Please also enjoy the first installment of the series, "Okinawa's Blue," and the third installment, "Okinawa's White."
Text and photos by Meisa Fujishiro
Into the deep greenery of Yanbaru
The northern part of Okinawa Island is called Yanbaru, and written in kanji as 山原. There are various theories about how far north Yanbaru is, but in my personal image, it is the area north of Nago. If you go north on the Okinawa Expressway, it ends at Kyoda, just before Nago, so you can consider Yanbaru to be from there once you get off the highway.
Honbe, where the Churaumi Aquarium is located, is of course part of the Yanbaru region. If you have ever visited the main island of Okinawa, you may remember the large tank with the whale sharks swimming in it. The area around that aquarium is already part of the Yanbaru region.
If you continue driving north along the coast on the west side of the island, you will enter Nakijin and Ogimi. From here, the atmosphere of the Yanbaru region will become even more intense, as you will feel closer to untouched nature. The sea will become paler and deeper in blue, and the green will stretch out like a flame into the sky.
Six years ago, when I moved to Okinawa, I was driven by a simple curiosity to try something I had never done before. I was half serious about finding a foothold in the Yanbaru region to be self-sufficient, and I visited the area again and again to look for land to live on with friends. In the end, I was unable to find a connection with either self-sufficiency or the Yanbaru region, but whenever I put the East China Sea on my left hand and head north, I always remember the turmoil I felt at that time.
The benefits of "green" to the human mind
Not being suited to settling down, I moved with my family from Tokyo to Hayama, and from Hayama to Okinawa. And even within Okinawa, we were just drifting to Yanbaru, where nature is still more abundant. It may have been more that we were drifting along with the flow, rather than that we were seeking something, but rather that we were drifting along with the buoyancy of people who were not seeking anything.
It was not the kind of feeling that allowed me to leisurely follow my own path, but rather the anxiety of going down a path no one had taken before. What comforted my heart at such times was the "blue" and "green" of Okinawa.
We were looking for a large piece of land to work on as a farm to become self-sufficient. Looking at the mountain slopes that the contractor showed us, standing on land without running water, sewage, gas or electricity, I felt like I was going to be blown away by a mixture of hope and anxiety. At such times, the beauty of greenery always helped me to remain calm.
Green has a calming effect to begin with, but the green of Okinawa's Yanbaru has a fiery strength to it, and if you go into the mountains and immerse yourself in the swirl of green, you will feel as if you are part of the plants and trees, burning with life. The shapes of the tropical plants, such as bananas and lycopods, are like the handiwork of God, placed in heaven on earth, and looking at them brings a sigh to the soul.
Encounter with the Okinawa Rail
If you cross the main island of Okinawa from Ogimi heading east, you will enter Higashi Village, famous for its pineapples, and eventually hit the Pacific Ocean. If you continue heading north with the ocean on your right, you will frequently come across signs warning you to be careful of the Okinawa rail.
My son and I have camped on the coast of the Yanbaru region a number of times, and each time we have spotted the Okinawa rail, a national treasure. Although we cannot disclose the exact location due to conservation reasons, if you go there at roughly the same time in the morning or evening, you will often come across the chicken-sized rail.
They don't seem to be that scared of humans, so there will be many opportunities to see them from afar. As the Okinawa Rail disappears, a vast green world spreads out before you. How wonderful that the place they return to is green. Leaving the green, they return to the green. I feel like learning from the Okinawa Rail and wanting to be like that every day, at least in my heart.
According to recent news, the population of the Okinawa Rail has been drastically decreasing. It has been reported that the cause is stray dogs. In times like these, the balance of the ecosystem is often discussed, but stray dogs do not occur naturally.
Relatively sparsely populated areas such as the Yanbaru region sometimes become dumping grounds for unwanted dogs and cats. Dogs abandoned by people become strays, and end up killing the Okinawa rails that people are trying to protect as natural monuments. This is an example that makes us realize that things are always connected, intersecting with many other things along the way.
Okinawa has beautiful greenery. We must keep in mind that protecting that greenery is not only related to the lives of those close to it, but also to the lives of individuals far away in their homes.
There is even more greenery behind the greenery. I want to be fascinated by this vast and deep nature forever.
Fujishiro Meisa
Born in Chiba Prefecture in 1967. His works focus on women, sacred places, travel, and nature, and cross the boundaries between entertainment and art. His photo books include "RIDE RIDE RIDE" (Switch Publishing) and "Let's Go Home Now" (Rockin' On), which features his wife, Tanabe Ayumi. He won the 34th Kodansha Publishing Culture Award in the photography category for "Shincho Mook Monthly Series" (Shinchosha). As a novelist, he has published "A Romance Novel Where No One Dies" (Gentosha) and "Drive" (Takarajimasha), and in recent years has also been working on poetry.
The contents published are accurate at the time of publication and are subject to change.
