Kijiya Illusions: The Nomads of the Kii Forest

2020/10/16

After retiring, I left Tokyo, where I was born and raised, and moved to Kumano City, Mie Prefecture, via Asuka Village, Nara Prefecture. It has been ten years since I began living in a rented house on a slope, looking out over the Kumano Sea. I have been exploring ancient history there, but this time I have ventured into the early modern period for the first time.

Kii Province (Ki-no-kuni) is also the "Land of Trees." Deep in the forests lived the Kijiya (woodturners) and the Sanka. The former were craftsmen who hollowed out wood such as horse chestnut, beech, zelkova, and cherry birch to make bowls, trays, and ladles. The latter wove winnowing baskets for farming tools and sold river fish to villagers. Since these mountain nomads no longer exist, one can only seek their traces and lingering scents in the fragmented memories of elders, gravestones, and death registers.

Villagers have long yearned for the mountains and held a sense of romance toward the nomadic people of the forest. I am one of them. Taking the opportunity of the Kumano City Historical Folklore Museum's exhibition "Kijishi: Their Traditions and Work," I chased their phantoms and conducted numerous interviews with those involved.

The Kijiya, who were active throughout the country, lived in a world of "collective illusion," considering Oguradani (Hirutani and Kimigahata in Higashiomi City, Shiga Prefecture) as their spiritual home and worshiping Prince Koretaka, a tragic figure of the Heian period, as their ancestral deity. My research began with a visit to Mr. Shoji Ogura, who still operates a lathe in Oguradani, nestled in the Suzuka Mountains. "Ogura" is a surname unique to the Kijiya.

The gaze of the villagers toward the mountain nomads was also mixed with curiosity. This gave rise to the popular belief that "many Kijiya daughters are beautiful," which was popularized by local folk songs. In the deep mountains of Kumano City, the place name "Keisei (Beauty) Koya" still remains.

There were likely fair-skinned daughters among the Kijiya living in the mountains. There may have indeed been beauties. However, when curiosity escalates to claims like "there was much inbreeding due to little interaction with outsiders, leading to place names like Chikushodani (Beast Valley)," it cannot be ignored. While it is true that marriages between Kijiya and villagers were rare, they moved from place to place in search of good timber and had interactions among themselves, where many couples likely formed. Therein lies the danger that curiosity can lead to prejudice and discrimination.

My book includes stories based on my field visits, such as "the story of a Kijiya descendant discovering the site of an ancestral residence" and "the story of a family traced from the grave of a certain Kijiya's wife." I also used many photographs and maps for readers who might want to visit these places themselves.

Kijiya Illusions: The Nomads of the Kii Forest

Eiichiro Kirimura

Shichigatsusha

168 pages, 2,000 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.