A View of the Symbiosis of the Sea and the Mountains: The Cyclical Lifestyle and View of Nature in Yakushima (Early Showa Period - Postwar Period)

A View of the Symbiosis of the Sea and the Mountains: The Cyclical Lifestyle and View of Nature in Yakushima (Early Showa Period - Postwar Period)

On Yakushima Island, the sea and mountains are extremely close to each other, and people's lives have been conducted in a reciprocal movement between the two. The complementary lifestyle of mountain people fishing and fishermen working in the mountains has given birth to a worldview unique to the island that does not divide nature, but rather circulates it. Trees from the mountains became boats and firewood, fish from the sea supported the tables of the mountains, and the two ecological spheres coexisted as if breathing each other. In addition, the belief in "alternate offerings," in which people offer seafood to the gods of the mountains and pray to the gods of the sea for the bounty of the mountains, symbolizes the spirit of dialogue between people and nature. After the war, the forestry and fishing industries were differentiated as industries, but the sense of "connection" remained, and the memory of symbiosis lived on in bartering and festivals. The life of Yakushima, whe
re the sea and mountains, labor and prayer, and nature and people constantly intersect, is not merely a record of a way of life, but a system of wisdom for living with nature. This philosophy, which is connected to contemporary environmental thought, continues to this day as the island's "view of life that endures.