Working as mates: Participants and horse practicing field work. They can work better when they trust in each other. (in Tsuru-shi, Yamanashi Prefecture)
Kotaro Yamada
(Tsuru-shi, Yamanashi Prefecture)
A non-profit organization (NPO), Tsuru Environment Forum, is trying to reintroduce the tradition of horse plowing in Tsuru-shi, Yamanashi Prefecture. In late September, the NPO held a seminar for local farmers to learn how to work with horses.
During the seminar, one person leads a horse while another holds the plow, following the horse. Many of them had difficulties leading horses. They found that it requires skills to work with the horses in perfect harmony and plowing the field straight is not as easy as they thought.
However, the reactions of the farmers were quite positive. Miwako Akiyama, 41, found that the horse plowing is just right for small farmers in mountainous areas as they often have difficulties using machines. She now wishes to have her own horse to work with someday in the future.
There was a fun part, too, as the NPO had the all-Japan horse plowing contest in Tsuru during the seminar. When one of the contestants successfully lead a three-year-old male horse named Kotaro, the horse plow brought fresh black soil to the surface and an audience of approximately 50 let out big cheers and clapped.
Recreating tools: Old horse plows were found in barns of local farmers.
Horse plowing was quite popular throughout the country until 1950s, but it gradually died out as agricultural machineries became widely available. The NPO is trying to find ways to introduce the tradition widely again as an advantageous method particularly for small farmers, saying that one horse can do various jobs from plowing to moving heavy loads and that feeding horses is easy for farmers as horses live on straw.
Director of the NPO, Daigo Kato, 40, also insists that horse plowing is never old-fashioned or inconvenient. “There are many things that a horse can do better than people or machines,” he said. The seminar also offered workshops on horse barn building and horse plow making. The participants also had a chance to experience leading horses to move logs. The NPO also have a plan to demonstrate horse plowing at several different locations so that farmers can see how it works in their own fields while the NPO can make a much wider audience aware of the method.
Making friends: Girl enjoying horse riding in field. Traditional Japanese horses are gentle and suitable for field work. They are small in size and friendly.
Moving logs: Participants moving logs down from bushes using horse power. Horses can help farmers and forestry workers in various ways.
(Oct. 5, 2014)