of the Mountain Villages, but suddenly the problem of various areas came to the forefront and that was that the forest needed to be caught in the net of economics and capitalism. That was a typical case of the various areas of "Konagi Incident."


Up until the 21st year of Meiji Niko county Ido town Konagi section of town then became "Konagi village." On the occasion of the land tax amendment also being given to the mountains here, the influential people named former property landlord as the new lord of the mountain village. And as there wasn't a local connection, of course the villagers discussed what was imposed on them. The villagers, without knowing it acquired the burden of paying a disproportionate amount of the village tax. The hands of lumberjacks in the Ibarashi prefecture's Shikashi village and Kamemoto, in other words, moved the mountain. This was something (particular to) of the 40th year of Meiji.


Problems that arose in the 4th year of Taisho (1915) was the fleeing of the city that occurred due to a fire that engulfed almost the entire city. The village people were naturally upset, that our mountain trees were stripped away and the revival/rehabilitation had started. However, there the Shikashi village was attacked. The power approval/adoption was on one side of Shikashi village and the impoverished peasants were on the opposite side. The inevitable bloody, muddy war continued to be delayed several tens of years, nine years earlier, the Supreme Court had ruled that the impoverished peasants had lost the case, but the actual state of affairs was not concluded/ended.