Street body photography

In the past ten years, I have been to China and six Japanese islands. Some of them visit the island at random and only stay for one or two days. Some of them have entered the island many times with their goals and problems, and some of them have stayed on the island for a period of time to serve the island society. Meeting Er Shen Island in the highly aging Seto Inland Sea in Ehime Prefecture belongs to the last situation. Probably because the original purpose was to serve (digitizing the tombstones and archives of the two gods in Er Shen Island) rather than personal investigation and research, I have more freedom to observe and think after I entered the island, and these observations and thoughts have formed a dialogue with my other field investigations. Therefore, although it has been nearly ten years since I first landed on the island and more than five years since I landed on the island for the second time, it still appears in my later island investigation and thinking. This is why Xiaowen chose it as the object of this record.

Seto Inland Sea is blue. All the pictures in this article were taken by the author.

Er Shen Island is located 20km northwest of Songshan City, Ehime Prefecture, at 33 55 ′ 48.4 ″ north latitude and 65 438+032 365 438+0 ′ 53.4 ″ east longitude, belonging to Huna Group Island in Seto Inland Sea. Hunaqun Island is located between an yun Beach and Yiyu Beach in Seto Inland Sea, and consists of 7 inhabited islands and 22 uninhabited islands, including Nakajima, Tsunami Island, Nuhe Island, Er Shen Island, Muyue Island, Yehu South Island and Yuli Island. The whole area belongs to Seto Inland Sea National Park with beautiful natural environment. Er Shen Island is located at the southwest end of this archipelago, with a coastline of 9.9 kilometers from east to west, with an area of 2. 15 square kilometers and an altitude of 90.8 meters. As of 202 1, there are only 98 people living on the island, and their production and living places are concentrated on the north side of the island, mainly engaged in citrus cultivation and marine fishing. It is a treasure house of delicious citrus juice and high-quality seafood, and it is also the south of the island. There are uninhabited islands attached to Bali, Xiaoshi Island, Zhongdao Island, Hengdao Island and Yabei Island.

According to the fishermen on the island, Er Shen Island is named because there are two conical mountains on the island, both of which are dedicated to the gods and are symbols used by fishermen when sailing at sea, so it is called Er Shen Island; Because in history, the owner of Er Shen Island was Er Shen. In a word, the origin of naming has a strong sense of interweaving nature and humanity. 1972, National Geographic (May issue), the world's authoritative geographic magazine, devoted 26 pages to Er Shen Island, and Er Shen Island was also recorded in the world geography textbooks of American high schools. It is described as "an island of paradise that has not been modernized and has preserved the ancient beauty of Japan". Nowadays, the magnificent natural scenery and ancient island culture are scattered in every corner of the island and the life of fishermen with less than 100 people. However, in the highly aging outlying islands, how will these natural and cultural heritages be presented to the world in the future?

Lonely Gaobin Port

Er Shen Island, a detached island, really took a trip and felt the isolated traffic twists and turns and environmental loneliness. Depart from Tokyo Haneda Airport, arrive at Songshan Airport about 1.5 hours later, and take a bus from the airport to Gaobin Port in Songshan City. Unlike the bustling Tokyo, the streets of the largest city in Shikoku, Japan are still deserted. It was September, and the vegetation was lush, but the high and low vegetation with southern flavor flying over the window was more lively. About an hour later, we will arrive at Gao Bin Port, where we will take a high-speed motorboat from Sanjin Port to Zhongdao Island and then to Er Shen Island. The people waiting at the port are sparse, except for our group of more than a dozen people, about seven or eight passengers, including passengers who stopped at Shenpu, Shangnv River, Yuannv River, Tianjin and other islands on the voyage. Ershen Port is the only exit for residents of Ershen Island to communicate with the outside world. Starting from Sanjin Port-Gaobin Port in Songshan City, ferries or high-speed motorboats arrive every day, with one round-trip ferry in the morning and two round-trip high-speed motorboats in the afternoon. We took a high-speed motorboat at 1 1: 40, and there was not much wind and waves that day. Wan Li's Seto Inland Sea is blue and blue. Every twenty or thirty minutes or so, we will stop at an island port in Huna Qundao for a few minutes. Occasionally, one or two scattered tourists get on and off with fish barrels or full sun protection, but the number is too small to attract any noise. Looking at the distant island, I fell asleep. Finally, 40 minutes after 1 hour, I was awakened by the sound of packing, and saw the billboard on the shore "Welcome to Er Shen Island". In addition, there is no one else. Seen from a small port, the island is just a sight of a fishing village. Traditional Japanese houses are built one by one, and the streets are clean and tidy. There is a small piece of citrus orchard on the steep slope further from the fishing village. Most of the fishermen on the island are half-farming and half-fishing, which is a typical production and living culture of outlying islands.

(Left) in the high-speed boat. (Right) The sign of "Welcome to Er Shen Island" at the port of Er Shen Island.

Street view of Er Shen Island

The collection and arrangement of theologians' archives and the maintenance and arrangement of the island's material and cultural heritage are the daily work of Changmin Cultural Research Institute (hereinafter referred to as "Chang"). According to Professor Tian Shangfan and local fishermen, 1952 to 1954 is the first investigation of Er Shenjia's archives. At that time, I often borrowed the files of Ershenjia, transported them to Tokyo Yuedao Branch Library for sorting, and returned them to Er Shen Island on 1968. However, when Chang Chang handed it over to Kanagawa University in 1982, he found that some documents were lost when they were returned. Researcher Yoshihiko Naito immediately decided to personally return it to Er Shen Island. However, times have changed. At this time, the archivists of Er Shen Island, considering the limited conditions for data protection, asked to keep all the data on their behalf, that is, they collected about 65,438+0,000 files about Japanese modern times (from the middle of the 65,438+06th century to the Meiji Restoration) for the first time. The second survey was conducted in 1996, and a preliminary survey was conducted in 1995. In this preliminary investigation, a large number of modern archives, including various account books, were newly discovered. There are more than 6,000 pieces of materials mainly based on modern archives. After sorting out more than 7,000 files obtained from two investigations, it has now been compiled into the "Ershen Family Archives Catalogue Medieval and Modern Times" (four volumes in total). These archives have become indispensable and precious materials for future generations to understand and study the history and society of Er Shen Island. However, for a long time, the research and utilization of these files is very insufficient. Except for the medieval archives introduced by Ehime Prefecture and Yoshihiko Naito, there is almost no research on the materials after modern times. Therefore, since 2008, Changmin Research Institute has conducted a series of joint investigations on Seto Inland Sea centered on Er Shen Island, with the topic of historical folklore. After the publication of the Catalogue, a Collection of Studies and a Collection of Historical Materials were published successively. It has played an important role in showing the history of Er Shen Island better and more comprehensively. The main service content of our trip is the important content of joint investigation and research.

Study on Text and Image of Tombstone Data

With the above background, most people who participate in this service are familiar with the road, go directly to the hotel to put their luggage and eat in the hotel restaurant. The operator of B&B is an old couple in their 80s. They have lived in Er Shen Island for generations, but now the children of the old couple don't live on the island. Grandma is responsible for three meals a day for more than a dozen of us, and grandpa is responsible for fishing in the sea and preparing ingredients. So from breakfast, almost every meal has fresh seafood such as fish and shellfish. Whether eaten raw or steamed, boiled, fried or fried, the taste is extremely delicious.

Three meals a day are seafood.

We learned from this old couple that not only their children have left Er Shen Island, but the youngest person on the island was 48 years old that year (20 12), and nearly 80% of the residents were over 60. Later, I specifically checked the population change data of Er Shen Island. In 2007, there were three children on the island, but in 2009, the only school on the island, Songshan Er Shen Primary School, closed, indicating that there were no more births on the island. In 20 10, there were 166 people on the island; in 20 15, there were 127 people; in 20021year, only 98 people remained. According to this trend of population decline, Er Shen Island will almost certainly become an uninhabited island in the next five to 10 years. However, the population decline is mainly due to the death of the elderly, and the process of young people leaving Er Shen Island was basically completed as early as the early 20th century. The highly aging population and the traffic conditions of "outlying islands" also hinder the renewal of living facilities on the island. From our three meals a day, we can see that although the seafood on the island is extremely rich, daily vegetables and livestock meat are scarce foods. Including oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, rice, paper and other daily necessities, the island is not self-sufficient. Because there are no supermarkets, restaurants and so on. Except for a special mini canteen, there is not even the most common and daily convenience store in Japan. Daily necessities can only rely on "mobile supermarkets" (large trucks loaded with various groceries) that enter the island once a week.

(Left) A "mobile supermarket" full of vegetables. (Right) Residents who took a nap in the street after visiting the "supermarket"

On this day, the residents of the island meet to buy goods in the "mobile supermarket" just like going to the market. The only mini canteen is full of showa flavor. An old man sat quietly in front of the only row of small bookshelves, looking at the sea outside the door and the neighbors passing by occasionally. There is a small counter with an old abacus on it. After we bought several bags of starch and put it on the tombstone to identify the weathered words, grandpa worked out the price by calculation and reported it to us, even without an ordinary calculator. There are no public service institutions such as schools, kindergartens, nurseries, hospitals and clinics. Only one post office is open for business. If an old man is ill, he can only take a few boats to Songshan City for medical treatment every day. Those talkative grandfathers and grandmothers who meet on the roadside always greet us warmly and even sit by the roadside holding our hands for a long time. If they don't give up halfway and have no intention of stopping at all, unlike the Japanese who always keep a sense of distance from others in other places, this is probably one of the reasons for the so-called "preservation of Japan's ancient beauty." From the conversations and archives with these "old" islanders, we probably know the difference between Er Shen Island and today's prosperous years, and the synergistic relationship between Er Shen Island and the affiliated uninhabited island.

Shopkeeper who is using abacus to settle accounts.

Before the outbreak of World War II, sardines, octopus and eels were popular in Er Shen Island, especially the first two. According to the data of Er Shen Island Fishery Cooperative in September of Meiji 4 1 (1908), there were 163 households and 1008 people engaged in fishery production in Er Shen Island at that time, and there were 5 households with 26 people living in the same fishery cooperative. At that time, there were nine fishing boats dedicated to trawling sardines, but only these nine fishing boats could earn 3,600 yen, and sardines could also earn 1940 yen. At that time, the value of 1 yen was now 1 10,000 yen, which means that fishermen in Er Shen Island earned about 55 million yen from sardines, accounting for more than a quarter of the total fishing income (2 1.857 yen) in that year, making it the largest industry for fishermen in Er Shen Island. Yuli Island, about 8km away from Er Shen Island, is an affiliated island, which can be reached by small fishing boats in about 30 minutes. Now it is a veritable uninhabited island, and no one comes to live on the island except those who occasionally participate in field survival training activities. However, in the1940s, this small island made of andesite greatly supported the development of Er Shen Island. A large part of sardine fishing depends on Yuli Island. According to fishermen, they remember that their parents would go to Yuli Island in the sardine fishing season at the end of July and the beginning of August every year, and didn't return to Er Shen Island until June 24th, the eve of the autumn festival of sardines. When crossing the island, couples are often the unit, and there are more than 80 couples at most. Women are mainly responsible for cooking sardines and canning. When single young people cross the island, they often find a woman as a companion, and many people get married. Generally, you should bring bedding, miso, soy sauce, firewood, food, clothes and other necessities for 3 months. Of course, if natural conditions permit, there will be ships coming and going the next day, and women can go back to their mother island, Er Shen Island, to retrieve the lost items. In order to facilitate the living of fishermen caught by Li Island, the fishery cooperative has specially built four long sheds with a capacity of 100, and now only broken walls is left. During these three months, the children were left behind in Er Shen Island as "left-behind children". Fishermen in Er Shen Island have formed a "seasonal work" survival mode between Er Shen Island and Yuli Island. On an island like Yuli Island, people only come to the island for production and life in certain seasons, which is called "seasonal migration settlement". Seawater will flow backward into drinking wells, and people will live in mosquito-infested shacks in summer. Yuli Island is not suitable for living, but because it is rich in sardines and other resources, fishermen in Ershen Island have always been grateful for Yuli Island.

Built in 1094, Yasaka Yasukuni Shrine has 170 steps.

Every year on1October 24th and 25th, 10, residents of Er Shen Island hold a grand autumn sardine festival. Speaking of autumn festival, fishermen in Er Shen Island deeply regret: "It can't be held now. There are no young people. " Because young people need to carry out the sacred sedan chair from Yuzuobaban Shrine for island cruise during the autumn festival, there are three sacred sedan chairs at the peak. Two sardine fishing boats will also be chosen as the boat dance ceremony. The dancers are about 30 junior and senior high school students under the age of 20. Women wear gorgeous kimonos, accompanied by drums and songs. The rest of the islanders will present flowers to the dancers on board. Finally, the young people will carry the sedan chair back to the shrine. Judging from the retained video materials, the specific activities of the autumn festival are much more complicated. During these two days, all the islanders United to celebrate the sardine harvest. The next day, I devoted myself to agricultural activities.

(left) Fishing boats moored at the fishing port of Er Shen Island. (Right) Couples who are now engaged in agricultural production in Er Shen Island.

Agricultural activities are not an important industry for the residents of Er Shen Island, because the arable land in Er Shen Island is limited. However, before and after World War II, ordinary Japanese people also faced the problem of food shortage caused by the war. In addition, Er Shen Island and Yuli Island, as outlying islands, are important defensive strongholds such as Hiroshima and Songshan, so the navy is stationed. The state also ordered the people to increase food production, so the islanders had to think about how to provide a large amount of food for the army. In the process of fishing sardines in Bali, islanders also discovered the possibility of reclaiming farmland in Bali. Therefore, during the war, residents of Er Shen Island began to plant wheat, taro and other crops in Yuli Island, and provided them to the garrison in large quantities, which made the troops from other places feel that the soldiers in Yuli Island were rosy. But because it is a military base, the sound of fighters passing by, the sound of shells and guns are also common. The islanders of Ershen were forced to get involved in the war, almost risking their lives to cultivate farmland and provide food for the army.

However, in the 1960s, both sardine fishing, which accumulated a lot of wealth for the residents of Er Shen Island, and land reclamation to solve the food problem in the war gradually became history. The output of sardines in Yuli Island is declining year by year, so that it competes with Gao Bin for fishing rights. After the war, there was an upsurge of citrus cultivation under the influence of the United States. However, with the change of the dollar market, the price of 1960 plummeted, so from 1960 onwards, fishermen's production in Er Shen Island gradually withdrew from Bali, and by 1996, no more residents went to the island to farm. Half a century later, the cooperation between the mother island and the affiliated island ended and gradually returned to its original state from Lido.

But the islanders' resourceful life wisdom is also reflected in the close relationship between the two islands. Today, strolling in Alar Beach, one of the famous scenic spots in Er Shen Island, colorful boulders of different sizes were hit by the waves and made a pleasant sound. Right in front of the beach is the island of Yuri.

Giant cactus on the island

It is not only the fishermen's memories and records that witness the prosperity of Er Shen Island. And the natural and cultural scenery on the island. In the home of an islander on the island, there is a huge cactus with a tree age over 130 years, and a monument stands beside it, which records the glorious history of Takamatsunomiya in 1967. There is also a Chinese poem tablet written by Sugoka Suyue. After the Great Kanto Earthquake, a representative Japanese sculptor came to his wife's hometown, Er Shen Island, to live in seclusion, and set up a studio "Woyun Mountain Room" here, taking romance as a friend and leaving many works.

A tombstone on the island

There are also several tombstones on the east and west sides of the island to commemorate the generations of islanders who worked in the sea on Er Shen Island. Now less than 100 fishermen are fishing and growing oranges on the island day after day, and together with the tombstones where their ancestors lived, they are quietly coming to the end of their lives. Just as the fishermen in Er Shen Island said when they talked about the history of Yuli Island, "Yuli Island is slowly recovering its original natural features", the lonely tone has been echoing in my ears, and the fate of Er Shen Island has inevitably entered the twilight in the life course of "someone", silently welcoming a new life at the stage of "nobody" with its own scenery and traces left by people. One day in the future, we may only look for the ancestors of Er Shen Island from the archives that have been carried out for more than 70 years. This is probably the fate of many outlying islands, and it is also one of the meanings of collecting data.

References:

Yueya Nagano, Moving to Exploit the Island, Folk Custom, On Japanese Culture,No. 19, 20 12, Japanese Culture Research Office of Aichi University of Education, 20 1 1.

Koichi Miyamoto's Report on the Adjustment of Island Revitalization Status, vol. 1, National Island Revitalization Conference, 1960.

Miyamoto often studies islands, opens islands, and forms a society-a settlement center for sea people-a future society. 1965.

SHUJI Muxia published "No Man's Island", 1999.

Proofreading: Shi Yan