50 years ago, this area was pure satoyama – mixed use farm and forest land. I have been aware of the changes that happened well before we arrived.
Tod & I were fascinated by some photos of the area in a book about the history of the old elementary school, and later combed through arial photos and maps on the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan site, but I’ve only just looked at the imaging round our house and property today.
555 was farmed with rice, fruit trees, and vegetables for many generations. There were cows in the barn long ago. Kawasaki’s father was actively farming and tending the land but the family gave up professionally farming when that generation retired, if farmers ever really retire. Our Kawasaki-san did other things for work and kept up the farm as a side job, reducing the plantings to garlic and blueberries and letting the rice fields go.
Two generations back, the whole neighborhood was manicured and maintained. Look at what it was like in this 1975 (Showa 50) aerial photo:
20 years later, the decline was becoming evident – the Kawasakis were still farming, but not at the same scale – they were in their 70s by then. The neighbors who shared the rice fields had stopped tending their half and let their vegetable plots grow over. Trees were growing taller and filling in the gaps all through the area.
Now it is all grown over with bamboo and mature trees. Compare 1975 and now:
There are some surprises in the old photos. Of course I knew our rice terraces were there though they are mostly under weeds and bamboo, but I didn’t know about the tidy little orchard at the top of them. Is that a pond down below or is it a flooded paddy ready for planting?
The old road that started this whole adventure for us is clearly visible. Tod was trying to find that when he went on a walk in March 2021.
Do I want it to go back the the way it was? Not really. I’m not a farmer and it’s way more work than I am prepared to take on. The rundown jungle has its appeal, too.
But I would like to bring the vegetable plot back into good shape and access that orchard to see if it’s still there. I think it might be gone. I’ll report back what I find.
