越后の秘境三面
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概要
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Miomote is one of the most remote and isolated mountain villages in Japan. It is located in a small circular valley surrounded by mountains, on a terrace of the Miomote River, ca. 20 km east of Murakami and north of Oguni, in the north east part of Niigata Prefecture. The name of this village, Miomote, comes from the fact that the village consists of three families, the KOIKES, TAKAHASIS and ITOS -mi means three and omote, meaning face, is used here as "family" or "family name". The inside of this village had scarcely been known to the people of the neighbouring villages, because of the dense forests and the steep ravine of the Miomote River which have formed a barrier to easy access. Led by KOIKE Oinosuke, the patriarch of the KOIKE families and the Master of this village, the people of Miomote are said to have enjoyed their peaceful, utopia-1ike existence for many hundreds of years. Traditition tells us that the villagers have never had battles, struggles, quarrels, punishable crimes or even love troubles, after settlement of the ancester of the KOIKES as village head master many hundreds of years ago. This may be true, but to those who have doubt, that the villagers have never experienced animosities arisen from love affairs, it may be pointed out that they may have ideas about sex which are somewhat different from those we have today. Their sense of love is very natural and free in a way. Even now, often girls of the age of 15 bear children and then marry men diffdrent from those who have fathered their children. It is usual that a man has 1 or 2 Iovers besides his wife and his wife also has her own lover or lovers besi des her husband, although the villagers dislike to talk with others openly about sex. When questioned, they usually change the subject. Abundant game and alluvial gold in the stream seem to have provided a peaceful existence. As these natural resources were gradually exhausted and village life became poorer and poorer, the Reformation of Meiji (1868) fortunately occured and the village was obliged to open its door to outsiders. Until that time, as mentioned above, the village had been entirely shut otit from the outside for both natural and political reasons. No one was allowed to enter and stay there by the law of the feudal lord of the village. After the opening of i ts doors, young people of other villages married into this village one after another. The number of people who entered and settled in the village was ca. 45 in a period of some 90 years and their descendants iving today humber 112; the entire populations now 200 and the rate of mixture is ca. 24%. The old mode of life is scarcely seen there today. The villagers now live in houses of the same style as that of neighbouring villages since those of the old style were burned by soldiers of Yonezawa at the time of the Restoration. They wear dresses similar to those of their neighbours. Formerly, till some 30 years ago, they dressed in home-made hemp clothes. We saw one of these garments which was used for hunting until 20 years ago. A canoe made from a horse-chestnut tree still remains today and is used by children for playing in the water (see plate 5). We saw a broken, stone bathtub with no side oven (made of sand-stone) abandoned by the wayside. A considerable amount of chestnuts and horse-chestnuts are eaten even now to supplement their staple food.
- 1958-03-25