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Broadcasting to an audience of three (and a goldfish)...
Comment, ramblings and musings... life through the eyes of a Japanologist...
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Sunday, March 17, 2002 |
 Following on from the previous post, it's a fact that Etajima is gradually returning to nature. In the past, the scarcity of land drove cultivated areas all the way up the hillsides, but now, as the farmers gradually hang up their tools, not to be replaced by their descendants, the farthest of these fields are being lost, becoming overgrown, inaccessible. There are places up in the hills where I stroll now which, in ten years' time, will be as if nobody was ever there. It almost seems that we're moving backwards in this town; we had our expansion (presumably the period between the wars saw the population- and therefore the pressure on the land- reach its peak), we tamed our little bit of nature, but now that very same nature is creeping back, encroaching on what were once hatake.
And all the while, the population declines. I'm reminded of 'The Children of Men' by P.D. James; all that can be done is to manage the inevitable decline (for it is inevitable, I think), to try as far as is practicable to ensure that numbers do not fall to a level where government functions and the machinery of society become no longer viable.
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Truly a lazy Sunday.
At Enokuchi on the history tour, I stood looking out at the sea- which, on days like today, could so easily be mistaken for a large lake. In actual fact, it's not even that large.
It really seemed, though, that even the sea was taking things easy, basking in the spring sun. Very occasionally, a wave- well, more a ripple- would summon up the energy to make a half-hearted splash against the sea wall, but apart from that, it was almost entirely quiet. A very 'soft' quietness, the quietness of an afternoon doze. I was reminded of one of my favourite poems, 'Adlestrop' by Edward Thomas.
One other thing mentioned on the tour was how much the role of the sea in the life of Etajima (by which I mean the people of the island rather than the island itself, of course) has changed, even in the past thirty years. Until the 1970s, apparently, it was common to see people crossing the bay by boat to get to their farmland on Nomijima, the other side of the bay. Now, though, not only has the car (or, more correctly, the little van) become the transport of choice for the farmers, but the amount of farmland itself has decreased rapidly. The farmers back then are no longer farming, and the younger generations aren't interested.
Indeed, I see this very often at work. Many of the people in the office have mikan batake- satsuma groves- and they'll look after these after work and at weekends. But as this generation calls it a day, their children are choosing not to continue with the farming. There can be no doubt that it's a lot of hard work for very little monetary gain- I wonder if anyone makes a living solely from satsumas?- but nevertheless, it's a shame that so many of the younger generation are opting out of this lifestyle. Personally, I think that there must be a very powerful, a very elemental pleasure in having nurtured your own crop of oranges (or whatever) through a season to a successful harvest. Even in the countryside, there is an ever incresing trend towards an urban style of living, and with this a resulting disconnection from the realities of nature; I wonder how long will it be before things come full circle and the young people who have abandoned their parents' smallholdings regret their decision?
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The fine weather yesterday did hold out through today, which turned out to be the hottest day yet this year. If it's this hot (as hot as mid- to late-April) this early, then what's summer going to be like this year? And more importantly, I wonder if I can escape by arranging a business trip to Hokkaido or somewhere?
I spent the morning on the history tour of Yanoura, Washibe and Konan arranged by the Board of Education. Several interesting facts came up, and I was struck once again by the depth of history on this island. Etajima is famous because of the Naval School here, and many people (including some islanders, I'm sure) consider this to be the be-all-and-end-all of the island's history; but it's not. One of the more interesting points raised this morning concerned a kagami (akin to a mirror) thought to date from the Heian period, and found buried close to what now is the western gate of the Naval Base. The mystery is what it was doing there, though. One theory posits that it was buried as some sort of protection against shipwreck- but this supposes that the low-lying land between Konan and Nomijima (a separate island, but now physically joined to Etajima by said low-lying land) was at the time open to the passage of ships, which would have made the route through Etajima Bay the best way of getting to Miyajima. The amazing thing, though, is that nobody knows when the sea was filled in. It's not even certain whether, in fact, it was filled in by man or by some natural process! I find this fascinating.
The tour this morning was short, but it's certainly made me resolve to read the two books on the history of Etajima I bought when they were published last year.
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© Copyright 2003 Nathan Duckworth.
Updated: 8/1/03; 7:44:26 pm.
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