Tokushima - Where Teamwork Runs Deep

The best way to discover little-known sights and make even familiar places feel brand new, is to go exploring by bicycle.

In this episode, we'll explore Tokushima, with its beautiful coasts and lushly forested mountains.

It's April, and spring is in the air.

This is like an animal trail!

Tokushima's toughness breeds cooperation and community.

One person can't farm like this.
It takes two people, working together.

And its traditional arts also stress collective effort.

Discover what binds the people of Tokushima.

Let's go!

Tokushima is part of Shikoku, one of Japan's four major islands.

It's a one hour and twenty minute flight from Tokyo.

Good morning.

We have arrived here in Tokushima, and it is an absolutely beautiful day.

Bobby Judo is American, born in Florida.

He's active as a local TV personality in Kyūshū, making the most of his cooking skills.

CYCLE AROUND JAPAN Tokushima trip.

Let's go.

Clear blue skies, great sunny conditions with a really strong wind.

Hello.

To start, Bobby rides along the coast.

This picturesque route, with several bridges between islands, is popular with cyclists.

What a great view.

Oh, wow.

That's fantastic.

Yeah!

Huge broad stretch of river.

This is the Yoshino River.

After riding along the coast, he arrives at the mouth of the Yoshino River.

Wow. It's a long bridge.

The bridge takes us across the river near its mouth to the city of Tokushima.

The city's origins lie in farming communities that prospered thanks to the fertile soil carried here by the Yoshino River.

Bobby has an objective in coming to this city.

They're right in the middle of something inside.

This high school has a club where students study a traditional performing art.

It's called "Awa Ningyō Jōruri," a kind of puppet theater accompanied by "shamisen" and "taiko" drums.

It depicts the turmoil of the samurai and the lives of the common people.

It's been a popular Tokushima entertainment for over 300 years.

Here, it's being practiced by the high school's eight-member performing folk arts club.

This is one of very few schools that offer "jōruri" as an extracurricular activity.

- I hope I'm not interrupting.
- You're welcome!

Those are crazy high sandals.

I need to be this high up for the puppet.

- What's most fun about doing this?
- When a big audience really enjoy it.

Your puppet moves so naturally.
It's surreal.

It really feels like I'm seeing four people.

The puppeteers work as a team of three.

Each is responsible for moving a different part of the puppet.

- How do you all work the puppet?
- I operate the head and the right arm.

- The head moves too?
- Yes, like this.

I do the left hand, using this lever.

That's how you make the wrist action look real.

- And what about you in the back?
- I hold it like this to move the legs.

Puppets are constructed just as they were over 200 years ago.

Some date back to the club's founding.

Oh wow, look at that!

All these heads.

So many different expressions.
Their eyebrows move too!

- And one really handsome guy too.
- Which one?

Wow. You can make him blink as well.

The club was set up in 1956, with the aim of helping to preserve this art, which was declining in the face of new forms of entertainment.

The play they are practicing today is actually a prayer to the gods for a good harvest.

Good crops for the farmers,
good catches for the fishers.

The play is about the blessings of nature.
We should feel this as we perform.

These plays were always performed by the common people, so they reflect common themes and hopes.

Today's young performers are preserving one of their community's vital traditions.

That's just amazing to watch.

At times it moves so much like a real human being that you forget that there are people controlling it.

I'm in awe of all of the things that they can do.

Thank you very much.

A traditional art that exemplifies the very essence of teamwork.

Today, Bobby heads for a town called Tsurugi.

We are going to start heading up to the mountains.

Beautiful signs of spring.

Oh, it's a super scenic spot up here.

Hello!

Oh, this is gorgeous.

Over 300 cherry trees line the banks of the Ikunatani River.

He's now passing through Wakimachi, a part of Mima City.

There's buildings through here.

The fine old shops and homes of Wakimachi bear testimony to its history as a prosperous center of the region's indigo trade.

50 kilometers from Tokushima City, Bobby has arrived in Tsurugi.

We are good and deep into the mountains now.

There's this huge hill up there.

There's a couple of farmers out working on the side there.

- Hello there!
- Hello!

That looks like dangerous work.

Here I come!

What a slope. Must be at least 45 degrees.

- I think about 40 degrees.
- 40 degrees?

- This is like an animal trail!
- Plenty of wild beasts up here.

I can't believe how steep this is.

- What are you growing higher up there?
- That's all onions.

The Nishiokadas, Setsuko and Haruki, have been farming this land for more than 50 years.

We're up here every day. Whenever I come,
I make sure to greet the crops.

I say "Good morning, plants.
Thank you for growing so well."

This encourages the plants to grow.
It makes me happy too.

I guess I should greet your plants too?

Hi!

Are they OK with English?

Farming began on Tsurugi's steep slopes 400 years ago, for crops like potato and buckwheat.

Pull up towards your feet.
You always rake upwards.

That's good.

Now I dump it higher up.
So this is how you till the soil here?

I should keep doing it like this?

Each time it rains the soil slides downhill, so they have to continually rake it back up to keep their field intact.

This is really hard work.

One person can't farm like this.
It takes two people, working together.

It's impossible for one person.
You have to work together with another.

Neighboring families help each other out in the fields at harvest time.

It's a community where everyone shares both the work and the fruits of the harvest.

A constant problem here is the way the stone-filled soil quickly wears away their tools.

Rocks and soil slowly grind down the prongs.

They were originally this long.
I've been using this one for about a year now.

Each farmer gets their tools made specially,
since everyone's fields are different.

The blacksmith custom makes them for us.

Hello!

Omori Toyoharu is actually a farmer too, but one who taught himself blacksmithing skills.

He fixes each farmer's tools to match the different inclines of their hillside fields.

- How do you repair a pitchfork?
- I make the prongs longer again.

How can you do that?

By welding on more metal,
then hammering it out to the right length.

I see.

Once everywhere, village blacksmiths were disappearing as populations declined.

Omori had always repaired his own tools, so the villagers turned to him to do the job.

Better move back or get burned.

- Is this work profitable?
- You must be joking!

You can't turn a profit doing this nowadays.

- The money doesn't cover your time and materials?
- That's right. Nothing left at the end of the day.

So how do you make a living?

I get jobs as a handyman, and people
are kind enough to help me to work my fields.

Today, Omori is the area's only remaining blacksmith.

The support he provides is essential for farmers like the Nishiokadas who work this difficult terrain.

- How do you see your future going?
- Well, I'm 82 so I could just pop off anytime.

So I don't really have any dreams or hopes.
I just try to make each day interesting.

I might go at any time, who knows?
I try to live in the present.

Harsh environments nurture a spirit of cooperation.

The last day takes Bobby to Oboke, an area surrounded by 1,000-meter mountains.

You look off to the left here, you can really see we are smack dab in the middle of these huge mountains.

Villages here cling precariously to these steep mountain slopes.

We've now arrived at Oboke, in the heart of this region.

A train station here and a cluster of buildings right around the station.

What is going on here?

Good morning! That looks amazing.

- What was that?
- Hello and welcome.

Yamaguchi Yukiko runs the village's only supermarket.

Her village has a population of just 79, but she can get over 200 customers a day.

The first thing she does is fit Bobby up with a local costume.

- Do you do this for every visitor who comes here?
- Yes, everyone likes it.

What do you sell here?
Vegetables?

It looks like a regular supermarket, but the difference is that many items on these shelves are brought in directly by the villagers.

These are "udo," grown in the mountains.

I added some fish.

That was really delicious.

Prices are all set by the farmers themselves.

Whatever they bring, Yamaguchi will sell for them.

An attraction of this store is the range of food you can't buy anywhere else, a selection that changes day to day.

She will sell anything for us.
I'm having fun, even at my age.

Yamaguchi also encourages the community to use their skills to make new products.

- We call this "bokeage."
- It's fried tofu, right?

Fried tofu is a popular item everywhere in Japan, but Bobby has never seen it as big as this.

It was my idea, but she makes them.
Her fried tofu is famous.

- You make this?
- I've been doing it for 50 years.

So I talked her into making them.

- What did you think of her idea?
- Well, at first I wasn't sure I could do it.

Whenever a train is due, Yamaguchi makes her way over to the station.

- Oh, here it comes now.
- Get ready.

Every visitor is a potential customer for the store.

More than just a driving force in village life, Yamaguchi herself is one of the attractions for visitors to this valley.

I want to reach out to a wider audience.

To let the world know about our great area,
and the people living here.

I want people to come here and see our way of life,
how we put everything into living well.

A shop where everyone leaves with a smile on their face.

This is where we're headed. Shiozuka kogen.

We're going to start heading up into the mountains again.

Time for the final spurt.

Bobby's goal is now just 10 kilometers away.

Good lord!

That's a steep climb.

We made it!

Stairs!

Amazing.

Absolutely gorgeous.

360 degrees surrounded by mountains.

This point is at the very edge of Tokushima, looking over into neighboring Ehime.

This time, everything that we saw kind of depended on teamwork, depended on being able to help each other.

And I think a lot of that grows out of the environment that they live in.

And to have that line of generations and generations going back in that same area, supporting each other, the sense of reciprocity, this mutual feedback of the land

supports the people and the people take care of the land.

It's a really, really nice cycle.

A tradition of working together, caring for the land and for each other.