On my way to Tokyo earlier this month, I was leafing through the Japan Airlines in-flight magazine. There was a great article on Japan’s satoyama. While it’s not exactly clear to me what satoyama specifically means, in general terms it refers to the landscape of the countryside. According to the article, Japan is a:

“…small mountainous island nation, with limited natural resources and few extensive level plains suitable for large-scale farming. Yet this same land has managed to sustain a dense population and rich civilization for nearly two millenia. And the reason it has been able to do so owes much to the management of its satoyama.”

Source: Skyward, JAL Group

The identifiably unique landscape in Japan is a mosaic of irrigated and terraced rice paddies, vegetable plots and orchards. It also includes oak coppices used for growing wood fuel and gathering compost, conifer forests for building materials, grass fields for thatch and bamboo groves used for tools. A self sustaining and balanced system where the landscape is meticulously managed to provide for so many even though it be a limited resource.

As the younger generation has been drawn to the jobs and lifestyle of the city, and fossil fuels/electricity have become available, there has be no good economic reason to put in the effort required to sustain the satoyama. The same effect has been witnessed in the Banaue Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras. These massive man-made structures are over 2000 years old and are often referred to as the “Eighth Wonder of the World”. With access to modern media and education, the younger generation have mostly opted to go to Manila for work instead of farming and maintaining the landscape. Deforestation and climate change also threaten the terraces.

Perhaps the satoyama provides a good metaphor for a lifestyle based on balance and respect for the awesome, but ultimately limited resources of the human body and mind. One can imagine a healthy lifestyle with a balanced diet and a balance between hard honest work, and fair play. Perhaps such a lifestyle is extended to one’s immediate environment where we consume and contribute in equal proportions. Does abundance perhaps tempt us away from such a lifestyle in the same way as the modern world lures the youth from the satoyama?

Photo Credits: Naomi Ibuki and Stephan Munder