What is "Satoyama"
- The word "Satoyama" is a compound of sato (village, and by extension, a place where people live) and yama (mountain, usually forested). Broadly, the word refers to forests close to human habitation.
- In Japan, which is based on agriculture, there has long been an intermediate zone of forests between the places where people live and the untouched wilderness. The first confirmed written reference to satoyama dates back around 250 years, but modern archeology has demonstrated the existence of such areas as far back as the mid-Jomon period, over 5,000 years ago.
With the rise of nature conservation movements in recent years, satoyama has become a commonly-used term.
- At first glance, satoyama looks like virgin natural environment, but really it is a form of nature that has been guided by human hands. Satoyama forms a special kind of mixed forest called "zokibayashi", consisting of diverse deciduous trees, such as chinquapin, evergreen oak, konara oak and sawtooth oak. Scientifically speaking, it is a sun-tree forest that has been artificially interrupted in the natural progression towards a climax forest formed of beech and other shade trees (evergreen broadleaf).
In a satoyama, the fallen leaves were used to fertilize fields, trees that fell naturally or were thinned at a certain rate per year were made into firewood and charcoal to heat baths and cook food. In years with poor harvests, these tall deciduous trees provided edible acorns, which protected people from starvation.
- Even within the satoyama, chestnut trees, bamboo, kaya reeds and other plants can be seen in areas closer to homes. These were used as sources of food and structural or roofing materials for building homes. A well-maintained satoyama provides abundant edible wild plants and mushrooms, and there are many fruiting bushes, such as akebia, raspberry and wild strawberry. Flowers and blossoms bloom plentifully in spring.
Besides being a place for production, satoyama was used for recreation.
- As landowning families and relatives, and other neighbors, gathered up leaves, cut back undergrowth and cut away unnecessary branches and fallen trees, sharing use of the satoyama in a relaxed way, the land was managed and maintained with great care. People's lives were made possible by the close relationship between the village, farm land, and satoyama.
- However, over half a century has passed since the mid-'50s, when Japan entered its period of rapid economic growth, and those years have entirely changed the position of the satoyama. Compost for fields and rice paddies has been replaced by chemical fertilizers, and the built infrastructure that has reached out to every corner of Japan has replaced forest fuels with electricity, oil and gas. The modernization of distribution systems has led to the widespread use of steel and concrete for house building, and even wooden houses mainly use softwood, which is easier to work with. (Japan is now the world's number one importer of timber, accounting for 40% of the worldwide timber trade).
While the convenience and material affluence of Japan surges forward, the relationship between satoyama land and agriculture has become tenuous, and it is often abandoned by its owners, rarely used by neighbors, and left to run wild. Having rapidly lost its economic value, 30% of satoyama land nationwide was lost in just three decades, from 1960 to 1990.
Even satoyama land that had managed to survive near major cities until recent years is now regarded as no more than "undeveloped" land, despite the range of secondary effects it still offers. It serves as a windbreak, a purifier of atmospheric pollution, and a water sink to prevent flood damage, but now it is vanishing, flattened to provide sites for large housing developments and giant out-of-town shopping centers.
- (responsible for the article: TODA Yusuke.)
- Bibliography:
ARIOKA Toshiyuki "Satoyama 1, 2" HOSEI UNIVERSITY PRESS
Ministry of the Environment "1995 WHITE PAPER OF THE ENVIRONMENT"
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