Wake up, yellow tails!

Hail. Hail. Hail.
Yesterday we had them in torrents that it almost sounded like somebody up there knocked over a pail of rice crackers. (Note: small rice crackers are called arare-mochi, or hail rice cakes) Winter is rapidly approaching in Noto. Short storms like these accompanied by thunder are called "buri okoshi", meaning to wake up yellow tails that are sleeping in the Japan Sea -- or rather, to alert fishers for the yellow tail fishery. Crab season started last Saturday and now the sky is calling yellow tails. It's going to be a busy winter.

Hansei-kai

What kind of words can explain the kind of lessons I have learnt during the past ten days? One of the privileges of anthropological fieldwork, I believe, is that one is encouraged to relive the growing and learning process again, to unlearn in order learn, to do the 3 yr old again in a particular setting. Instead of climbing the ladder in that place, one matures through the abstractions made possible through such repetitive learning and unlearning. If you cannot withstand the pain of growth, perhaps you're not cut out for the profession.
The festival in Shoin is over. More precisely, it is about to be over, as the float members have yet to finish their final round of sake. Every social event here is never complete without a 反省会　"hanseikai" or a drink among close circles after the main event. This is where core members get together and discuss points to be improved as well as select committee members for the coming year. Normally the party takes place immediately after the event. This time they have waited for me to return from my work trip. What an honor.
Now for some sake. More to come after the Hansei-kai.

ETA: oops, the Hansei-kai has been postponed. meanwhile stay tuned for more on the main festival.

First time feast, first time host

"Why don't you do it then?"

__"Me? The host?"

That's how it began. I am going to play host at a festival I don't even know, the biggest annual event in the area. It's time for Kiriko, a tall float that people carry through every nook and cranny of the neighborhood. Our ward happens to be one of the most rapidly aging communities in the area, and is in dire need of young people to pull the float. Last year, there were only three people and nobody ever had time to go to the loo. Imagine the situation when the procession could take until 4 a.m. 

Saturday morning I was asked by a neighbor to find "young people" where they are: our "Noto Satoyama Meister" Training Program which enrolls trainees under 45. I sent message in the morning and by afternoon was joined by four from the school. Together we went to meet the group in charge of the float, perhaps for the sake of good sushi. And thus the Meister Crew was formed over abalone and shrimp -- without much talk on the logistics as to where to stay, eat and drink during the all night event. And here was the solution given to me later by the ward lord: I play the host. Crazy? Yes. But this may be the one chance to try...

The previous post looks awfully like a badly written thesis objective. What I really want to blog here is about swimming in the ocean before work, exchanging veggies with neighbors, how a house in the countryside is never exclusively yours but that's enjoyable too, how my friends are trying to make their dreams come true and by only listening to them I feel part of the process, etc. Or what I just had for breakfast.

Hi All,

I am Setsuko Nakayama, an ABD in anthropology/area studies stationed as an assisstant professor at Noto Gakusha, Kanazawa University, under the "Noto Satoyama Meister" Training Program. This blog is about my daily encounters and musings as I slowly accommodate myself into life at the tip of Noto Peninsula, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan.

大きな地図で見る
Why am I keeping this blog in English when it's not my mother tongue? Well i said so in my job app so i have to;) While the term Satoyama Satoumi seems to attain international recognition, very little has been written over the topic in languages other than Japanese outside academic, international organizations or civil society movement circles. Those who seek information about Satoyama or Satoumi will invariably run into somewhat romanticized images of Japanese rural life that has been or is about to be lost -- and occasionally, critiques of such representations. Such representations -- and their critiques -- do capture certain aspects of life in rural Japan and their production landscapes; however, they elide for the most part the complex realities of life itself or the larger political, economic situations they are placed in. Moreover, they seldom foreground the creative, innovative endeavors that are currently unfolding on site. 
In hope for a more balanced coverage I am going to add my voice --and later on, my friends'-- on this blog from the Noto Satoyama Satoumi area of Japan.

Three months

It's been three months since I joined this workplace, and two months(!) since my last post. Can't say "I'm new" anymore, can I? 
High time I "launched" the blog. So here I go:

Konchan

Konchan is the name of our idol, the peridot-eyed redhead that haunts our neighborhood. This morning at 4:30 I saw her harassed on the beach by a gentleman on patrol. She came running my way, through the narrow gap between my house and the next, and onto her rumored home behind the temple. "She comes for the salt water," the neighbors say, "I have seen her with her cub." The corridor must have been her favorite since the two houses had been vacant before I moved in a month ago.
Foxes had been introduced into this area for vermin control; now they have propagated to become the new vermin. Whatever Konchan has done to receive this kind of treatment, she always jerks me out of the "Haidarii". Bright-eyed bushy-tailed we are, leaping from the sea of green.

Run, Konchan, run! (Where is she?)

"Haidarii"

"Haidarii" is what you say here when you have done everything you could-nothing has ever worked nor ever will-you feel destined to live in eternal lethargy.

... is what you say when you have toiled over the forest floor trying to get those red pines and mushrooms growing again, and when, after so many years of work, all you have is a bed of pale pink lilies on the hill overlooking the pond.

When the view is magnificent enough to well you up, you give in to the "Haidarii".

Mushiokuri in Sutta

Last night was the mushiokuri event in Sutta, Wakayamamachi, Suzu City.

Mushiokuri (虫送り) is an agricultural rite that had been widely practiced among Japanese rice cultivators to chase away (送るokuru) bugs (虫mushi) that infest the paddies at this time of year. With the spread of agrichemicals and recent changes in socio-economic arrangements in rice production, however, the significance of the event has faded away. The Sutta version is said to be the closest to the original form in the area.
Nevertheless, local 5th and 6th graders were called in to join the torch procession led by the lantern, the nusa carrier, the drum and the Shinto priest.

(will add pics and texts)

The children thus sung:

Unkamushi, unkamushi, tondeike
Sadono shimamade tondeike

Fly away, (unka bug),
Fly away to Sado Island.



--Why Sado?

Soyogo (Ilex pedunculosa)

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Kusakizome themes

Kusakizome (草木染め) is a collective term applied to Japanese natural dyeing technology. As the word "kusaki (草木herbs and trees) + zome (染め dye)" implies, most of the dyes are taken from plants.

A single material could yield various colors depending on the fixative and fabric. The resultant combination of hues are striking yet harmonious, bold yet subtle, and simply mesmerizing to the eye.

We are currently trying to develop a web color theme based on materials available within the Noto area, as an alternative expression of biological diversity observed in the Noto satoyama-satoumi landscape.

The kusakizome color theme project is in collaboration with a thesis program for Mrs. Ayumi Ie (家　安祐美さん) enrolled at the "Noto Satoyama Meister Training Program" by Kanazawa University, under the funding of JST.

Testing out design templates

Testing out formats and designs prior to the launch of the Satoyama Satoumi Blog.