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Kariudo (hunter and gatherer of the forest)
Mr. Shida scopes the landscape looking for the hawk which chased a pigeon into the window of the Mt. Asahi House bed and breakfast. Mt Gassan is the peak to the right covered in the clouds. 99.11.18/ Temperature: 4C/ Weather: Rain/ Wind Direction: NW
Current location: Oisawa, Nishikawa Machi Latitude: 38 24 14 N Longitude: 139 59 35 E
Distance Traveled: 0 km (Rest day)Today was my second day with kariudo(hunter and gatherer of the forest) Mr. SHIDA Tadanori (for more about his hunting and gathering practices, see Wisdom report#066). Mr. Shida shared with me his thoughts on wisdom as well as his experiences in preserving the forests, which provided for him for over 60 years as a kariudo.
"Wisdom for kariudo is knowing animals' habits. If you don't know the habits of the animals you're hunting, you can't be a good hunter. In the old days when I hunted small prey alone, observing the habits of animals as well as seeing how they fled gave me a sense of how to hunt. Without this one can't catch anything."
Standing up on a hillside overlooking the village of Oisawa is Mr. Shida, keeper of the buna forest. Mr. Shida shared with me one such example. "Animals are very sensitive to changes in both weather and temperature. For example, just before it snows, hares sleep high up on the hilltops. Normally they sleep halfway up slopes. When it is really windy, they sleep in down in the valleys. If it is cold out, hares are extremely sensitive and flee upon the least disturbance. When it is hot out, they are more relaxed." He continued to explain that lacking this wisdom would effect one's livelihood. "Someone who caught a hare in a valley returned to the same valley again assuming that he would find prey. He mistakenly assumed that he would find hare there the second time. He was wrong."
Though Mr. Shida explains the wisdom of kariudo as understanding animals' habits, he himself had the foresight and wisdom to protect the land that provided for him.
Back in the old days, the surrounding forests of Asahi Renpo was logged by at a modest rate of 100 cubic meters per year. When the chainsaw and collection of lumber by cablewere introduced to the area in the early 1960's, the amount of forest logged increased approximately 300 times. "The Asahi Renpo area was designated as a national park but the logging of the buna beech forest within the park continued," explained Mr. Shida.
I asked what inspired Mr. Shida to take action. "At the rate they were cutting the forest, within ten years not a single tree would be left standing in Asahi Renpo," he replied. Continuing, he elaborated his feelings.
"A stream where I used to catch char when I was a young boy dried up after trees were cut down during the war. For ten years the roots protected the soil, but after the roots rotted the rain carried the soil away and the stream dried up. With the forest being cut down at such a high rate, I thought that if it rained the area would flood, if there were a drought there would be no water for the rice paddies. So, I went to the town mayor to ask him to do something about it." In the end Mr. Shida went to local and prefectural administrators only to be laughed at. It wasn't until he went to visit others active in nature preservation that he realized that local action was necessary. Only after forming a local based group, "Protect the Buna of Asahi Renpo Club," did his efforts pay off. In 1975, logging within Asahi Renpo ceased.
In one of my last conversations with Mr. Shida I asked him if there were any instances in his life which he felt happiest. He replied, "The first time I caught a bear. I stopped it with a single bullet in the stomach. Another would be when I realized that my efforts to preserve the forest weren't wrong."
The two happiest moments of his life reflect a man who has wisely lived in and protected his surroundings. How do all think we can follow in his footsteps?
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