This September,
Japan has been visited consecutive natural disasters, started from a super storm,
Typhoon Jebi, which destroyed Kansai International Airport on 5th of
September. Then, on 6th, came a M6 earthquake that killed off the
electrical grid for Hokkaido 北海道. Next is an activated
stationary front bringing continuous rains and occasional tornados here and
there of our archipelago. Many mud slides and home destructions ensued … Inevitably,
our conversation in Yokohama tends to go in to our “preparedness” for survival
if such things happen to us … “The storm surge damaged the port of Kobe 神戸港 …” “Then the port of Tomakomai 苫小牧港 couldn’t operate normally thanks to the
earthquake.” “Yeah …” This June, Governmental HDQ for Earthquake Research
Promotion issued their 2018 National Seismic Hazard Maps for Japan. There, a
probability for Yokohama to have an earthquake of M6+ is 82% for the next 30
years. The matter is something urgent and serious … Have we secured emergency
communication lines with cell phones and the others? Check. Enough batteries
for emergency black out? Check. Does our family have sufficient water supply
for 3 to 7 days? Check. How about cooking heats? Well, Niiharu’s bamboo
charcoal will certainly be handy. Enough blankets, medical supplies, portable
toilets, sanitary items … etc. etc. And, of course, FOOD! Rolling stock for our
pantry is in operation. OK. And now, I am scouting our neighborhood for foraging
fresh “vegetables” and “fruits.” Thankfully, it’s not difficult to find them in
this suburb of Tokyo. Among the candidates, very recently I’ve found several
trees of Crimson glory vine where we can harvest wild grapes,
just in 10 minutes’ walking radius from my home.
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| With
some reason, garlic chives are thriving along the road 5 minutes from my home. |
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| And
now, common purslane is waiting on the road for us to join in our salad … |
In the
forests, or suburbia, actually of Yokohama, we can find at least 2 kinds of
vines “having fruits look like grapes.” One is No-budoh 野葡萄, aka Ampelopsis
glandulosa var. heterophylla, an endemic plant of East Asia. In autumn it
has shiny and colorful, eg. blue, purple, or white fruits that can stimulate
our curiosity. The color of the ripen fruits is originally white, but when parasites,
including larvae of Asphondylia baca
Monzen (1937), or Nippoptilia vitis
decide to be in the fruit, they form galls which make the fruit a bit larger,
less-juicy and in exotic colors. Can we eat them? Er, yes, you can try as they
are not poisonous, but people say its taste is … non-existent at best. Some say
they are effective ingredients for Chinese medicine, but no authority of such
things in Japan recognizes them as such. I think it’s better to maintain a
distance from them in terms of eating … Even though, we can find multihued No-budoh very often during the autumnal
stroll in forests. We sometimes harvest them as a material for decorations of
year-end festivities. Having said that, I suspect there is general confusion about
the edibility of No-budoh among city
folks. You walk in a downtown, and find a name of restaurant or bar No-budoh every so often. I don’t think owners
of the premises expect a connotation between Ampelopsis glandulosa var. heterophylla and parasites for their
gastronomic business. They would mix up No-budhoh
with Yama-budoh.
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| A thriving bush for No-budoh |
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| In
September, galls of No-budoh start to turn their colors. This stem also has white ripen fruits that may be tasty for parasites. 😉 |
Yama-budoh 山葡萄, aka Crimson glory vine (Vitis
coignetiae), is endemic species for northern archipelago of East Asia.
According to this Wikipedia entry, it can be found in Sakhalin Island of
Russia, Ulleungdo Island of South Korea, and Japanese Islands, except southern
islands of Kyushu 九州, Amami 奄美, and Okinawa 沖縄. As an edible
delicacy of autumn, it has been known in millennia in Japan. From the remains of Japanese Neolithic era (roughly 15000-2300 years ago), archeologists found evidences
for people having them as fresh fruits, juice, or wine. Its vine is strong but
supple so that Japanese have been using it as a material of baskets and
containers for a very very long time. Especially, Ainu Tribes of Hokkaido have
an elaborate tradition to use them for shoes and ornamental materials of
rituals. When we visit Japanese mountainous areas, and find in local souvenir
shops an elegant basket or the like, they are made of the vine of Yama-budoh. (Oh, they must have a “made
in Japan” tag; in any case, the difference between Japanese and Chinese baskets
is obvious.) To make an object from Vitis
coignetiae, an artisan / artist must prepare the harvested stems with
several steps of tanning, which makes their product AWFULLY expensive. One day,
in a department store I found an understating, but gorgeous lady’s handbag made
of the vine of crimson glory, created by a designer from Iwate Prefecture 岩手県. I asked the
price: it was 30 thousand yen, i.e. USD 3,000 (“No Photo, please.”) Wooooooow. Recently, people have started
to cultivate Yama-budoh in honest as
an agricultural product. They plant them in a vineyard, and produce wine,
juice, jam, and raisin. They are not cheap. Take this site from YamagataPrefecture 山形県 where they sell jam made of Yama-budoh. It costs 2500 yen (USD 25)
for two 150g jars. Or this site for Hokkaidoh Wine, where a bottle of wine of
Yama-budoh is also around 2500 yen. So, I simply assumed people easily
recognize such expensive and long-utilized grapes of traditional Yama-budoh when they see it. Er, no.
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| Here
is Yama-budoh. Can you see the difference in the shape of leaves from No-budoh? The leaves of Yama-budoh are cutting into more than No-Budoh. |
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| Also, the back of leaves of Yama-budoh has tiny pinkish hairs like this. |
One day
last month, I was surprised to find lots of unripen green grapes of Yama-budoh dangling from a meshed fence circling
a public sports facility so near from my home. Even astonishing, the place is
just next to a street which lots of locals use for a daily commute. (By the
way, Yokohama has 3.7 million residents.) I waited for about a month, and been
there with scissors to pick some ripen fruits. Then, all
seemingly-knowledgeable old ladies passing behind me asked “Oh, is it a morning glory, dear?” “Er … No” with a
smile on my face with a hidden determination not to reveal the true identity of
this nourishing plant. I’ll survive by eating it when a natural disaster
destroys everything! “OK, good-bye” was almost a unanimous reaction from the
senior citizens. It may be due to typically Japanese politeness in conversation.
Or, they really cannot recognize the difference between Crimson glory vine
and morning glory. When grandmas of
Yokohama don’t know living Yama-budoh,
their children and grandchildren won’t recognize them either, don’t you think?
And Japan has more than 10 thousand years of tradition with Yama-budoh …
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| The grapes are ripening … |
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| Well,
this one is hiding behind the leaves … is it because of this they are not taken by the commuters? |
Well, if
a situation becomes for the “survival of the fittest” after mega-earthquake, I would
have a leg-up as I know where to find nutritious Yama-budoh among collapsed houses ... Though, I feel something more
fundamentally problematic here … From senior citizens to kids, we in Yokohama
are so inexperienced with the nature surrounding (yeah, literally, surrounding)
us. When the mother-nature hits us by typhoon or earthquake, can we really
endure the trials thrown from something we have completely ignored? Maybe, silk
flowers taped on the concreted floor on 2017 BankArt symbolized our vulnerability
… Maybe.
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| A bush
of Asiatic dayflower. They are also edible for salad. |
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| Public
enemy #1 in the US and the EU: Kudzu. Their roots yield very fine carbohydrate powder. |
If you find a problem in the Forests of
Yokohama, please make a contact with
Yokohama Municipal Government Creative
Environment Policy Bureau 横浜市環境創造局
Phone: 045-671-2881
FAX: 045-641-3490
http://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/kankyo/
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