People Listening to the Voices of the Mountains: Slash-and-burn Farming and Collaborative Work in the Mid-Showa Period (1950s)

People Listening to the Voices of the Mountains: Slash-and-burn Farming and Collaborative Work in the Mid-Showa Period (1950s)
In the mountainous areas of the 1960s, slash-and-burn farming was still a part of daily life. In villages where land for cultivating fields was limited, people would cut open the slopes of the mountains, dry the plants and trees, and set them on fire. The men would call out to each other, "Watch the wind," "The fire is turning," and "Bring water," while the women would carry the food between the rows of rice paddies. The tension of handling the fire and the quiet time in the mountains surrounded by smoke created a sense of unity in the joint work. In these scenes, the relationship between nature and human beings is like breathing, and the wisdom of how to use fire has been passed down from generation to generation.

At that time, Japan was on the threshold of rapid economic growth, but in mountain villages, the subsistence lifestyle was still more deeply rooted than the monetary economy. Before the widespread use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, slash-and-burn farming was a logical way to recycle nutrients from the mountains, and was supported by a reverence and understanding of nature. Farmers felt that they were "nurturing" the mountain rather than "burning" it, and waited for it to regenerate by letting their fields rest every three or four years.

Eventually, the national forestry policy changed, and slash-and-burn farming was restricted due to the designation of forests as "safety forests" and the revision of the Forest Law. Even so, the village elders still speak of the old days. Burning was also a way of tending to the mountains. The fire of burning fields was not only a farming method, but also a ritual to unite the community and a dialogue with nature. The voices of the people working around the fire certainly retain the spirit of an era when people made the most of the mountains and lived together with them.