Nowadays, the population supports itself mainly by agriculture and the
exploitation of forestry, with rice and fishing having a second place in the
economy. The climate and rainfall
conditions
[17] favour an intense production of
vegetables and citrus fruit: spinach, Japanese radish or
kabu, carrots,
lettuce, tomatoes, lotus root known as
daikon, sweet potato or
satsumaimo, bamboo shoot, cucumber, eggplant, turnip, Chinese cabbage or
hakusai (
Brassica pekinensis), and Welsh onions called
negi (
allium fistolosum).
Mikan mandarins and
Sudachi limes are the main fruit of the area, together with persimmons.
The production of fruits, vegetables and rice accounts for more than 85% of the
local income. Rice, fruits and vegetables are also very important ritual
prestige foods. People market fruits, drinks, mushrooms and flowers, while most
individuals earn wages in the administrative offices, agricultural
co-operatives, construction or schools, or emigrate to the capital and
industrial cites. The production and sales of fruits are targeted to direct
consumption and the industry of gift giving (New-Year and mid-summer gift giving
seasons) within the prefecture and nation. The surplus is sold
commercially.
Agricultural practices have also undergone many transformations. Before
1970, paddy terraces dominated the upper parts of the mountains. The changes in
rice import, in diet and in mechanisation, forced a large reconversion of
paddy-field terraces into new crops, and today terrace land use is down to 3% of
the total. The landscape once made of terrace fields and maple and other
caducifolea trees was turned into large tracts of fast growing American sequoia.
Irodori leafs, greatly diminished since reforestation, are paradoxically
the main export of the town. These leaves are used for ‘wrapping’
and ‘decorating’ food in restaurants, as well as for card and gift
making. The natural environment (and its seasons) are essential for gift making.
Seasons mark the main Japanese ritual contexts of festivals and ceremonies.
However, the exchange of gifts would not take place, and would not be able to
incorporate the aesthetic and symbolic time markers, without wrapping. Thus, if
gift giving largely defines the seasons, wrapping defines gifts as parts of
larger processes of display and consumption. In other words, gifts are
fundamentally ritualised, as well as being appropriate for consumption. I will
examine in Chapter Five how this consumption is not only consumption of gifts
and their aesthetic conditions, but also defines political
organisation.
[17] Warm and mild through the year, the
temperate climate osciles with an average of 19 degrees Celsius The environment
is very rich in aquatic resources, with rainfall conditions that reach an
average of 1178 mm per year, with the village of Fukuhara registering nearly
3,000 mm in an average rainy season