Takebe

Yesterday morning, Doo-Chul and I set off for Takebe Town where I was to meet up with Daichi Kohmoto, a fellow delegate at the Galway meeting described in earlier posts. He and his family, pictured here, met us at one of the best Soba restaurants in the Okayama region. The father and mother were both retired teachers. This was also the first of two successive lunches where the table was only about 10 cm off the ground and I was supposed to sit on my heels like everyone else. Unused to that position, I compromised in both instances by placing my feet in front of me under the table. Once again, I had a very interesting meal that looked nothing like anything I have at home. Look up Soba on the internet and remember that I had buckwheat noodles as my base. Later in the day, I was to meet up with several of his relatives in the public cemetery and I'm almost certain that there were two shrines in my bedroom for them also!


Since I was to stay with Daichi over-night, we went to his nearby home before heading into Takebe and then up into the hills. The whole trip was a great insight into the tortuous dynamics of Japanese rural life. Daichi's retired parents lived in a long-owned but comfortable family home. As in Okayama, I was allocated a Tatami mat for the night, and shoes are parked at the door.


Pleasantries over, we jumped into Doo-Chul's car for a survey of the countryside. First stop was a farmers' market shown here. Basically these stock local produce which households exchange, and I gather
that such communities are fairly self sufficient. Takebe probably had about 200 households resident and it seems that each household has one rice paddy and one vegetable plot, each handed down through the generations. These may generate surpluses, which can end up in the markets. There seems to be no substantial out-of-town traffic, although the areas we'll look at in a minute have high environmental quality.

The next slide takes us to a Buddhist Temple, a very beautiful spot. It shows a c. 800 year old Ginkgo tree near the entrance, but I do not know its significance in
a devotional sense. Japanese readers please let me know what the inscriptions mean! There were many different temple buildings each housing one of the several versions of Buddhism and some communal facilities for all people.

God and Mammon were, however, close at hand and nearby street leading to the temple had long served pilgrims or worshipers en route to the temple. After the temple, we took to the hills via winding and dangerous looking roads.

The main attraction up the hill was a series of spectacular tier rice paddies, with water fed by a quite elaborate irrigation system in which each farmer had specific obligations and entitlements. Remember that I said all (or perhaps most) residents had land entitlements. Well, the terraces here are in multiple ownership and, with few sellers, the scope for consolidation of holdings and resultant efficiencies is negligible. In effect, the countryside is ossified. To make matters worse, most owners left to tend the paddies and weed the fields are retired, and many are 70+. The result is that some of the terraces are unattended. This brought home to me something else I was seeing ... no children! I gather one local school had just closed , though not in Takebe itself. In fact, you're seeing a countryside, beautiful as it looks, in crisis, and one that's probably terminal in its present form. Twenty years from now, depopulation will be rampant, and fields might be left untended on a large
scale.

The slide alongside shows a nice scene that caught my eye, and which may be related to population ageing. To protect their fields, active farmers have taken to a modern technology: electric fences to keep vandals out. The vandals, by the way are wild boar and monkeys.

The next picture shows a view over Takebe from the top of the cemetery, a long hike for me up a flight of steps. As you can see the little town is fairly spread out, and each of the paddies in the middle ground is separately owned and managed. Daichi's parents have one block somewhere in there.

I couldn't resist the next picture because it's common all over Japan: wires strung everywhere rather than underground! This could be useful in a major earthquake, enabling faster re-connection. Severed underground cables could weeks or months to rectify. Still some of Japan's residential areas are not really things of beauty.

Finally, Takebe has at least three other industries, all shown here. The first picture shows the site of white water canoeing / slalom practice. On the far shore is a hot-springs bathing facility. Both men and women among my readers might like to know the dress code for the use of this - and several other facilities. The answer is nothing. Yes, starkers. I actually had one such personal experience of this in central Japan, though not on this trip.

Then, there's fishing. We saw at least two anglers wading the waters as shown here. Well, that's it for the moment. Rural Japan might not wow the younger generation, but it's pleasant enough for we oldies ... except perhaps when it comes to the hot baths.

AS