Why I started the hunting experience tour

Mr. Yutaka Hara, who runs hunting experience tours in Irokawa, returned to Nachikatsuura Town in a U-turn after graduating from university. He began working as a member of the Regional Development Cooperation Volunteers (hereafter: “Cooperation Volunteers”), which specializes in measures against animal damage, because he had studied animal damage at university. As part of this project, he created a hands-on tour to experience how to prevent beast damage, and that was the first form of the tour. At that time, the main focus was not to catch and eat the animals, but to see the site of animal damage control measures, such as cutting down unwanted fruit trees, checking the damage site, and checking the protective fences.

At first, they did not intend to continue the hands-on tours, but they found it interesting as they went along. When we gave city dwellers a taste of life in Irokawa, some people were completely unimpressed, while others were very receptive,” he said. When I began to feel that I was creating an opportunity for people to become interested in Irokawa and the people who live there, it probably became a little more enjoyable. That’s when I started thinking that maybe I should reshape the hunting experience tours and give them a positive spin.”

And so it was in 2017 that he began working on a new hunting experience tour, while changing the content.

Specific tour schedule.

The tour is designed to take place over three days and two nights. Basically, “catch, process, and eat” will be included in the program. The general schedule is as follows

<Day 1＞

PM: Enter the mountain with the hunters

　　Explanation of mountain conditions and why deer come down, setting of traps

Evening: Night tour

<Day 2＞

AM: Deer dismantling experience

PM: Visit farmers and see how they live in the community

<Day 3＞

AM：Gibier cooking experience

PM: Ref

There are other areas that do hunting, but what is the point of doing it in Irokawa?

Irokawa is a 40-minute drive deep into the mountains from the center of Nachikatsuura Town, where there are few places to shop, and where many people live by growing their own vegetables and rice or taking eggs from chickens. Driving to Irokawa, one encounters mostly enclosed fields and rice paddies, and occasionally monkeys and deer.

There are also regions throughout Japan that offer hunting experiences. Among them, the significance of doing so in Irokawa lies in the relationship with local people. The distinctive feature of Damonomichi’s hunting experience tours is that the participants not only hunt, process, and eat the animals, but also visit two farmers in Irokawa. The tour is not only a chance to get to know the local community, but also to learn about the current state of animal damage.

“The participants visit the farmers, touring their fields and poultry farms, and sometimes even visiting their homes, which gives them a good opportunity to think about their current way of life and their own values,” he said. It is not limited to farmers, but I think the meaning of this tour is to provide a glimpse into the daily life and lifestyle of Irokawa in the context of hunting and animal damage.”

Even in the final review, many people bring up the topic of interaction with the farmers.

While the interpretation of the tour is left to the participants, the interaction with people (farmers) who live in harmony with nature may provide an opportunity to think about hunting from many different perspectives.

Hunting is just one of the means.

Hunting is practiced throughout Japan. There are many different styles of hunters, including hunters as a hobby, hunters as a part of their lives (to eat for themselves), and hunters as a way to prevent animal damage. Since each of them has a different stance, it is difficult to give a simple answer to the question, “Why do you hunt?“

He then said, “If we talk from the perspective of preventing damage from beasts, it is logical that if beasts come down to the village and destroy fields and rice paddies, we should catch the ones that come down to prevent damage, but it is not as easy as it seems. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I think hunting itself includes the fun of playing games with the beasts, as well as the meaning of securing food for self-sufficiency.“

Mr. Hara, who organizes the hunting tours, also hunts basically as part of measures to prevent harm to animals, but that does not mean he is actively hunting. He says, “Beast damage prevention doesn’t mean that hunting is a must. In short, the objective is to prevent damage to the fields, not to catch the animals. In some cases, capturing the animals is a surprisingly low priority. Beasts come down to the village in search of food, so it is important to reduce the amount of food they eat in the village.“

With the frequent occurrence of beasts in the course of daily life, either raiding fields or coming to their gardens, many people here in Irokawa have an inseparable relationship with beasts. This is even more so for those who grow and eat their own food. In the current situation where people and beasts are so close, how can people and beasts coexist? Mr. Hara reiterated that it is important to keep thinking about this.

What is important to me in conducting hands-on hunting tours.

Finally, we asked Mr. Yutaka Hara what he considers important in his hunting tours.

He answered, “There is one thing that I am conscious of while conducting the tours. I don’t impose anything on them. For example, I don’t say things like, ‘This is why hunting is necessary,’ or ‘This is how killing a life should be done,’ or some other weird preachy stuff. I will say what I think, but I don’t force my ideas on them. I let each person look at the work naturally, and each person takes what he or she feels as he or she feels it, and then each person organizes it in his or her own way. Then they think about it. I am conscious of this. I don’t interfere too much. Depending on how I do it, there may be times when I am half guiding, but I try not to do that.“

Because there are no simple answers to the question of hunting, Mr. Hara hopes that each participant will leave with a sense of what he or she felt. This is an opportunity to have a realistic experience of “taking life” and “coexisting with beasts (living creatures),” which cannot be felt in everyday life. It may become one of the major turning points in your life.