Latest Stories: Jidabiki; a Vanishing tradition in Japan

This is the story of the vanishing traditional job in Japan, called as Jidabiki, the carrying out timbers from mountain forests by horse. I covered a veteran Jidabiki-man, Moriji Kikuchi, DOB – Aug 24 1936, in Tono, northern Japan. Moriji Kikuchi has been working for the job since at the age of 16, nearly for 60 years. Nowadays he carries out only the thinned out timbers as the excess to keep the order of the forest growth well. It is very a tough job. Yet it might be worth that someone continues this job. In Japan the carrying out of such thinned timbers has become a big issue. Since the passes in mountain forest for the thinned timbers are often so narrow that a big machine is extremely hard to use, and even if usable, high tech type of a machine costs a lot: Thus, the business or industry of the carrying out thinned timbers with modern technology doesn’t function well. In fact, after being thinned out, the cropped woods are often just abandoned in the forest. And such long-remained thinned timbers often devastate the environment, destroying the surface of the mountain soil when mountain flood or storm erupts. However, again, Jidabiki is a sadly vanishing job. Young people don’t want to take the job, as it is physically very hard and often dangerous.