Potato or Rose: Global Warming and Urban Agriculture, Yokohama Style, Shiba Seaside Village of Belssings 柴シーサイド恵みの里

 

First, what’s there in Shiba Seaside Village of Blessings? The place is an amalgam of local farming fields, roughly 3/4 of the area, and public allotments, 1/4. The Village spreads over the ridge of a steep hill whose east slope is housing area of Shiba Town tumbling down to the Tokyo Bay. The other three directions are still forests geographically continuing from Shomyoji Citizen Forest 称名寺市民の森 (; my post for December 4, 2015). The project for Land Improvement District sorted out previously scattered small patches of veggie fields in a forest and widened the cultivable land on the ridge.

The map shown at the admin office

The forest to the east

The professionally cultivated farmlands receive funding from Yokohama Green Tax to organize regular public events. Some are weekly, and the others are seasonal. Every weekend, Saturday and Sunday morning (8:00-) except New Year’s holidays, they hold a farmers’ market in the open space of admin building. I tell you it’s a popular market so that almost all the products are sold out before noon. Seasonally, they have 3 events for farming experience, all from 9:00-14:00 (to register at the admin office: the contact address is at the end of this post). They are

🥔Potato Harvesting

From mid-May to mid-June, except Monday, or until potato is there.

1000 yen per portion


Taro Harvesting

Every Saturday from early-November to mid-December, or until taro is there.

1000 yen per portion (2 clumps … I think it’s a bargain!)


🍊Tangerine Harvesting

From mid-October to the end of November (for Unshuh variety), and the first two weeks of December (for Hayaka variety which is SWEET), or until the fruits are there.

All you can eat in the orchard (with time limit), and you can bring your harvest home.

Elementary school kids + : 1200 yen

3-5 years old: 500 yen

0-2 years old: free

In early October,
tangerines were waiting for the harvest time.

It seems to me one of the farmers are thinking banana
 ... serious?

The Admin Office

The remaining 1/4 of the Village is the allotment gardens managed by JA Yokohama. There are 510 allotments and the cost for renting varies around 10000 yen per year according to the section. The contract duration is 5 years and renewable. In addition to agreeing these basics, the conditions for application are (1) you have to be registered as a resident for the City of Yokohama, (2) one section per family, i.e. you and your spouse must share the same allotment. The renters can build a shed if they like for their tools. In the admin office building, there are shower rooms and rockers for allotmenteers. I met one lady there nurturing her sweet potato. She said “You know, this year was hard for tomato, but I’m fairly content with my bell peppers. The problem is, I love to plant veggies, but my husband wants to have roses. It’s a family problem!” Sure. As of November 30, 2025, there are 46 vacant sections among 510 allotments. If you think to try your veggie in Yokohama, please make a contact with the admin office shown at the end of this post.

Allotment section for Shiba Seaside Village

The water problem of the Village is somehow controlled. By the project, they built a pump house which collects the rainwater and uses groundwater vein. Surely such technological setting was not possible for subsistence farming before the project. Still, especially with the heatwave of this year, everybody had to accommodate with available water. For allotmenteers, the faucet for their section was opened for about 2-3 hours each day during this summer. They had to adjust their daily schedule for tending their plants. That lady told me the JA considerably allocated the water-time mainly for early evenings so that the risk of heatstroke for people was lessened. Still, she said “Well, you know, we’re seriously thinking the veggies we can nurture in summer these couple of years. I’m strongly opposed to my husband’s plan for roses, a heavy drinker.” Er, well. Here is another problem Global Warming can bring to a family table …

The pumping station for the Village

Even so, Shiba Village is a peaceful place. The sections are spreading over (artificially perhaps) mild slope of a hill going down to the sea. The vista is spectacular. One of the personnel for JA Yokohama told me, when he thinks hitting a wall in his work, he always visits here and takes deep breaths in the veggie patches surrounded by forests and sea. What’s in store next for Shiba Village with the new era of Global Warming? No one knows for sure. But at least we locals of Yokohama are thinking whether rose or potato, while harvesting tangerines. 😉

To the Tokyo Bay

The access to Shiba Seaside Village of Blessings is mainly by car. The direction is shown here. With public transportation, the easiest would be from Umino-koen Shibaguchi Station 海の公園柴口 of Kanazawa Seaside Line. You get off the monorail service at the Station and walk a bit to Shiba Fishing Port. Cross the street at Shiba Fishing Port Traffic Light and go straight to the direction of the hill, passing Bakery Bremen and Tairaya Supermarket. Cross another traffic light in front of the Tairaya to the direction of the hill, and start climbing steep slope, higher and higher. Suddenly, you realize you reach the ridge, and the Village is spreading before you. In the middle of the farming field, there is a building which is the admin office.

Umino-koen Shibaguchi Station

The bakery. We go up to the top of the hill over there.

The contact for Shiba Seaside Village of Blessings 柴シーサイド恵みの里 is,

Administration Office, JA Yokohama Shiba Farm
Phone: 045-785-6844
Fax：045-788-8588

Updating a Traditional Life: Miura Peninsula and Shiba Seaside Megumino-sato 柴シーサイド恵みの里

 

To Tenjin-jima Marine Biological Garden 天神島臨海自然教育園, we took bus sneaking through the edge of hills going down to Sagami Bay. Miura Peninsula is basically like this. Hills or petit mountains bear down on the seashore which is mainly rocky. The geography actually starts from Yokohama. Beyond the south border for Yokohama are 4 cities, Fujisawa, Kamakura, Zushi, and Yokosuka. Among them, Kamakura, Zushi, and Yokosuka are geologically a part of the Miura Peninsula, so is the communities in the south Yokohama. They do not have much flat land. Behind the touristic coast are hills where now mainly residential area covers the steep slopes and not so wide ridges. Sometimes, the original forests remain like Mt. Ogusu (; my posts for April 2024) and Hiromachi Ryokuchi (; my posts for March 2025). Before when Japanese economy was mainly of agriculture especially rice cultivation, such given condition of small space for rice paddies was not so enjoyable. Inevitably, old communities in Miura Peninsula traditionally have engaged in fishery and procured agricultural products with cash (Oral Record for Kanagawa’s Table 聞き書き神奈川の食事, in “Collected Works for Japanese Traditional Diet, vol. 14 日本の食生活全集 14,” Toda City, Nobunkyo 農文協, 1992, ISBN 978-4540920028).

Near Marine Biological Garden.
People establish themselves in
 a narrow street run between
the steep slope and seashore.

So there are the Sajima Fishing Port and the ethnographical exhibitions in the museum of Tenjin-jima Marine Biological Garden. This is true even for Yokohama. The City of Yokohama, of 3.8 urban people with a large container terminal for international trade, has a fisheries cooperative, proudly call themselves City of Yokohama Fisheries Cooperative. Guess where their office locates. Yep. At the beginning of geological Miura Peninsula. They are in Shiba Town 柴 of Kanazawa Ward 金沢区. Shiba Town is next to Kanazawa Town where Shomyoji Citizen Forest 称名寺市民の森 (; my post for December 4, 2015) and the remnants of the oldest libraries in Japan, Kanazawa Bunko 金沢文庫. Shiba Town is an old community. In the place we’re going to visit this week they have a Koshin-zuka 庚申塚 built during the 18th century. Koshin-zuka was constructed based on the belief for Taoism imported from China around the 15th century. Taoists said once in 60 days, there comes a day of Koshin when 3 bad worms in human body tattle the bad behavior of their landlord on a mighty god in heaven. To prevent the consequence of such snitch, on the day of Koshin people had a mini festival without sleep. When people had held such worship for 3 years of 60 Koshin days, the community built a monument called Koshin-zuka as a protective diety for the village, warding off the bad spirits to enter. Such folk religion was very common during the 17th and the 18th century, and lots of Koshin-zuka was constructed all over Japan. Now many are removed for development. But if a community is old and old families established themselves there centuries ago, we can find Koshin-zukas (yeah, plural) somewhere. Shiba Town is surely such place with Koshin Zuka.

The yesteryear’s way of life for Sajima Fishing Port

Koshin-zuka for Shiba Community

From the hill for Shomyoji Temple Citizen Forest, the slope rapidly goes down to Tokyo Bay where we can find a popular amusement park called Hakkeijima Sea Paradise 八景島シーパラダイス. In front of the Sea Paradise, there is Shiba Fishing Port with Fisheries Cooperative. People in Shiba has been fishermen for centuries. They also harvested veggies from small field on the ridge, in the forest continuing from Shomyoji Citizen Forest. The fishermen had difficulties to find a place for rice paddies, the most important ag product in Japan and once treated as money for centuries. Villagers of fishing community made do with vegetables for home consumption from the small veggie patches. Their farmland was only in the forest covering the ridge. Water was/is scarce. Industrial revolution gave the fishermen chances to earn cash nearby from office or factory jobs, but they still cannot cultivate rice. Life there was hard. Then, in the second half of the 20th century, the community had influx of new members from housing development. They were/are city rats. The new and old members of Shiba community did not have a contact. Meanwhile, the number of people who engaged in traditional fishery-farming was dwindling. This was Yokohama. If you like, there were/are lots of office and factory jobs. By the way, over there in front of the fishing port is the leading factory of Nissan. Why bother the old thing? The farmlands on the ridge in the forest were neglected, then abandoned.

Shiba Fishing Port

I don’t know what made them change their mind. But the historical fact is like this. The old community of Shiba thought such situation was not good. In 1988, they asked the Prefectural Office help for change. In 1990, the Prefecture designated the ridge area of abandoned farmland and the forest Land Improvement District for agriculture. The Office let the Shiba people form a committee to plan the land improvement project. Next year, actual implementation of the project started, and completed 15 years later in 2006. The work included the idea of minimum disturbance over the ecosystem of water-scarce area. The soil of the area was not moved. The precautionary design was applied for preventing landslides from steep slopes. The area has become a model case for the Prefecture and the City of Yokohama for agricultural development involving the old and new communities of the area. New community? You may think. That’s the point of this place, called Shiba Seaside Megumino-sato 柴シーサイド恵みの里, or Shiba Seaside Village of Blessings. Let’s go there next week😉

Shiba Town is pasted on a very steep hill.

If you have any questions about Yokohama’s Green Tax and Green Up Plan, please make a contact with

Strategic Planning Division, Green Environment Bureau, City of Yokohama
横浜市みどり環境局戦略企画課

Phone: 045-671-2712
FAX: 045-550-4093 

Email: mk-kikaku@city.yokohama.lg.jp

Beyond Boring Daily Life: Making bamboo instruments with artists

 

Bamboo is a useful plant to make musical instruments. Its structure is a series of pipes separated by nodes. Breaking the walls of nodes will make one compartment of the pipe longer. Naturally, it becomes the material for designing wind instruments. The most famous example would be Japanese shakuhachi flute. Also, bamboo is easy to work with knife. We can cut and carve it to make not only winds, but percussion and even the bodies of strings.

A bamboo xylophone created by artists
for Forest Labo this year.

Ditto. A different version

Creating instruments for pros requires skills, of course, and it’s not within the scope of my blog. Instead, I tell you today my adventure to create an instrument for a complete novice like me. My teacher was artists from the Forest Labo. It’s a kind of percussion with guiro. Let me tell you how to. First, create a main body from bamboo. For any craft with bamboo trunks, we start by removing wax oil covering them by (1) drying it for about a month after felling, (2) then, boil it or scorch the surface with a handheld burner. The procedure removes water and oil from the trunk and makes the material more durable. The dirt on the surface of bamboo can be removed simultaneously when we wipe with dry towels the coming up oil over the material. After the treatment, dry the material completely. It takes about a month in Yokohama during autumn and winter. Here are the bamboo Forest Labo people prepared for us.

It’s roughly 25cm or so long, and 5cm inner diameter. To decorate it later, it would be better to cut both sides of a node diagonally, keeping the wall inside. I think simple straight cut of bamboo trunk could be OK as well, but the sound will be different. Next, make 4 holes at the point 2cm from the center, or if you use a node one hole for each sideof a node. The position of holes are like

We can choose the points of the holes for 3, 6, 9, and 12 o’clock if we like. But again I guess the sound will be different. Anyway, these points are what the sculptors for Forest Lab chose. After you drill the holes at these points, make straight slits from the mouth of the pipe to the hole with a craft saw. I guess these gaps for a pipe of two compartments will make a more complicated sound compared with a sound from an unprocessed bamboo trunk.

Inside

We next make guiro. Mark 9 lines on a bamboo surface with a pen and make shallow cuts on the lines with a rasp. Depending on the length of the bamboo, number of cuts would be larger or smaller.

Marked

Start making guiro

Done!

For a final touch, we decorate the instrument with colorful strings of jute. First stick a double-sided tape around the node of the bamboo. Peel the surface side of the tape and paste 4 decoration strings on the tape. The main body of the instrument is completed. It’s easy.

Taping the bamboo

Decoration

Done

Then, we make a drumstick. Cut a joint mat of foam flooring in the form of below photo, and fasten a wood square stick, 26cm long and 1cm wide of its side, with relatively strong wire. We have to make it sure they are attached firmly. Next, cover the other side of the stick with a plastic tube cut for about 1.5cm long. This tube must fit tightly to the stick. It could be tricky to accomplish this procedure. After casing the other end, wrap the point with a double-sided tape, then wind a jute string tightly around. Securing both ends of the string with instant glue, and a drumstick for this bamboo instrument is done.

Securely fastened joint mat

Plastic tubes for another end

In order to secure the tube,
we slightly sharpen the stick with a rasp.

Secured tube is now covered with a double-sided tape.

The end wrapped with jute string.
The string is applied super-glue.

As a sort of afterthought, we can make a stand for this (maybe) percussion with the remaining foam flooring like this. Each part is simply glued.

My stand

To make sounds, we can use either side of the stick. With the mat, we hit the mouths of the instrument and make dry sounds. With the string-wrapped mallet, we hit the body of the instrument, which creates more echoing sound inside the pipe. The drumstick can be a stick for guiro. After making it, I felt joy. I hit and scratched the instrument until I reached the bus stop with another adult passengers waiting for the bus to come … They saw me in a puzzling face. “What is she doing?" Being an adult is boring.

If you find a problem in the greenery of north-half of Yokohama, please make contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North
北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Green Environment Bureau
横浜市みどり創造局

Phone: 045-353-1166
FAX：045-352-3086
email: mk-hokubukoen@city.yokohama.lg.jp

Kakishibu Dyeing III: Simple is the way

 

Now we start actually dyeing a fabric with Kakishibu. It’s very easy. There is not much elaborated procedure as long as we simply dye cloth without making pattern.

1. First, wash the fabric with detergent to remove any chemical coating. For Kakishibu dyeing, it does not matter if the material is the protein-based, i.e. wool, silk, et al, or not, i.e. cotton, linen, et al. For the standard natural dyeing, we have to make it sure if the fabric contains protein. For cotton and linen, as they are vegetable base, before dyeing we have to dip the material in soy milk. In contrast, Kakishibu can put color for any natural fabric. It’s enough to remove the layer of chemical that can block Kakishibu.

2. Make sure the fabric is damp.

3. Concoct Kakishibu solution for dyeing. “How to” depends on the thickness of Kakishibu concentrate we purchase. For our case in Niiharu, 150-200ml Kakishibu was diluted by 200ml of water, i.e. 1 to 1, for 34g of pure cotton to be dyed. Don’t forget to use a stainless or plastic bowl, unless you plan to dye the container simultaneously.

The bottle we bought via internet.

Diluting the concentration.

4. Soak the damp fabric in Kakishibu liquid and rub the liquid into the fabric for about 10 minutes.

The cotton was put into the liquid.

Working on it.
Please use good rubber gloves in this process.

5. Squeeze the liquid and dry the fabric completely.

Drying

You can repeat the process #1-5 as much as you like while the solution remains in the bowl. The more you rub the liquid, the more the color deeper. I did the process 3 times, and here is what I obtained.

At this stage, the texture of a fabric is “stiff.” When you plan to have rough feel from the Kakishibu-dyed fabric, you should stop here. Or you can proceed to mordant. Mordant liquid will make your hardened fabric return to soft. When you use alum as mordant, the color of the fabric becomes brighter. In contrast, with iron-mordant the color turns dark grey. The standard for mordant process requires 10 minutes or so of bathing the dyed fabric in mordant. Here is what I get from my hand-made iron mordant.

Iron bathing let the color of the fabric this dark. After 10 minutes, squeeze the fabric and wash it with water. Squeeze the liquid well and dry it completely.

I simply expected the color of my mini-tote remained such grey of immediately after-drying. Nah. When the bag was dried entirely, it becomes like this.

I am very happy to meet this sudden blueish grey. Such unexpected encounter should be the charm of Kakishibu dyeing. I found the entire process uncomplicated. I think I’ll try dyeing another fabric with Kakishibu especially for some outdoor cloth. No wonder our ancestors used the liquid so often for many materials to make them sturdy. Simple is the best!

If you find a problem in the greenery of north-half of Yokohama, please make contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North
北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Green Environment Bureau
横浜市みどり創造局

Phone: 045-353-1166
FAX：045-352-3086
email: mk-hokubukoen@city.yokohama.lg.jp

Kakishibu Dyeing II: how to make iron mordant for natural dyeing

 

Let me tell you how to make iron mordant for Kakishibu dyeing. This mordant can be used for any natural dyeing for making the dyed color in darker shade. Knowing the process may be useful for natural dyeing beginners.

<Necessary items to make iron mordant for natural dyeing>

1. Steel wool: For this, I was stupid. At the beginning I thought stainless steel is steel so that we can use it for making mordant. Of course, Nah. We need good-ol steel wool. I waited for about a week with stainless steel wool to be stained and was naturally disappointed. Stained? I explain it below.

2. A glass jar with a lid

3. H2O 

4. White vinegar; the cheapest would do the perfect job. The required acidity is 4-5%.

Steel wool. No-no to stainless!

Now here is how to. It’s simple if you can avoid the obvious mistake of using stainless steel!

1. Wet the steel wool in a jar thoroughly. At this stage, no need to fill the jar of steel wool by water. Leave the jar as such without lid. The objective of this process is to rust the entire wool. The damp steel wool should react with O2 in the air. No-rid could accelerate the chemical reaction between iron and O2. But it can dry the wool quickly before becoming rusty. Keep moisturizing the steel is the key. Please be attentive.

2. When the entire steel wool becomes rusty, add water. I simply added H2O in the jar until the wool is completely soaked.

3. Add white vinegar. The ratio of water and vinegar is 1 to 1. But no need to be exact. I poured vinegar in eyeballed amount. My jar looked like

4. Close the jar with a lid and leave it in the shade for at least 24 hours. Leave the jar longer, the mordant becomes stronger. As I was in a mess with my PC Topy 5, I left it for more than two weeks, and the jar became

The darker the color, the quality of the mordant is better. I achieved it without intention. Phew, thank God. This blackish liquid is hand-made iron mordant. To use it, strain the liquid with paper coffee filter, and use it at the concentration of your choice. The more iron concentrated for the mordant, the darker the stabilized color of dyed fabric. I dunked my Kakishibu dyed linen bag in the mordant without adding water for about 15 minutes. In the stainless (Yes!) bowl, the color of the bag looked like

How it turned to the end product is a surprise. More to it, in addition to how to Kakishibu dyeing, is for next week. 😉

If you find a problem in the greenery of north-half of Yokohama, please make contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North
北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Green Environment Bureau
横浜市みどり創造局

Phone: 045-353-1166 

FAX：045-352-3086
email: mk-hokubukoen@city.yokohama.lg.jp