Our Land Was A Forest: An Ainu Memoir by Kayano Shigeru

Author:Kayano Shigeru [Shigeru, Kayano]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Avalon Publishing
Published: 1994-04-01T07:00:00+00:00

8

Realizing My Dream of Becoming a Foreman

IF I STAYED ON IN THE VILLAGE, I would have nothing to eat; besides, there was no sense in sitting idle there. So I decided to go out to the lumber station and worked for two months with the Kohata team of Marutake Lumber, along the Chiroro River in Chisaka, Hidaka.

In Nibutani we grew millet in our own fields as a staple, but the wartime institution of the rice ration throughout Japan introduced us to the idea of rice as a staple, and we began to depend upon it more and more. Even for someone who had money, though, rice and clothing were hard to come by.

In May 1946 Kaizawa Masayoshi, a salesman in Nibutani, invited me to join him on a trip to Hakodate to stock up on goods for his business. Since I needed to feed my young brothers, I was willing to do any kind of work and took him up on his invitation. When we arrived, we discovered we could purchase quantities of clothing with the vouchers that had been worthless in Nibutani, where there was nothing to buy. Among the many things villagers back home were sure to be delighted with were kimonos for children and open-necked shirts for adults.

My first visit to Hakodate was as Kaizawa’s assistant, but from the second time on, I went as my own boss. Gathering up the ration cards in the village, I stocked up on whatever items the villagers wanted. They were pleased, and I made money, so we mutually benefited. Because of the long war, there were general shortages, so everything, not just clothing, sold well. Even straw raincoats and bamboo-weave sieves sold.

My sales route was no longer just along the Saru River but gradually expanded along the Monbetsu River. Although the parameters of my business widened, I didn’t carry more supplies or make much more profit. Thanks to this job, however, I was able to trade things for rice, so my family had fewer worries about food.

As I walked my territory, I worked out a plan to build a new house. When I returned to Nibutani from charcoal making in 1944, my first thought was how wonderful it would be to have a nice house. Since I could hardly earn enough in door-to-door sales, I came up with an idea to acquire the lumber: I asked Yamamichi Matsuo, who made charcoal at Taikeshi Creek, on the east bank of the Saru River across from Nibutani, to let me help him at a rate of one-fifth of a cord of logs per workday. Busily making coal and collecting lumber in off-hours from my sales route, I was able to obtain about 2 cords of logs.

My plan was to start building in the autumn of 1947, but it snowed on November 12, and nearly 30 centimeters had accumulated by November 18, so I didn’t get the logs up soon enough and had to give up the plan for that year. In the new year we started building around the time the snow melted, and the house was completed on May 8.

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