Toge is a scattered village of 31 houses set on the upper reaches of a mountain, there is the quality of a Swiss mountain village about it.
Our first visit of the day coincides with the visit from the Buddhist priest, we quietly wait while the ceremony is completed, some intonation of various texts, the local popular form of Buddhism is very much centred around the household - not Zen like attainment of higher planes of existence, a much more workable down to earth form. All the houses have shrines dedicated to the ancestors, whole rooms dedicated to them, normally you would pay your respects to the ancestors on arrival, it’s not an option we are offered.
Our 2nd visit is to the village headman, he who had spoken so extensively at the meeting. He explains the complexities of village life and the power struggle between the two factions in the village, the old and the older. We discuss at length agricultural conditions, very similar to the UK, a once rich farming tradition reduced to the single cash crop (rice). There is less of an expectation of impending doom, many ideas for new approaches and ways forward an enthusiasm for enterprise. We discuss tourism, principally the photographers, the desire to generate an income from the visitors. The headman complains that they have reached saturation with the cars, up to 50 in a day driving through the village, mmm they’ve got a shock in store if tourism really picks up, our local anti car village has recorded 2,000 cars in a single day winding through similarly small roads. We are looking for a way in through some kind of creative activity so we quiz fairly extensively about winter activities and despite denial of and creativity slowly a body of crafts activitiy eventually start to emerge, there is ink painting, straw plating, golden rice arrangements, paper folded constructions, Ikebana, screen making and photography - pretty good going for a village of only 31 houses. Additionally there are flower gardeners, a hunter, a general interest in wild food particularly spring mountain vegetables and mushrooms, a few people that fish, footpath clearing group and of course skiing (cross country) and a keen enthusiasm for Kareoke with several machines in the village and regular village hall nights, although these have apparently died away recently..
We smoke a good deal.
The Hardware store in Tokamachi (nearest bigger town) is a wonderous spectacle, there is a chainsaw testing area, a trough of earth to get a feel of your prospective plough, and as many bits and bobs as your eyes can stand to see.
On this evening we find the fabled Matsudai art bar, run by a former art front employee, it is an art bar, cluttered with odd and lightly humourous items, a Kermit puppet, a snakeskin banjo, a whiskey collection collected by the owner on her tour through Scotland.
Later on Kondo arrives and talks about being polite, the Japanese royal family and a conspiracy theory where the historic records of a 100 year period have been suppressed and the royal family’s rice farm inside the Imperial palace where they are obliged for the good of the agragrian nation to farm a ceremonial rice paddy.
There is evidently some considerable concern around how polite the artists will be and me I suspect. The importance of a big hello is repeatedly impressed upon me, ‘konichi wa’ and a big bow, evidently my diffident style of politeness is not appreciated – what is required is more of a Yorkshire thing, bellowing bonhomie. The other big hurdle with politeness is the custom for audible food appreciation, slurping noisily is polite, appreciative, difficult for us to achieve after a life-time of censure.
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