Almost five years have passed after the Great East Japan Earthquake hit Japan on March 11, 2011, and today, in Ishinomaki-shi, Miyagi Prefecture, which is one of Japan’s leading yoshi (water reed)-growing areas, it’s the busiest time of the year harvesting yoshi as an essential material for making thatched roofs.
The size of the reed beds found near the mouth of the Kitakami River is still much smaller than before, but the reed beds are growing back and people are rebuilding their life with deep appreciation for yoshi in small but steady steps.
“This year’s yoshi is the best in quality after the earthquake,” said Akio Kumagai, a 51-year-old president of a thatching company, with a big smile on his face. The roof thatching company, Kumagai Master Thathers, Co., Ltd., harvests the water reeds grown in the reed beds that stretch for more than 10 kilometers along the Kitakami River. Some ten employees of the company harvest the reeds of almost three meters tall using a reed-harvesting machinery.
The company is now engaged in fixing old roofs and building new ones for thatched roof buildings around the country from Hokkaido to Kyushu.
The harvesting work will continue until the end of March. Then in April, they’ll burn the yoshi growing area to encourage the development of new seedlings.
They lost most of the reed beds when the earthquake hit the area and caused partial ground sinking. Today, the size of the reed beds that can provide high-quality roof material is still only half of what it used to be before the earthquake.
“We want to live on here with yoshi, the gift from the Kitakami River, respecting what our ancestors have built up for us,” Kumagai said firmly.
(Mar. 6, 2016)