Doshi 道志 is an elongated area along Doshi River道志川. 2/3 of it is Doshi Village 道志村 in Yamanashi
Prefecture, and 1/3 is Aone 青根 and other townships in
Kanagawa. According to Izumi (2004), 1903 data says people lived along the
river and created arable land around their houses. The agricultural field was
surrounded by private forests, then by the property of the village, and finally
by the Emperors’ forests to the peaks and beyond of the mountains in both sides
of the river. Doshi Village had 4179ha of forests of
which only 15.5% was privately owned. The rest was Emperor’s property where
villagers as a group were traditionally allowed to enter for their charcoal
making business or wood-crafting for kitchen and other supplies, up to a point.
Such products were popular as “Made-in Doshi” for centuries in markets of
(present-day) Tokyo and Kanagawa. Though, in 1868 the time when Doshi Village
could expect some income of forestry from Shogun was gone. It made the rule of
forest non-existent. Moreover, the rapid industrialization was sweeping the
entire Japan. People in Doshi started to plan joining the modern economy by
using their resources for industrial production of charcoal and kitchen
supplies, underground minerals, hydro-electric power generation, paper mills and
expansion of commercial ag-land. In contrast, the political upheaval in the
middle of the century messed up the cycle of planting, nurturing, harvesting,
and replanting of trees. After the Meiji Restoration, bold mountains were
spreading rapidly again in Doshi Village. In 1903, 40% of Emperor’s land did
not have a tree to speak of. By then, the area had frequent floods and
landslips, to be sure.
 |
| In
Aone community, there is this monument where it had a sentry to warn cities in Kanto Plane during the World War II when B-29 of the US approached from the west for carpet bombing. The thing I want to say with this photo is, if we clear the woods in Doshi area, the vegetation could be like this. |
Meanwhile, in 1887 the firstmodern waterworks of Japan became operational for Yokohama, but it soon became
inadequate to serve for the rapid development of the city. The city moved the
water intake from the confluence of Sagami 相模川 and
Doshi Rivers to Doshi River alone and built up the system further. For the endeavor,
Japanese national government gave awfully generous grants to the City of Yokohama.
By 1901, the first project cycle of network expansion was completed and
Yokohama achieved a balanced budget for the waterworks, which is now the
tradition of Yokohama’s water. (“Thank you for your majesty in Tokyo!”) From
the very beginning the system uses entirely closed ditch between the water
intake facility and purification plants. The quality and quantity taken from
Doshi River directly affects the water for Yokohama. The city became very
watchful and demanding for the condition of Doshi River, or to be exact, of the
environment of water source in Doshi Village. At that time, villagers of Doshi
were busy destroying the water source forests. In 1903 Yokohama organized a
preliminary survey about the situation of the forests covering the entire Doshi
area. The civil engineers found if villagers cut the trees in this pace for
charcoal or other industrial usage, the forests in Doshi would have been gone
within 5-10 years. The city with her big brother in Tokyo became aggressive. With
a help of friends in the national government, Yokohama blocked the plan to
develop copper mines in Doshi, and in 1897 paid 5000 yen, or USD 51000 in 2018 (cheap,
huh?), for the holder of prospecting rights as compensation. The blueprints for
hydro power plants and paper mills in Lower Doshi were crushed by the hands of
the Governor of Kanagawa, and several ministers of the national government. Kanagawa
also made a tag team with Yamanashi Prefecture and devised a grant scheme for
afforestation by the villagers of Doshi. Though, it was not enough to
compensate the cash flow people received from manufacturing charcoal and the other
products through deforestation. Villagers of course ignored it. Soon, residents
of Doshi became more and more suspicious of and hostile to Yokohama. Then there
came the final nail in the coffin.
 |
| The
mountain under the cloud is Mt. Fuji, seen from Lower Doshi. The place is this near to Mt. Fuji area. |
Upper Doshi, aka Doshi
Village, was / is under the administrative jurisdiction of Yamanashi Prefecture
山梨県. The lord of Yamanashi was traditionally a
close relative of Shogun in Edo 徳川将軍家 during Tokugawa Shogunate 徳川幕府 so that after
the Meiji Restoration 明治維新 the place had lots of Emperor’s forests. Needless
to say, the prefecture and the Imperial Household who was in charge of
Emperor’s property wanted to maximize the profit out of their “public” forest. Regarding
Doshi forests, they haggled with Yokohama and Kanagawa for about two decades,
and reached a deal in 1915 when Yokohama completed the second project cycle for
the expansion to supply water for 800 thousand residents. The mayor of Yokohama
and the governor of Yamanashi agreed on October 12, 2015 “To celebrate
the coronation of Emperor Yoshihito (嘉仁 the father of Emperor
Hirohito), 2800 ha of Emperor’s forests in Doshi is to be sold to the City of
Yokohama by 130 thousand yen (about USD 2.6 million for 2018).” On October 22,
i.e. 10 days later, the Ministry of Interior, who could talk with the Imperial
Household, completed the paper works for the real estate deal. Have you noticed
there was no player from Doshi Village in this very swift business? Yap. After
October 22nd, the village received a letter from the prefectural
government curtly notifying 40% of their village had changed the ownership from
the Emperor to the City of Yokohama. People were astounded. They had an
emergency village assembly and on October 29, delivered a petition to the
Governor of Yamanashi, politicians, any possibly influential offices … either
to nullify the deal, or to guarantee the continuation of their charcoal and
other manufacturing business as with the forests of the Emperor. No one in high
offices listened.
 |
| From
Upper Doshi looking to the direction of the downtown Sagamihara 相模原, opposite direction to Mt. Fuji. Hmmm. Looks same. Just mountains … |
Thus, the Yokohama’s largest Citizen
Forest was born as the Water Source Forests of Doshi Village. In Doshi, the
episode has been passed on from generation to generation as “The day when our
village was sold off to Yokohama.” From that time onwards, like it or not
people of Doshi Village has been asked … er, well, forced … to engage in the
business of water source forests for Yokohama. Cutting trees for charcoal
baking business, or developing copper mine, paper mill, etc. are No-No-No. The
demand from their largest landlord, aka Yokohama, dictates so. Reading Prof.
Izumi’s story and the exhibitions in Yokohama Waterworks Commemoration Hall 横浜水道記念館, I felt
it was very opportunistic for Yokohama to take advantage of Doshi River. Prof.
Izumi, who was born in Yamanashi, wrote that the prefectural government of
Yamanashi regarded Doshi Village so peripheral to allocate their forest
management budget adequately. Sitting in their downtown office more than 50km
far from the forests, Yokohama and the national government jumped at the opening
from neglect to grab water. Looking south from the village, just over the ridge
of Tanzawa mountains, there ran rivers now for Lakes of Miyagase 宮ケ瀬湖 and
Tanzawa 丹沢湖 where former-guards
of Shogun’s treasure trees built hydroelectric plants, forestry companies, river
sand pits for construction, etc., etc. to join with the industrializing Tokyo. Yes,
100 years later, they too become the water source for Yokohama just like Doshi
River. Probably, Doshi Village was different only because of their convenient
location to build the first Japanese modern waterworks … It must have been
looked really unfair for the Doshi villagers at that time ... And now?
 |
| The
present-day campus of Doshi Junior High. The place now is peaceful … thank Buddha, honestly. |
I made
this post based on the information given at Yokohama Waterworks Commemoration
Hall 横浜水道記念館 and the books below:
522
Kawashimacho, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama, 240-0045 横浜市保土ケ谷区川島町522
Phone: 045-371-1621
Seiji
Maekawa 前川 清治. The Story of Doshi 22km: a
village of greenery, clear stream, and history 道志七里物語―緑と清流と歴史の郷. Yamanashi Nichinichi Shimbun 山梨日日新聞社, 2006.
ISBN-10: 4897106141, ISBN-13: 978-4897106144.
Keiko Izumi 泉 桂子. The Origin of Modern WaterResource Conservation Forests: an ecological history of forests and cities 近代水源林の誕生とその軌跡―森林(もり)と都市の環境史. University of Tokyo Press 東京大学出版会, 2004. ISBN-10: 4130760262, ISBN-13: 978-4130760263.
In case
you need a contact in Doshi Village, the address of their village office is
Doshi
Village Office 道志村役場
6181-1
Doshi Village, Minamitsuru-gun, Yamanashi, 402-0209 〒402-0209
山梨県南都留郡道志村6181-1
Phone: 0554-52-2111
FAX: 0554-52-2572
http://www.vill.doshi.lg.jp/
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