Tsutsuku Kinu, 80
Spinach Packager
What’s your typical day like?
Well, in winter I don’t do much of anything. When the weather’s better I work a morning part-time job, from 8 to 12. It’s all obachan (grannies), eight of us. It’s fun. We chat all morning. We cut, wash and package spinach. After lunch I work my own fields. I do everything by hand, no machines. I have five fields where I grow mochigome (rice for mochi), regular rice, and several kinds of vegetables. I also grow flowers. I gather various edible plants in the hills behind my fields--warabi (bracken), azukina (a green leafy mountain vegetable similar to spinach) and fuki (butterbur). They're really tasty. I work until sunset.Are you self-sufficient?
In autumn I bury vegetables in holes for winter.
The ground is a natural freezer. I grow all my own vegetables and rice. I just need to buy shouyu (soy sauce), meat, fish and salt. But this is an old person’s life! Farmers, young people, they don’t live like this nowadays. I live alone, but have electricity, gas and a touyu (kerosene) heater.Do animals give you any problems?
There are a lot of animals around--kamoshika (Japanese deer), rabbits, tanuki (raccoon dogs), foxes and kiji (pheasants). Luckily, none eat my crops. I get wood from a nearby forest. I use it to fire the bath. I have a chainsaw--my children, who live in Nagoya--cut the wood for me. It takes two hours to heat the bath, but still I bathe every day. In winter I have to get the bath started at 2:30pm so I can finish before dark (the bath, like the toilet, are outside the house). I’ll use that old bath ‘til it breaks down. The fire department came once and told me to stop using it because it’s dangerous.How long have you had this lifestyle?
For about ten years. I used to work in a sawmill. I enjoyed that. I cut wood into squares to be used in fireplaces. The company also prepares wood for houses. I sometimes cut the wood. That’s enough! (smiling) This is embarrasing!the end
This interview was originally published in Kansai Time Out magazine.