Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the circumstances of a life dependent on Castanea crenata forests, based on a folklore examination carried out at Oguni town, Yamagata prefecture. In this area, C. crenata forests existed around the villages, and people used the C. crenata resources until around 1945–1954. Demonstrating the way of lives in which C. crenata recourses were extremely important adds a fresh knowledge to the studies of folklore that so far have take up C. crenata far less than Aesculus turbinata. Thus, we selected three montane villages in the northern part of Oguni town as the object areas of this study. The examination clarifed ranges of C. crenata forests around the villages and showed that these forests were divided into “private forests”and“shared forests” that were used for “nuts collection”and“extraction of building materials”, respecively. Moreover, C. crenata forests were tended by the villagers, according to the growth of forest trees. The artificial culutre allowed the maintenance of the forests and the continued of their resources beyond generations.
