Where Storage Space is More Valued than the House
Tanekura Village
Tanekura’s rice terraces and the itakura storage house.
There is a special community in the town of Miyagawa of Hida City called “Tanekura” where one can see and experience the lifestyle of the “good old days of Japan.” Rice terraces and wooden storage houses, or “itakura” remain in its original from, and still used to this day to support the livelihood of the people living in the community.
The “itakura” is a wooden storage house (often over 150 years old) used to store grains, family heirlooms, and other valuables. The structure is typically 2 stories, the first floor housing mostly grains and the second floor storing the valuables. Itakuras were usually built away from the house and strategically located in an area safe from fires as house fires were common in these communities because the houses were built of wood. The itakuras were so valued that the in this community, there is an old saying “you can take down the house but don’t take down the itakura.” When the houses were taken down, re-built, or moved (the houses in Hida can usually be taken apart and re-built as they were fitted together without the use of nails), the itakura remained. As the itakuras were valued greatly throughout the generations, currently, there are 18 itakura structures compared to the 12 houses remaining in this small community.
A view of the Tanekura village from one of the higher rice terraces. As this community is still relatively unknown to tourists, one can enjoy a peaceful and spectacular view of the Japanese satoyama.
The rice terraces of Tanekura are made of rocks stacked against the hillside. Most of the terraces were handmade during World War II by the women and elders that remained in the village as the men were drafted into the war. During the summer, the women and elders collected the rocks and pulled them into the village by sled in the winter. The villagers slowly leveled the hillside over the years and stacked the rocks to support the soil.
One of the unique characteristics of the Tanekura rice terrace is that the rocks are stacked in a straight line. The locals believe that the ancestors built the terraces this way in order to increase the surface area of the terraces and increase productivity of the farmlands. The terraces support not just rice, but also buckwheat and other crops.
The view of the terrace has reminded some people of Machu Picchu in Peru. Regardless of the opinions of this observation, the area has a spectacular view showing different characteristics of the satoyama through the seasons.
