Damming the Agatsuma River| an Exploration of Changing Space and Place in Kawarayu, Japan
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University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1997 Damming the Agatsuma River| An exploration of changing space and place in Kawarayu, Japan Michael Edward Gorton The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Gorton, Michael Edward, "Damming the Agatsuma River| An exploration of changing space and place in Kawarayu, Japan" (1997). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 1972. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/1972 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. 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DAMMING THE AGATSUMA RIVER: AN EXPLORATION OF CHANGING SPACE AND PLACE IN KAWARAYU, JAPAN By Michael Edward Gorton B.J., The University of Missouri-Columbia, 1990 Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts The University of Montana 1997 Approved by , Board of Examiners Dean, Graduate School n - I- q 1 Date UMI Number: EP35088 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI OiftsartAtion Publishing UMI EP35088 Published by ProQuest LLC (2012). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code uest ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 4 8 1 0 6 - 1346 Gorton, Michael E., M.A., June 1997 Geogi aphy Damming the Agatsuma River: An Exploration of Changing Space and Place in Kawarayu, Japan (84 pp) Director: Jeffrey A. Gritzner The rural hot-spring community of Kawarayu is locked in a forty-year struggle with Japan’s most powerful government agency — the Ministry of Construction — over reconstruction and compensation related to the construction of Yamba Dam. At stake is the village's very hvelihood and character. What has the community done to maintain its sense of geographical identity? Will the village be able to successfully rebuild? These are the broad questions behind this exploration of changing space and place. In tracing these broader questions, this research weaves together many smaller threads. It considers Japan's water-resource situation, and why the government says the country needs Yamba Dam. It looks at citizen protest and also the unique cultural characteristics shaping attachments to place in rural Japan. The background of the Kawarayu's protest is another important strand, as are the measures the community has taken to preserve its identity. Some problems facing the future of reconstruction are also discussed. The original hypothesis was that strong ties to place, driven by cultural and geographical factors, fueled the protest against the government over Yamba Dam. Further exploration of the issues revealed, however, that it is not so simple. Discontent within the community regarding the Ministry of Construction's methods of implementing construction plans has fueled further opposition. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Of the many people to whom I should like to express my gratitude for help in this project, the first is Julia Keffer. as it was she who introduced me to the people of Naganohara, sparking my interest in Japan and Asia. Next, I should like to thank all of the people in the Naganohara Town Hall and in the Kawarayu community who gave of themselves to help me gather the information for this project. Of these, I should like to mention Mayor Tamura Mamoru, Ichimura Satoshi, Takebuchi Tsuyoshi, Tomioka Hideaki, Hida Tomijiro, and Takeda Hiroe, all to whom I owe a special debt of giatitude. I am deeply gi ateful as well to Toshiharu and Kazuko Yamaguchi for accepting Julia and I into their home while I can'ied out my fieldwork. I should also like to thank my committee members for their guidance and support through the research process: Jeffi ey Gritzner, Chair; Evan Denney; Judith Rabinovitch; Philip West. The staff at Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center has also been very supportive of my studies. I should like to thank the Mansfield Center for financially supporting my study through a half-time gi aduate assistantship. m TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... ü ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......................................................................................... iü LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ...................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................ vi Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 2. TALE OF A HOT SPRING VILLAGE.................................................... 9 3. CITIZEN PROTEST AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL DEBATE . 22 4. LEGACIES OF PROTEST.......................................................................... 37 5. QUESTIONS OF RECONSTRUCTION................................................. 51 6. CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................................68 APPENDIX ........................................................................................................................74 REFERENCES CITED .................................................................................................75 IV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Naganohara’s Location in Japan and East Asia ........................................ 2 2. The Ten Villages of Naganohara....................................................................... 3 3. The Kawarayu Area............................................................................................. 13 4. The Yamba Dam Reservoir ................................................................................ 14 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Selected Reconstruction Costs Associated with Yamba Dam................. 54 2. Proposed Goals, Guides, and Devices for Rebuilding Kawarayu............. 57 VI CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In 1952, the Ministry of Construction announced plans for Yamba Dam on the Agatsuma River. Its reservoir would flood all or part of five districts of Naganohara Town, including the hot-spring village of Kawarayu. Through a long and bitter struggle with the Ministry of Construction, Naganohara negotiated the right to rebuild the town. This study focuses upon the protest against Yamba Dam and the measures the people have taken to maintain their community after the dam is constructed.^ The story about Yamba Dam began for me forty years after it began for Naganohara, when my wife, Julia Keffer, and I moved to the community from Montana in 1992. She worked teaching English in the junior high and elementary schools. I eventually started working in the Planning and Tourism Section of the Naganohara Town Hall. At the outset, neither of us spoke Japanese. Learning the language became a priority living in this rural community of seven thousand where few spoke English. Despite the barriers to communication, Julia and I felt accepted by the community. We worked hard to develop a sense of place for ourselves. It was during our long weekend walks thi'ough the villages in all seasons that we came to appreciate the quiet 1 The fifiy-two-square-mile Naganohara Town was incorporated during the Meiji reforms of 1888. Ten villages, including Kawarayu, were brought together under one administrative roof based in the centrally located village of Naganohara. Figure 1 shows the location of Naganohara Town. Figure 2 shows the locations of the ten villages constituting Naganohara Town. Gunma Prefecture ncrth Figure 1 : Naganohara's Location in Japan and East Asia Naganohara 4 Scale 20 Kilometers 3 Figure 2: The Ten Villages of Naganohara Kawarahata ■ Otsu Kawarayu Naganohara Hayashi Haneo Yokiya Yokokabe Okuwa Legend H ighway Scale 3 Km Kitakaruizawa beauty of Kawarayu and the warm spirit of the people who lived there. Because of my own growing personal attachment to the place, the purpose of my exploration was to leam how the people of Naganohara were responding to the threat of the dam. This research is in many ways connected to the kind of explorations the National Research Council refers to in its 1997 book, Rediscovering Geographv. The book outlines how geographers are exploring inten elated economic,