LOCAL TOUCH
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YANAGISAWA RINGYO
Member: Yuhei Wakabayashi

Let's enjoy SATOYAMA culture of living with gifts from mountains and forests!

#activity

Two-thirds of Japan's land area is covered by forests. Many Japanese people have lived near mountains and forests, utilizing their gifts. Mountains and forests near villages where people live are called SATOYAMA. SATOYAMA culture is full of wisdom to organically connect the gifts of the mountains and forests with people's daily lives. There is a program to experience such traditional Japanese SATOYAMA culture in Matsumoto.

The program is offered by Yuhei Wakabayashi, a lumberjack. He is also a certified specialist in curing tree diseases. Yuhei has worked in campgrounds and loves to discover fun in the mountains and forests (he also loves snowboarding). He is always smiling when he is walking in the mountains. Yuhei has created a program that provides a diverse menu of activities that can be enjoyed depending on the length of your stay.

One of the menu items is a workshop to make knife rests from Japanese red pine. The red pine is the most common tree in Matsumoto. However, in the past few years, it has become a problem that the trees have been dying due to disease. Cutting down dead red pine trees and making use of them is Matsumoto's SATOYAMA wisdom.

Another activity on the menu is making wreath decorations or "waraji" from rice straw. WARAJI were worn by people in Japan before Western culture arrived. Old traveling pictures show travelers wearing them. Wearing your own WARAJI, you can walk through the forests of Matsumoto's SATOYAMA. It will be an experience that you can only have here.

You will have other great experiences. The rice is harvested from the SATOYAMA farm's rice paddies and cooked in the traditional way. How delicious is just-cooked rice? I cannot describe how delicious it is. You can also enjoy sake made from rice grown in Satoyama. Matsumoto is gifted with delicious water. We hope you will enjoy the special sake made from such water and the rice from the SATOYAMA farm.

The workshop was held in a wooden warehouse and processing plant. Nearby is a horse named YAMATO. YAMATO used to be active in horse racing. After his retirement, the company Yuhei works for took him in. He weighs 1,000 kilograms. YAMATO use their huge size to carry the trees they cut down and to do farm work. YAMATO is a horse that works with people at the SATOYAMA farm. When YAMATO is not working, he is always eating grass. You can touch him. Of course, you can also ride Yamato. Of course, machines are needed to care for the forests. However, when machines did not exist, people used horses to cultivate mountains and forests and create a way of life. Please recall SATOYAMA culture of the olden days.

Yuhei is a member of a company called YANAGISAWA RINGYO, which is trying to bring back the SATOYAMA culture that is being lost here in Japan. Another philosophy of the company is the creation of JINEN culture, a culture of awe and respect for nature. Some trees standing in the forest live beyond a few hundred years. They live far beyond the human lifetime. We are living by inheriting their lives. By participating in Yuhei's workshop and enjoying SATOYAMA culture, you will also learn about JINEN culture.