“Satoyama”: Living Together with Nature

A paddy field in autumn, with harvested rice drying on racks in the background.

Autumn darter dragonflies mate on the rice rack.

Golden-rayed lilies farmers have left to bloom on a slope beside an old railway track.

Asian fawn lilies blossom in early spring in a chestnut wood.

A Miyama stag beetle makes an appearance in a summer copse.

A min-min cicada (Hyalessa maculaticollis) emerging in a suburban forest, one midsummer night.

A small copper butterfly brightens up a rice field embankment.

A scarlet dwarf dragonfly makes its home in a satoyama wetland.

A Genji firefly emitting light.

Many Genji fireflies dart through the air by a paddy field one summer night.

Controlled burning of dried grass in early spring is an important task to maintain healthy fields.

An old beech (buna) tree shows the traces of repeated cutting of branches to make charcoal.

A Melitaea protomedia butterfly; the larvae eat golden valerians.

Golden valerians in a summer meadow.

Farmers gather golden valerians and balloon flowers for their butsudan altars.

The undergrowth on this slope, no longer in regular use by local residents, has been eaten away by deer.

Just 30 years ago there were rice fields here, with a rural settlement nearby, but now the area is abandoned.

A solar power generation facility cuts through a satoyama landscape.

Cutting of grass to revitalize satoyama meadows.

A farmer teaches young people how to manage rice paddies.

A great egret searches for food in an irrigated rice paddy where planting has begun.