Japanese village course teaches sustainable eating through hunting experience

To live is to eat. To eat is to live.

In modern society, opportunities to learn about the value of life are few and far between. How many of us really consider that the meat and fish we casually consume every day were once living beings? There are even children who believe that the sliced fish sold in supermarkets are swimming in the river as they are.

In the remote Chichibu mountain range (Yamanashi and Saitama Prefectures), where the ancient wolf worship tradition has deep roots, hunting remains a thriving practice in the sparsely populated village of Tabayama, the least populous village in the Kanto region of Japan.

Surrounded by mountains over 2,000 meters high, including Mt. Kumotori, Mt. Hiryu and Mt. Daibosatsurei, and with the clear waters of the Tama River running through its source, the area is home to deer, wild boar, bears and other wildlife. These animals are captured and prepared for delicious meals. The hunters in the village of Tabayama show respect to their prey and waste nothing in their preparation and consumption of the animals.

Furthermore, the village’s hunters work tirelessly to maintain the forest’s environment, ensuring that the ecosystem is sustained for the continuous flourishing of plant and animal life, and that people can continue to live a prosperous life.

Cultural experience with local professionals

At the “Hunting School” located in Tabayama village, you can learn and experience the daily life of the village hunters, which revolves around hunting, eating, creating and nurturing. The school was established to make people feel the value of life that comes from the fact that the cut meat and fish used to be living animals, and to teach the connection between food and life through the processing of wild game meat.

The company, At Home Supporters, which operates the hunting school, promotes the effective use of deer as pests. Unlike in the case of livestock processing, the entire process from capturing, dressing and butchering to sales is done in-house. Therefore, they are in an environment where it is easy to feel the direct connection between food and life.

In the school this spring, the hunting for food education course called “HUNT EAT” for corporations and organizations will teach the importance of understanding the entire process from forest to table, through which living, wild creatures can be sustainably hunted and enjoyed as food.

In HUNT EAT, you can learn about the culture born in the vast nature of Tabayama Village, the natural environment and its problems in mountainous areas, as well as the connection between food and life by actually dressing the wild birds and beasts that grew up in that ecosystem and experiencing the entire process of consumption.

Program Flow

9:30– Visit to the game processing facility
-Introduction to the Tabajibie, a facility for processing village game meat
10:00– Trapping and game meat
-Explanation of trapping methods
-Trapping for game meat
-Importance of proper killing and field dressing
10:30– Butchering and processing of wild game meat
12:30– Lunch
-Providing dishes made with game meat
-Explanation of game meat dishes by the chef
13:30– The natural environment surrounding game meat
-Current status of forest environment damage caused by wild game animals
14:30– Tabayama village culture
-Tabayama hunting
-Regional beliefs
15:00– Q&A
15:30– Closing

The course can offer the experience to learn the environment surrounding nature, understand the current state of the forest environment, and capture prey. Life is precious and by respectfully consuming it, we are kept alive.

At the “Hunting School,” numerous distinct programs can be implemented to meet a variety of needs such as food education courses for elementary and junior high school students, SDGs training programs for companies and the introduction of regional revitalization activities in depopulated areas.

The school aims to offer an opportunity for all kinds of people to learn the rich traditions, unique challenges, and emerging strategies that can help us better understand our relationship with our food and our responsibility to the earth, future generations and the species around us.

Originally published on Livhub.