Historical Changes in Forest Cultural Values

Abstract

This paper analyzes the chronological changes in cultural values pertaining to forests and perspectives of governmental authorities, forestry researchers, and the public regarding mountain villagers, who are the forest culture’s successors. Until approximately 1930, people involved in forestry research and the forestry industry thought that mountain villagers were harmful to forest resources. The Nosangyoson-Keizai-Kosei-Undo（Economic Rehabilitation Projects for Rural Villages）offered extensive infrastructural and policy-based assistance to rural villages； however, the emergence of World War II disrupted this plan. Although the term of “culture” was frequently used in war-damage reconstruction process, public opinion favored increased timber production over various other functions, including forest culture development. In the 1960s, depopulation issues in rural areas strengthened and “disappearing folklore” was recorded by public authorities with respect to cultural assets and by folklore studies researchers. Since the 1970s, rural areas have been commodified as “Furusato”, or commercialized hometowns. At the turn of the millennium, some depopulated areas that were not completely commodified were considered to have been abandoned by some researchers. Some of the ruins and old documents pertaining to forestry are now part of the forestry “heritage”. We should understand that the forest culture cannot be maintained without ensuring mountain villagers’sustainable livelihoods.