The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse: Charcoal Baking in Kanagawa Prefecture

April 2020 has ended with COVID-19. OK. April is, for normal years, the end of season for charcoal baking in forests of Kanagawa. Yeah, our prefecture does not have “charcoal industry” to speak of. In Japan, 3 prefectures, Kochi 高知, Wakayama 和歌山 and Iwate 岩手, produce more than 90% of Japanese charcoal. Kanagawa’s amount of bamboo charcoal, like we bake in Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森, even does not appear in national statistics. The latest stats (FY2017) reports only wood charcoal made in Kanagawa. It’s mere 0.1% of the national production … The majority of charcoal baking in Kanagawa is small-scale private operation, done by 2-3 people deep in Tanzawa Mountains 丹沢 and sell their product in farmers’ market or the like.

Though, there is one place where about 25% of Kanagawa’s charcoal is baked. Just like in Niiharu Forest, this place is run by 38 volunteers, not by professional foresters. The volunteer group is called Shonan Ninomiya Charcoal Baking Club for Our Hometown 湘南二宮ふるさと炭焼き会. Several members of this organization happen to be my seniors in Kanagawa Forest Instructor Association. In February before this “Corona-blah-blah” came in full-effect, I had a chance to visit their place when they were preparing the kiln for baking. They normally make charcoals between October and May, or until the end of double cherry blossoms. I think the kiln we prepared in February has become the last baking this year … Pink double-flowers are showering like confetti here and there in Kanagawa now. This week’s post is the first of two reports from my visit to their site. It was another adventure of mine in a forest!

The charcoal products from Ninomiya Club

When we make charcoal, we bake woods and/or bamboos in a kiln with large chimney. Yeah. If charcoal baking is profitable, we might install chimneys with the most advanced technology for “cleansing” the smoke, just as for those garbage incineration facilities in Shibuya 渋谷区 or Minato 港区 Wards in Tokyo. Charcoal industry in Kanagawa is minuscule, and yields tiny revenue accordingly. So, kilns we use have rudimental chimney that is simply connected to the kiln. They spew out components of timbers heated up inside. Roughly speaking, body of a tree or bamboo is made of H2O, cellulose, lignin, and the other materials. In a kiln, they are fired up to 70-85°C first which is the level when cellulose disintegrates and starts thermal decomposition. Self-burning cellulose becomes purple smoke. When we kindle the kiln further to 320°C or so, cellulose has disappeared, and lignin begins thermal self-decomposition. The smoke from chimney turns into waspy blue. During this process, the smoke stack emits particular odor continuously. I myself do not mind it much … They made me recall my fond memories of visiting huts in countryside somewhere … But not everybody agrees with me. Actually, it is the main reason why we cannot have charcoal industry in Kanagawa.

Smoke from Niiharu’s kiln.
The color of them are still white,
 which means they are emitting water vapor,
 not cellulose or lignin, yet.

Kanagawa Prefecture is, in the end, the bed town of Metropolitan Tokyo. People living in cities, like Yokohama 横浜, Kawasaki 川崎, Fujisawa 藤沢, … you name it, are typical city-folks. They don’t like smell. Well, if that smell is just temporary, say, once in a year for 2-3 hours only, urbanites may ignore a minor inconvenience. Alas, the tip to produce good charcoal is, “You have to heat up the timber containing appropriate amount of moisture, i.e. H2O, preferably 35% of its weight, for never-hurrying amount of time.” Unless we use the high-tech kiln using petrol or something with AI controlled censor, we do it with good ol’ firewood. If the product is wood charcoal, the timbers with such amount of moisture requires LOOOONG hours to turn into charcoals in a firewood kiln. The amount of time Kanagawa Prefecture recommends (more to this next week) is 8-17 hours to make wood charcoal. So, if a kiln is surrounded by houses, residents must endure at least a day with the smell. When charcoal baking is done 3 times per season, the operation becomes a source of serious pollution problem among the urban neighbor.

Houses and forests are very close …

Have you ever been to Shikino-mori Prefectural Park in Yokohama 県立四季の森公園, a neighboring forest of Niiharu? It has a beautiful charcoal making facility, capable of producing good amount of wood charcoal. Unlike Niiharu’s hut that was built by hands of our seniors some 20 years ago with pocket money, Shikino-mori’s charcoal production building was by the prefectural budget as an “educational tool to teach children tradition of the area.” When it first became operational, the Office directly engaged in management of the “teaching facility,” and held many public meetings with neighborhood associations each time before they ignited fire for the kiln. Neighbors were persuaded to endure bad-smell days several times in one season. Few years back, the Prefecture decided to cut budget for the Park and contracted out the Park’s management to a private organization. The new management had limited budget. They did not have capacity to persuade the neighbors about the “meaning of charcoal making in Shikino-mori Park.” The new contractor simply started baking charcoal without any notice to the neighbors. The Park was constructed in a valley, with surrounding 3 ridge ways over a relatively simple slope and one exit of water flow. All the directions are immediately facing crowded residential areas. The smell from the charcoal making easily wafted to the neighbors; this time, without notice. All of the residents were enraged. It ended the “educational” charcoal baking in Shikino-mori Park.

The charcoal hut of Shikino-mori Park.
 It is now securely locked.

Niiharu Forest is next to Miho Citizen Forest 三保市民の森 and Satoyama Garden 里山ガーデン, aka Yokohama Doubutsu-no-mori Park 横浜どうぶつの森公園 as a part of Yokohama’s North Forest. West of Niiharu Forest is two large educational campuses tucked in a substantial vegetation. Niiharu’s charcoal baking hut is in the bottom of small valley called Ikebuchi Open Space いけぶち広場. Yeah, immediately next to Niiharu Forest, there are Tokaichiba Housing Complex 十日市場団地, and Kirigaoka Residential Area 霧が丘住宅街. Though, from the charcoal hut to such suburbia, we have to walk beyond a hill and another valleys. Smoke from our charcoal baking will not reach to these places, especially when it is not much like from our 8-hour cooking for bamboo charcoal. That’s the reason why we Niiharu Lovers 新治市民の森愛護会 can continue our charcoal baking. As of 2020 so long as I know, there are at least 5 charcoal baking facilities in Yokohama. Only two are operational; one is in Niiharu, and another is in Yokohama Nature Sanctuary 横浜自然観察の森 (; my posts on January 22^nd, 2016, and February 24th, 2017). Both of the active huts are located deep in a forest, far from the residential area. Also, both places have limitation. In Niiharu, we can make bamboo charcoal only, not wood charcoal. Production of wood charcoal requires large, fully constructed kiln that can endure 17 hours of continuous ignition. Our kiln is made of used oil drums that cannot stand for such hard condition. Nature Observation Forest has more sophisticated (a sort of) “high-tech” kiln that can finish wood charcoal baking in 8 hours. (Yeah, they have money from Wild Bird Society of Japan.) Even so, if their baking continues all day long, there will be higher possibility the neighbors, like in Noshichiri 野七里 or Kamariya 釜利谷, could notice “air pollution” from the huts. i.e. For Yokohama’s charcoal baking facility to be effective, it must (1) be situated in a deep forest, and (2) finish the job as fast as possible, i.e. never lasting for a day. Ninomiya’s kiln does not have to think such things.

Niiharu’s charcoal hut, snuggled into a valley.

The Ninomiya Charcoal Baking Club is in Ninomiya Town 二宮町, east of Odawara City 小田原市. When you check the town in Google Map by satellite mode, you’ll see the place is folded by Oiso Hills 大磯丘陵 and Sagami Bay 相模湾. We can know from the space the entire town has a large green area. The Club was born in 2000, just like Lovers Association of Niiharu Citizen Forest. The major difference between the Club and the Lovers could be, Niiharu Lovers are in the middle of Metropolitan suburbia, while Ninomiya Club is in a more rural setting. This point is important especially for charcoal making. So, Ninomiya Club has traditional charcoal baking kiln for wood charcoal, constructed with concrete. Theirs is a large stuff. It was exciting for me to experience their operation. Next week, I tell you how it was!

Ninomiya Club

Come to think of it, I’ve never told you about Shikino-mori Park … OK, sometime this year, I promise. Though the place has some episodes, it’s a nice place to relax when there is no COVID-19 … If you find a problem in Yokohama’s North Forests, please make a contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North 北部公園緑地事務所

Yokohama Municipal Government Creative Environment Policy Bureau 横浜市環境創造局

Phone: 045-311-2016

FAX: 045-316-8420

If you find environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural 

Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター
657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121
〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657
Phone: 046-248-0323

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/