Tsukahara
Mihoko Kumagai

She inherited the land of her father who settled as a pioneer in the land of Tsukahara, developed the land there was only wilderness and opened an inn ten years ago. “A place I wanted to get away from when I was a child” is now a “special place I want to keep protecting in the future, too”.

Being prepared to “protect this land and this landscape”.

She returned to this place and started the lodging industry. Initially, she planned to leap into overseas and send her second life without worrying about anything when raising of her three children had got easier. “I did not plan to return to my hometown at all.”
The circumstances have changed since the land left by her father was given. Her father, who was born in Fukuoka, survived the war through tokkotai (a kamikaze corps) of yokaren (the preparatory pilot training course) during the Second World War, settled as a pioneer in Tsukahara at the age of 17 after the war. It took 10 years to produce crops with a single hoe. On the other hand, her mother had returned from Sakhalin. She was born to such parents, when she was a child she was dying to leave Tsukahara because “I hated being treated as a pioneer”. But, her mind was changed when she met this place she got from her father.
“The location from this hill is preeminent and I decided that I should bequeath this land the moment I saw the scenery from here.”
It was the moment when her paternal pioneer's soul gave a fire. She learned how to use yumbo (backhoe) from scratch and started to improve the land on her own. Every time of Guerrilla heavy rain, when the road is obstructed by a muddy flow and the car can’t pass, she charged the stock sand into the road manually.
“I am the one who looked the most like my father. Definitely I have my father's blood.”
Since her parents were busy farming work, they did not have time to play with her when she was a child, therefore, she played house by herself and slept in the wheat field.
“When I was a child, I wanted to escape this land. However, now this became irreplaceable land I want to protect. I wonder it is because of my age? But, the view of Mt.Yufu from here is the best, isn't it?”

Interviewed in July, 2018
Writer : Hideko Takahashi / Photographer : Hiroyuki Tamura