Hello everyone!
How are you doing?
It was the season of controlled burning in Aso. It is called “Noyaki”, the direct translation is “Field buring”.
Noyaki history in Aso started over 1000 years ago. I was a part of it the other day.
Each local communities takes responsibility for each area.
The area I live in is near Komezuka, a cinder cone.
There is a paved firebreaks in our area from the bottom to near Komezuka, so it is a lot easier to control the fire and also moving up and down.
Japanese tiny track is perfect for agriculture in Japan, at Noyaki as well, we were jumping on the bed of track and cruising around the grassland.
The yellow tank was full of water. They shot the water time to time when the fire was too strong. Also they wet the grass by the firebreaks ahead to stop the fire expanding.
The experienced guys were putting fire on the grass with gas burner.
It had been dried for a week then it was a perfect day for burning.
There was a little bit of wind, the fire spread fast, and the dry grass burned nice and spotless.
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Our area is in between of 2 other communities’ burning area.
If we start burning earlier than the others, the fire would go over the border and be out of control so the captain was contacting with other area and made sure to put the fire on at the same time as the fire would meet in the middle of the field then it wouldn’t expand anymore.
For example, at this photo, the fire met where the cedar trees were.
This stick people carrying is to extinguish the small fire.
We slapped the small fire left by the firebreaks (driving path) with this stick.
We soaked them in water over night, night before.
I was surprised how it worked!
I learned how to make this traditional fire extinguisher with local person.
It is made by all natural materials. I was clumsy… As you can tell, the one on the far right is mine…..I hope I will do better next year!!
It was really good experience to join Noyaki with locals, and it was very interesting to talk with elderly people. They have a lot of nice stories about Aso.
I could tell that they were proud of what they were doing, and they sincerely loved this great nature of Aso.
Bato-Kannon,a type of Buddha at our area was watching over us.
The amazing view of Aso had been protected by people.
Not only the geography or land scape, but the culture and history is really attractive.
We were looking forward to seeing you at amazing Aso before too long!
Kana
