Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
environment (
Sake shinbun: salmon news
1995:12). Baba himself signals his intent in
the title to one of the chapters in his topic, 'Environmental education with salmon
as symbol'.
One of the older symbolic ritual acts involving animals is the Buddhist ceremony
known as
h je,
in which on the fifteenth day of the eighth month birds and fish
were released in a gesture affirming belief in the sanctity of all animal life (Nihon
F zoku Gakkai 1979:594). Later the ritual spread from the grounds of temples, and
fish, turtles and other animals could be purchased for immediate release and
acquisition of instant karma. There is no suggestion that those involved in releasing
salmon fry into Tokyo rivers are conscious of any link to the
hje
ritual, but they
are insistent on the symbolic nature of the act. Beliefs and myths connected with
salmon can be found in many parts of Japan, especially in the north of the country,
where salmon were farmed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and where
artificial incubation has been practised since the year 1900. Salmon farming in the
north of Japan was part of the rhythm of the seasons, an activity that dovetailed
comfortably with work in the rice fields (Baba 1985:51).
While the annual programme to breed and release salmon from Tokyo's rivers
has been considered a significant success, from an ecological point of view it raises a
number of awkward questions. Indeed, the release of hundreds of thousands of salmon
fry into rivers in which there is no reliable historical evidence of their previous
presence has invited criticism from ecologists and others more concerned about
biological authenticity and the viability of ecosystems than about salmon as symbols
of clean water and nature redeemed (Kishi Y ji, interview, 15 November 1996).
Fireflies, dragonflies and the culture of insects
The release of salmon is a fairly crude way to measure environmental health, and
salmon themselves are peripheral within Japanese animal folklore. The same cannot
be said, however, of fireflies, whose nocturnal twinkling has been celebrated ever
since the beginning of written Japanese records. Over recent years, fireflies have
become central to a popular discourse concerning community rebirth and the
reintroduction of nature into urban areas, to the point almost where they have
become a media-enhanced obsession.
4
In urban areas large and small up and down
the country, attempts have been made, many of them less than successful, to
introduce or reintroduce fireflies and dragonflies to streams and ponds. These
activities have been linked to a broad programme of community reintegration and
urban regeneration.
In Japan's second most populous city, Yokohama, dragonflies and fireflies have
been selected to represent a cleansed and purified nature. They have been selected,
according to Mori Seiwa, the originator of the campaign, because they make
abstract concepts more directly understandable and because they give both local
government and local residents a target in their work to restore wildlife habitats
(Mori 1995:26). The significance of the choice of fireflies and dragonflies lies in
their need for clean water. Uniquely among firefly species, the two types most
