Thatched Living: A Nostalgic Future - NHK WORLD-JAPAN

80 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, at the foot of Mount Scuba, we find a

thatched

roof house, something rare today. This is the story of the people who live here. An old-fashioned life but also with a vision of the

future

. The family has two. reliable sister hannah is a great big sister little kaya enjoys being the baby of the family here is her father yamada kotaro six years ago he left his corporate job and moved here with his family to pursue organic farming and here is his mother michael she was entirely in accordance with the plan of raising the girls in the country, the four of them work together, live off the farm, and have fun doing it.

This area has a long New Year's tradition of making red and white mochi to decorate tree branches, if the family has ever made it. The questions they start by asking their neighbors are: the family starts making mochi first they steam the rice they harvest themselves and pound it in a large mortar whatever the task they savor it together dad beats the dough while mom and the girls They turn it over then make the red moji Kotaro has decided to make use of the red rice that they grew themselves abroad the mochi balls are added to the branches these festive decorations are said to represent silkworm cocoons the family completes the decorations traditional that hot water was for washing mortar kaya is not for you to bathe this has been the traditional life and landscape for generations of Japanese farmers a new family inherits this legacy as they embrace a life in the

thatched

roof the heart of an ancient thatched roof house is the irori home the family listens to the crackling of logs as they wait for dinner firewood collected from the forest is added to the fire while organic vegetables from their fields bubble.

A little homemade miso is added to the potatoes. Thatched houses have high ceilings, meaning the air has room to circulate and stays cool even when the fire is out. This house was built about a hundred years ago for a silkworm farmer. The roof is thatched with bundles of kaya, a variety of grasses that provide excellent insulation and ventilation, as the plots can be recycled. It is also an eco-friendly building material that is gaining more popularity. Attention these days the thatched roof of the Yamada family was last changed more than 20 years ago. The north side, which receives little sunlight, is covered in moss, which could cause problems with leaks.

Worried about his children. Kotaro has wanted to re-roof the roof for some time. I have been making preparations for more than a year today, the whole family went out to collect grass for the new roof in this area. Japanese pompous grass is a variety of kaya that is widely used in thatched roofs. The kaya was also used to make ropes and other everyday items. It was a vital resource for farming communities, but today it is difficult to find space to harvest. It's me, pepper. Working together, they have gradually gathered enough material for a new roof. The Yamadas live in Yasato, an area that has been struggling to find people to take.

About the farmland, Kotoro was able to rent about six acres cheaply, it's time to plant the rice seedlings in the fields that a large group has gathered abroad, most of the group are parents from Hana's nursery and kaya, none of them are farmers, but they come every year so the children can try to plant rice. Children and parents line up in a row and plant a seedling. A scene like this has become a rare sight in rural villages in Japan. He has grown up in these fields since he was a baby. She is already a veteran, other children decide to enjoy the water once they reach the rice fields.

They do not use any agrochemicals so that the parents can rest assured. She has rice fields in nine different places, but thanks to her network of friends, it only takes four days to plant them all after the planting is a fun thing parents take turns crushing mochis it used to be normal for farming families to help each other with big tasks it's much harder to make that happen today kotaro has spent six years building this new network naturally all the ingredients they are freshly harvested in the fields of kotaro the day the flower petals shine in the rain but they are blooming in the old mossy straw the threat of leaks is very real kotaro begins final preparations today an important guest will come this is his guest he is one of There are only approximately 200 roofers left in Japan.

Oh, this for financial reasons they decide to do a partial replacement of the straw. They will begin work next February. Kotaro goes out to harvest the summer vegetables. He does it twice a week covering orchards in 13. In different places he does not use agrochemicals or chemical fertilizers, so naturally there are weeds growing next to the crops and the sun rises over the mountains. Kotoro grows around 50 varieties of vegetables each year. The star of this season is ripe tomatoes, but depending on the power of nature alone means that some fruits are lost to pests. He carefully harvests the remaining tomatoes, one by one.

He returns home after eight. This large open space is used to house silkworms. It is a perfect setting for sorting vegetables. Foreign. Foreign. They package the fresh vegetables and sell them. As a delivery service, this job keeps the number of family books balanced About 70 households in the surrounding regions look forward to their weekly boxes Kotaro and Maiko always add a handwritten letter It's called the Geshapa newsletter July 26 Our fields don't use chemicals that's why they house a lot of insects for the swallows to eat the local swallows are delighted we hope they get stronger here before migrating to Southeast Asia the tomatoes are great raw but they taste amazing when cooked try frying some with eggplant it's good the gashapa newsletter continues they connected with their customers after 6 p.m. m., they looked for the children from daycare and prepared dinner.

Hannah helps cook. This is just what Maiko did when she was a child and she grew up at the foot of Mount Fuji. Her family was not a farming family, but her mother was. A passionate gardener Maiko studied organic farming at Ibaraki Agricultural College. Messy Kotaro loved insects and animals since childhood, so she also chose an agricultural university, that's where the couple met, quickly fell in love, and got married after graduating. Kotaro took a position as a cameraman for a newspaper but left the job to spend more time in nature abroad. They moved to this area six years ago to pursue organic farming.

Today's menu includes handmade udon noodles. summer vegetable grill and tempura is fine, oh foreigner, growing up in the natural

world

playing and learning from there this is kotaro and maiko's hope for their children summer the fields are a sea of ​​green rice is growing well August 22 our paddy fields grow rice but they are also a wonderland of insects everyone goes back to childhood when they visit one now that's something you won't find in a foreign city by september the fields have turned red the red rice plants are in bloom the Red rice is also known as ancient rice it is a variety resistant to pests and climate change it has performed extremely well this year involves little human intervention with nature doing the heavy lifting October typhoons have brought many heavy rains strong and large winds raindrops hit the rice plants kotaro leaves worried about plans despite the weather he spends the day visiting each rice field october 23 our red rice made it and remains firm with the harvest hana and kaya are delighted foreigner is finally time to harvest red rice this variety matures later and is harvested almost a month after normal rice the group that helped plant the rice has returned tran vietnam foreigners are among them foreigners the new year arrives on january 21 there is more snow than the usual this year when we sent our vegetables there was more than 10 centimeters on the ground we had to separate the snow with our fingers to dig up the carrots it is worth it to admire the snowy landscape an important winter task is to collect gashapha, the namesake of the bulletin, kashafa, They are fallen leaves that will become compost in the soil.

They make a big pile of fallen leaves. This will be left to compost on its own and will eventually become rich in nutrients. soil this soil is a treasure for any organic farmer before you start reroofing kotaro has another job to complete uses a centuries old technique to make a seedbed to grow seedlings in the cold some of the fallen leaves collected earlier are spread inside a large frame in the greenhouse then everyone tramples it this is called trampled seedbed they sprinkle rice bran on the bed Oops, are you okay? Old straw from the roof is added and trampled this allows the leaves and dry grass to ferment and begin to produce heat a seedbed that does not use electricity only nature to stay warm after a week the bed will maintain a temperature of more than 30 degrees centigrade even when frost forms outside it's almost time to re-roof the roof first they have to prepare a scaffold for the equipment a sturdy platform is completed the big day finally arrived with a special warm-up today he and another professional will be working hard together with several neighbors who helped with the rice planting begins by inserting cedar bark slabs these will be the eaves of the roof the dirty surface of the thatch roof is lifted and the material underneath is removed, it is divided into reusable damaged packages, as it is a partial replacement, new bundles are pushed underneath to raise the full thickness of the roof on the ground, the equipment cuts and bundles pampas grass that supports the workers. the scaffolding the rice planting group is helping again and kotaro has started pounding mochi that's because his family is hosting the thatching team michael is cooking with freshly harvested vegetables a young woman who started learning about thatching ha arrived is slow but some young people have I was attracted to the profession by falling in love with straw.

The work of replacing part of a roof is done by securing dry grass with ropes. It seems almost like sewing. A special tool is used to place the new material in place. The painfully thin eaves. now covered in fresh straw a week has passed since the work began new logs are added to the scaffold increasing its height kotaro also heads to the roof to help the old grass that cannot be reused will become fertilizer the children have come to help the fields will be plowed to create rich soil it's time to rest oh the children are playing on the roof hello the team has reached the top of the roof um the last day michael goes up to the roof she is taking this last opportunity to try her luck in the foreign work oh um foreign the thatching was completed after 18 days oh are you uploading again hannah for the family and their network of friends to work together to bring the yamada thatch roof back to life today? making handmade miso the usual group has gathered abroad today they are making 40 kilograms of miso they have discovered that agriculture reveals the pleasures of

living

alongside nature and spending time with family and friends this thatched roof houses a style of life that is creating a

nostalgic

future

for the family, April, a time of new beginnings and big sister Hannah just started elementary school oh you