Rural Japan Tries to Pull Itself Up by Its Bootstraps

choi

Keiko Ujikane, A Japanese Hamlet Is Now an Economics Lab. Bloomberg BusinessWeek, July 21, 2014.
www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... for-farming-revival

Note:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: Yabu will have fewer rules so it can attract outsiders and investment
(b) I am lucky to unearth a Japanese-language bloomberg report, from which this Business report is abbreviated and translated.

氏兼敬子, 先祖代々の田畑に再び輝きを－養蚕で栄えた養父市「特区」で. Bloomberg, July 10, 2014.
www.bloomberg.co.jp/news/123-N8F5XS6JIJVQ01.html

(c) Keiko UJIKANE
(i) “The “kei” (where “ei” signals a long vowel of “e” (as in English noun “jet”) is Chinese pronunciation of 敬.
(ii) uji 氏 【うじ】 (n): "family name; lineage; birth"  (similar to the use in Chinese)
(iii) Again the kanji 兼 has Chinese and Japanese pronunciations--the latter has a meaning not found in Chinese language.
(A) ken 兼 【けん】 (conj): “cum (eg bedroom-cum-study); holding both roles (eg Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs)”
(B) kaneru かねる 《兼ねる》 (v) “(See 兼ねない) to be unable to; to find difficult (unpleasant, awkward, painful) to do”

(b) “Tomiyoshi Kurogoushi sighs as he looks over the terraced rice fields that generations of his family tended in the mountains of central Japan. Most are now covered in weeds and grass. The area of land Kurogoushi still farms in Yabu, Hyogo prefecture, has shrunk to a small plot around his house where he and his wife, Yōko 陽子, grow potatoes, cabbages, and carrots to feed themselves and his mother.”
(i) Tomiyoshi KUROGOUSHI  黒厚子 富義
(A) There are at least two ways to transliterate Japanese language. A long vowel of “o” may be “ō”--or “ou” or “oo”  where notations “ou” and “oo” (ost often found in 大 of Japanese surnames) is the way Japanese ACTUALLY use--either but never both, depending on individual words.  The latter transliteration is used because oftentime it is impossible to print “ō.”
(B) kuro 黒 【くろ】 (n): "black"
(C) The “kō“ is Chinese pronunciation of 厚. (Here “kō” is softened to “gō” because it is preceded by another (and any) syllable.
(D) The “shi” is Chinese pronunciation of 子.
(ii) Yabu, Hyōgo  兵庫県 養父市
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yabu,_Hyōgo
(A) The capital of Hyōgo Prefecture is City of Kōbe 神戸市 (which is the gateway for Kyōto).
(B) I can not find out where the city name came from, and why.  Ordinarily, 養父 is pronounced differently (in Japan).

yōfu 養父 【ようふ】 (n): “(See 実父 [one’s biological father]) foster father; adoptive father”

choi

(continued)

(c) Yabu “was thrust into the national spotlight in March when it was chosen by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration as a testing ground for economic policies to revive the nation’s declining provinces.”

The official term is “prefectures 県,” not “provinces.”  The latter is reserved for 国 (meaning “fiefdoms” until Meiji Restoration).

(d) “Sakae HIROSE, the mayor of Yabu”
広瀬 栄
(i) sakae 栄え 【はえ(P[rincipal]); さかえ】 (n): “glory; prosperity”  (The Chinese pronunciation of 栄 is “ei.”)
(ii) se 瀬【せ】 (n): "(ant[onym]: 淵) shallows; shoal"

(e) “Heizō TAKENAKA, a professor at Keio University”

竹中 平蔵 / 慶応大

(f) “Yukio UMETANI, 65, a full-time farmer who grows rice and a local pepper berry called Asakura sansho.”
(i) The original (in Japanese) is written this way: “地域の特産品である「朝倉山椒」を栽培している専業農家の梅谷幸男さん（65）.”
(ii) 山椒
(A) For sanshō, see Zanthoxylum piperitum
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanthoxylum_piperitum
(Natural range spans from Hokkaido to Kyushu in Japan, southern parts of the Korean peninsula, and Chinese mainland)

Of the same genus but different species, Sichuan pepper 花椒 “is derived from at least two species of the global genus Zanthoxylum, including Z simulans and Z bungeanum.”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_pepper
(B) サンショウ  山椒
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/サンショウ
(学名：Zanthoxylum piperitum; 日本の北海道から屋久島までと、朝鮮半島の南部に分布する [of note, not China])

Quote:

"雄株と雌株があり、サンショウの実が成るのは雌株のみである。

“雌雄異株、樹高は3m程、大きなものは5mになる。枝には鋭い棘が2本ずつ付く。突然変異で棘のない株（実生苗）が稀に発生することがある。棘のない実山椒（雌木）として但馬国の朝倉谷（兵庫県養父市八鹿町朝倉地区）原産の「朝倉山椒」が有名だが、日本各地に棘のない山椒の栽培が見られる。

translation of the quotation: 雌雄異株. The fruit comes from female plants only. The shrub can grow to 3m, even 5m. The branch contains pairs of sharp spines. Natural spine-less mutants are rare but do appear: though the valley 朝倉谷 (present-day 兵庫県養父市八鹿町朝倉地区) in the ancient province 但馬国 is famous for 朝倉山椒, many places in Japan cultivate spine-less 山椒.

(C) Because spine-less 山椒 is of the same species as that with spines, most likely 朝倉山椒’s fame is exaggerated.
(iii) sengyō 専業 【せんぎょう】(suffix): “full-time”
(iii) gyōkō [Chinese pronunciation] or mi-yuki [Japanese pronunciation]  行幸 【ぎょうこう; みゆき】 (n,v): "Imperial visit"


(g) “Fear of an influx of outsiders [and thus against the reform] runs deep for locals such as Yasunari Uegaki. At 48, he’s one of Yabu’s younger farmers. He breeds Tajima cattle to produce Kobe beef and cultivates organic rice. Ducks that swim in his paddies are turned into smoked meat to sell online.”
(i) Yasunari UEGAKI  上垣 康成
(ii) Tajima cattle  但馬牛
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tajima_cattle
(A) The Chinese and Japanese pronunciations of the kanji 牛 is “gyu” and “ushi,” respectively.
(Tajima cattle (但馬牛 Tajima-ushi or Tajima-gyu) are a type of black Wagyū cattle in Japan. Many Tajima cattle are born in Hyōgo Prefecture and raised as stock for famous beef such as Kobe beef and Sanda beef 三田牛)
(B) Tajima Province  但馬国
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tajima_Province
(Tajima is the birthplace of Kobe beef, known locally as Tajima Beef)
(C) According to Ja.wikipedia.org, 三田牛 is 但馬牛, that are raised by farms designated by 三田肉流通振興協議会 in and around 兵庫県三田市.

(h) “A unit of the real estate arm of Orix, a financial-services provider, converted an abandoned school gymnasium to grow lettuce under artificial light. Plant manager Hiroki Yoshida says he’s hired 14 locals and expects the special zone status to boost Yabu’s appeal as a place to do business.”
(i) Orix
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orix
(ii) “plant manager Hiroki YOSHIDA”  吉田 宏樹 工場長