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Vol.43
Hokkaido |
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Arp.25,2017 |
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I have traveled Hokkaido for
two years in a row. Of things I
learned from conversations with
local people and documents, the
following topics interested me:
1. Abashiri Kangoku (Prison)
To prepare for Russian invasion
in 1881, up to 10% of prisoners
in the Honshu island of Japan
were transported to Hokkaido to
mostly work on road
construction. It is said that
full-scale Hokkaido reclamation
started with prisoners.
To
provide food for themselves,
prisoners sent to Hokkaido
carved out new farms from the
wilderness and grew potatoes and
radishes. However, the
vegetables did not grow well
because the land around the
Kushiro Prison, which originally
held prisoners, was marshy. For
such an agricultural reason, a
branch prison was built in
Abashiri in 1891. That is how
the Abashiri Prison started.
2. Hokkaido Reclamation
The summary of the subsequent
reclamation is as follows:
(1) Sent mostly samurai warriors
who lost their jobs to start
reclamation on flat areas near
the ports.
(2) Then, moved
inland and cultivated flat areas
mainly by the second and third
sons of farmers.
(3) Finally,
reclaimed areas in poor
conditions, such as mountains
and hills.
3. Cultivated
Land
It is said that the
average cultivated area of farms
in Hokkaido is currently is 20
to 30 cho. Twenty cho is 198,348
m2 (about 655,000 tsubo areas,
which is four times the area of
the Tokyo Dome). Land of this
size is plowed by parents and
children or two-generation
couples. To complete the work,
they need machines such as a
tractor (10 million yen for
Japanese one and 20 million yen
for foreign one) and a combine
(40 million yen for foreign
one).
I was surprised to
hardly see abandoned farmland
during my travel to many places
in Hokkaido. According to local
people, if farmland is
abandoned, an adjacent farmer
buys or rents it to expand its
cultivated areas.
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