There are two ways to study mountain communities in Japan. One is to regard them as economically retarded communities in a general sense, the other is to regard them as communities developed under specil mountain conditions, The former should not be used because it neglects their historical transitions.
There are three types of mountain communities, that is, communities which depend primarily on resources of the mountains, in Japan. One is the “Matagi” or hunters' villages, another, villages with an economy based on wood gathering or “Kijiya” villages and the third, fire-field villages. culture systems of these village types have an economic and social structure peculiar to themselves and different from villages on the plains.
At the present time, the hunting type villages are rare, those few remaining being primarily in northeastern Japan. Wood-cutters' villages are densed in central Japan and fire-field vilages in scuthwest Japan.
The fire-field village historically have been subjected to greater outside influences than the other two types, largely because they were large enough to attract attention of the old Shoguns and were subjugated by them. However, remaining examples of all types are becoming rare due to overwhelming influences brought about by moderm communications.
The auther describes some of the traditions of such people, especially of the hunters. special teams for hunting, called “matagi-gumi”, were organized. Spears were used and continue to be even today. The dead animals were deified and special ceremonies devoted to them. Religious ceremonies growing out of such deification make it possible to trace villages which formerly depended on a hunting economy even though large animals are now rare in the areas. Stone monuments of such nature are found in southwest Japan where the animals are extinct.
The finding of evidences that a sequence hunting, wood collecting and fire-field economies ware stages in the evolution of mountain communities is important. Present locations of villages of the different types, i.e. fire-field in the southwest, woodcutter in central and hunting in northwest Japan corresponds to the historical development of the Japanese islnds.
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