Makoto Ichige: Castanets Connecting People and Nature

2017/04/01

I live in Minakami Town, located in the headwaters of the Tone River in northern Gunma Prefecture.

After graduating from the Faculty of Business and Commerce, I took a job at a chemical manufacturer, but decided to resign after six and a half years. After that, I spent about a year and a half working in agriculture and tourism for a local government in the prefecture, and returned to my hometown of Minakami two years ago.

One of the activities I am currently involved in is the "Akaya Project" (hereafter, Akaya P). Set in the approximately 10,000-hectare national forest known as the "Akaya Forest" in northern Minakami, Akaya P is a collaborative effort between three parties—the "Regional Council" organized by local residents, the "Nature Conservation Society of Japan," and the "Kanto Regional Forest Office of the Forestry Agency"—to promote the "restoration of biodiversity" and "sustainable community development." The activities of Akaya P are diverse, but here I would like to introduce the castanets that were revived along with the forest as part of our efforts toward "sustainable community development," which I am working to promote.

Minakami Town is home to the workshop where educational castanets originated. Those are the red and blue castanets. Around 1955, they were developed based on Spanish folk instruments to be easy for children to use while learning rhythm. At their peak, 2 million units were produced annually, supplying almost all the castanets used in Japanese schools. In the 2000s, local timber became difficult to obtain, and production continued using North American beech wood. However, due to the declining number of children and decreasing profitability, production was halted in 2013.

Right around that time, Akaya P was considering the use of thinned wood generated during the forest restoration process. We were looking into creating a system to circulate local resources, where the sustainable use of forest blessings would lead to the restoration of biodiversity and enrich local industry. The craftsmen agreed with this purpose, and castanets using local wood were revived. Making castanets while maintaining a good relationship with nature means we cannot produce as many as before, and there are challenges in terms of economics, but through these castanets, I want to create opportunities for many people to think about the relationship between humans and nature.

We live on this Earth receiving the benefits of nature. I returned to my hometown because I wanted to live a life conscious of my connection with nature. I intend to continue my activities to pass on a better, nature-rich region to future generations.