Why Does Mitsuhiko Imamori Volunteer To Be A Farmer Now?
~Environmental crisis of Satoyama matters!
Yukiko KADA　Ex-Governor, Shiga Prefecture/Dean, Biwako Seikei Sport College

I was not surprised when Mr. Imamori confessed me a year ago, “I have registered to be a farmer in Ohtsu City.” He is a person who is never satisfied until he has tried by himself. I understood he was determined to protect the environment of satoyama, which he lived in and felt attached. He took critical situation of satoyama seriously. People need to have a sizable land to be a farmer. Local landowners rarely transfer their land that they inherited from their ancestors to outsiders. The fact that people in Ohgi with satoyama transferred their land to Mr. Imamori shows that he is well trusted there.

The issue is that the land Mr. Imamori obtained has many bamboo forests abandoned for years though it is located in the area of terraced rice fields. He is a visiting professor at Sport College, which I am a dean at. I decided to ask him to give students a lecture on the value of satoyama and recruit students who are interested in agriculture. More than thirty students showed interests. I invited them to cultivate Imamori’s farmland. They sawed bamboos growing long and transported them from the woods. They had never sawed bamboos before. “Dr. Kada, I have learned that bamboo spout out water when it is cut. I see they are alive!” a student told me. I found they were excited. Bamboo cutting gives students a sense of play since they practice sports to develop their physical fitness. I heard Mr. Imamori had cut more than thousand bamboos. What persistent efforts! The college collaborates with him, dreaming of the day when Mr. Imamori’s farmland is revived to be a beautiful terraced rice fields.

It was about thirty years ago when I first met Mr. Imamori. He visited Lake Biwa Environmental Research Institute when I was a researcher there to find a map around Lake Biwa for his book “Mitsuhiko Imamori: Days of Insects” (Fukuinkan Publishing, 1988). Two sons of mine were attracted to the book and became his admirers. The younger son became so enthusiastic to major entomology in college.

Why does Mr. Imamori highly value semi-artificial environment of satoyama farmers developed? The answer lies in his childhood. He was born and brought up in Obanagawa Town in the west of Otsu City facing lake Biwa. Now the town has many buildings and Otsu-kyo station of JR Kosei line. Around 1955 when Mr. Imamori was a young boy, the town had lots of paddy fields that turned into a pond overnight when it rained. It was a natural gift for young kids. Boys with lots of curiosity never missed the opportunity to catch crucian carp before going to their elementary school.

People started to cultivate rice fields around Lake Biwa approximately 2,300 years ago. It was common that the rice fields served as a spawning ground of fishes around the lake. Villagers here called the phenomenon of fish swimming up to the paddy fields to spawn “uojima”. Crucian carp and carp swam from Lake Biwa to the fields in lines and people caught fish to cook “funa-zusi”, fermented fish. Children were no exception. They caught fish in their hands. There were more than 60 fishes in Lake Biwa and all of them spawned along coastal area. The coastal environment was so critical for the lives of fishes living in Lake Biwa.

Fields were cultivated for modernization of agriculture and irrigation channels were separated from drainage, making it more difficult for fishes to swim from the lake to the fields. On top of it, the comprehensive development of Lake Biwa started in 1972, using the lake as a multi-purpose dam for flood control and water utilization of the downstream cities such as Osaka and Kobe. In the project, the water level of Lake Biwa is artificially lowered between the rainy season and the typhoon season. It is cruel for fishes since the period is exactly when they spawn. The catch of endemic species in Lake Biwa decreased to one out of dozens of the past. And the number of farmers growing crops in the terraced rice fields declined as well.

Satoyama now faces eminent crisis. As citizens, we would like to support the challenge of Mr. Imamori, who has become a farmer to protect satoyama.