Visit an old private house inn with a sense of seclusion in a marginalized community
The name “marginalized communities” originated from the mid-mountainous areas of the Shikoku region. The concept was proposed by Akira Ohno, professor emeritus at Kochi University, and refers to a critical situation in which more than half of the residents are over 65 years old and the village can no longer maintain its functions. He visited the area during his fieldwork and used the term more strongly than depopulation to describe the current situation in this area.
Of these, Otoyo Town in Kochi Prefecture was the first to be defined as a marginal municipality by Mr. Ohno. Today, Otoyo Town has a population of approximately 3,000 people living in an area about half the size of Tokyo’s 23 wards, and more than half of the residents are 65 years old or older. About 93% of the area is covered with mountains and forests, and there is little flat land.
We visited Daisuke Adachi and his family, who moved to Otoyo Town from Tokyo and run an old private house inn. They moved to the town about 10 years ago. Now that the Corona disaster has hit, they have shifted their target to Japanese customers and are maintaining sales.
From Kochi City, we drove north on Route 32 to the meeting spot along the Yoshino River designated by Mr. Adachi. From there, we drove along a narrow road barely wide enough for one car to pass, led by Mr. Adachi’s light truck, and climbed a steep hill. Then, about halfway up the mountain, we came upon a small village called Nagabuchi. It was like a secret village, invisible from below. At the very front, Mr. Adachi’s old private house inn “Michitsuguji” stands on the slope of the mountain.
A few days ago, when a cold wave covered the Japanese archipelago, it brought snow to Otoyo Town. In the southern island of Tosa, snow fell only in this area, and one had to fear that one might slip on the slopes.
Decided to move from Tokyo to the mountains of Shikoku with his family to raise children
Mr. Adachi moved here from Tokyo in December 2012. At the time, Otoyo Town had a population of approximately 4,500. There were already many vacant houses.
The reason for moving to Otoyo was that he wanted to raise his children in a rural area rich in nature. Ota-ku, Tokyo, where they lived at the time, was located in a corner of the Keihin Industrial Zone and lacked a natural environment. Mr. Adachi and his wife, Yumiko, were both born in Okayama Prefecture and met after graduating from high school and moving to Tokyo. After their marriage, they had their first son, and they wanted their child to grow up in nature as freely as they did.
Yumiko’s sister happened to be a river rafting instructor on the Yoshino River that runs through Otoyo Town, and she had visited the area several times through this connection. The Yoshino River, known as Shikoku Saburo, is one of the most violent rivers in Japan, and is a major river that flows into Tokushima Prefecture from its source in Kochi Prefecture. In Kochi Prefecture, it was also a Mecca for river rafting.
It was then that he fell in love with the current property at first sight. It is located in a place where river rafting can be viewed from the top of the mountain. The view of the river below the cliff is spectacular, and during the summer season, the cries of joy from the yellow rubber boats are said to echo through the valley. In fact, I too could see the valley so steep that I almost lost my footing when I peeked down from my yard.
DIY of an abandoned old house. 8 months of work to bring it back to life.
The layout of the inn has two rooms for guests on the window side and a small free space at the back. Both have high ceilings, and the walls are made of pink Tosa plaster. The entrance has an earthen floor and leads directly to the kitchen. There is also a living room with a wood-burning stove burning red-hot. I couldn’t help but warm my hands, which were numb from the snow outside.
When the house was rented from the landlord, it was a derelict building, not fit for human habitation (it was later purchased by Mr. Adachi). (Later, Mr. Adachi bought it.) Mr. Adachi originally worked in the construction industry.
Mr. Adachi had always worked in the construction industry, so he was confident that he could make it work even in an abandoned building. From the beginning, he had planned to make the inn his livelihood here. He had heard that during the summer, when river rafting on the Yoshino River is popular, there are not many lodges, and he thought that there might be a need for one.
By the way, during the renovation work, the previous homeowner had a difficult time disposing of the remaining items. The house had been vacant for a long time, and old electrical appliances had been discarded in the ruins of the toilet. With the help of her sister’s husband, they loaded them into a light truck and disposed of the waste. The back room was in the most decent condition, so we set to work first so the family could stay there.
For materials, we got scrap wood or drove to a home improvement center to buy new ones. The house was painted with Tosa plaster, keeping a good balance between the two, so that the atmosphere of the previous house would be preserved as much as possible. The Goemon bath in the detached hut took six months to build.
For about the first eight months, he was unable to reach the point of opening the inn, so he earned his living expenses by helping out in the local community. In helping with the yuzu harvest, he was often pricked by tree thorns. Venison and other game species are also popular in this area, and I helped at a processing plant, where I acquired not only knowledge of game but also skills in butchering the meat. This experience was later utilized in the inn’s menu, which includes gibier meat for dinner. Incidentally, Mr. Adachi has obtained a hunting license to set traps, and he is considering obtaining a gun license in the future.
Why was there once a heavily populated village in the middle of the mountain?
Before Corona, this old private house inn had welcomed many foreign tourists, but after the disaster of Corona, it changed its target to Japanese guests and is now thriving. The secret of its popularity can be attributed to the hospitality of the Adachi family, the charm of the old private house, and the surrounding environment. One can imagine how life in the mountains must have once been like in Japan.
The reason why so many people used to live in this area is probably because the mountains were utilized as a living resource. The mountains were used not only for timber, but also as a place to manufacture thermal fuel. When Mr. Adachi walks up the mountain, he sees a number of disused charcoal-making huts. Sericulture was also active in the area at one time, and many of the tools used for that purpose were found among the leftover materials. Ms. Adachi was told by an elderly villager that most of the yuzu fields used to be mulberry fields, which were indispensable for sericulture.
In the pre-car society, when people mainly walked, they did not go down to the Yoshino River. The old roadway used to connect the mountain villages. The bottom of the valley does not get much sun, but the mountainside gets a lot of sun. In modern times, a railroad was built along the river, and with the advent of the automobile society, a national highway was built, shifting the focus of daily life along the river.
Because the village is on a steep slope, the fields are also located on the cliff. Therefore, the hoes used in this area are different from those used in other areas, and are designed to shovel up the soil so that it does not fall to the ground.
By the way, Mr. Adachi and his sons are working hard on Kagura (Shinto music and dance) with the local preservation society at the community center next to the shrine. Nagabuchi Kagura, which is believed to have been introduced from Kyoto in the late Heian period (794-1185), is designated as an important intangible folk cultural property of Japan. The traditional dance has been passed down from generation to generation, but it is in danger of dying out due to the lack of children, which is why the Adachi family joined the group. Foreign guests have joined them before, and they were impressed by the experience.
We want to cherish mountain living while staying close to change.
In the past, many foreign visitors came to the area, the largest number of whom were Westerners, who also liked unexplored places. Next were guests from Asia. On the Tokushima Prefecture side of the border, there are Oboke Koboke and Iyadani Gorge, which have become popular tourist destinations. Adachi-san believes that people stopped by Otoyo Town, which is located on the course across the mountains to the Kochi Prefecture side of the island. Everyone was impressed by the old-fashioned lifestyle.
However, after the Corona disaster, the number of visitors dropped off, and they began accepting Japanese visitors instead. They used to welcome two couples a day, but after the Corona disaster, they limited the number of couples to one and raised the nightly rate. Mr. and Mrs. Adachi are positive about this, saying, “We used to be too busy, so now we can slow down. When they posted the room on a reservation site for Japanese guests, they received many applications, and the room was a success day after day. There was no age bias, with a wide range of people from the elderly to the young, and many were couples. Mr. Adachi believes that since it is impossible to go abroad, unexplored areas such as this will attract more attention.
There were also many repeat visitors, often families with children the same age as Mr. Adachi’s children. They probably feel as if they are visiting relatives in the countryside.
Yumiko is a graduate of the College of Music and plays the flute. She has aspirations to organize an ensemble concert once Corona settles down. She looks forward to seeing the sound of the flute echo through this valley.
His children have grown up. His second son, born in Otoyo Town, is in the early grades of elementary school. His oldest son, born in Tokyo, is in the upper grades of elementary school. In terms of raising her children, Adachi says she is very satisfied. However, as her children grow older, there are some troubling aspects, she says. For example, my oldest son has become interested in the latest video games, music, and fashion. When that happens, this place is too rural. When I was young, I also longed for the city and left for Tokyo, so I understand how he feels. There is no high school in town, so he will probably need to stay at a boarding house in Kochi City or elsewhere. However, he concluded by saying that he would be happy if people would someday go to the city and realize how wonderful this place is.