The Forming Process and Inner Structure of Minshuku Community A Case Study of Suginosawa, Niigata Prefecture

• Published in: Japanese Journal of Human Geography Vol. 32; no. 4; pp. 312 - 327
• Main Author: KONISHI, Masao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: The Human Geographical Society of Japan 1980
• DOI: 10.4200/jjhg1948.32.312
• ISSN: 0018-7216

In Japan, the number of minshuku (private hostel) has increased after World War II, especially in the 1960s, when skiing, fishing and swimming became more popular, and farmers and fishers began to try another way to gain their income by offering their private rooms for tourist. Thus minshuku has increased and the region has spread at the foot of a mountain and along the seashore. This phenomenon is regarded by geographers as one aspect of the economic improvement of underdeveloped regions and of the inhabitants there. And the existence of non-minshuku households in the neighbourhood of minshuku households is often neglected and paid no attention to. The author, however, points out that such a phenomenon as mentioned above should not be dealt with only from the economic point of view, but also from the view point of total change in the social system of the community including non-minshuku households. Village that has not a few minshuku households in it is not a mere minshuku region but forms a “minshuku community.” The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the forming process and the inner structure of minshuku community. Suginosawa, the area studied, is one of the typical minshuku regions in Joshinetsu Highland National Park, located on a snowy mountain-side in Niigata prefecture. In this village, more than 100 minshuku households for skiers are found, which comprise 40% of the households. The new enterprise of minshuku is not necessarily effective enough to improve their economic conditions. The reason why minshuku has increased in Suginosawa should be considered from the social point of view; that is, the remarkable system of traditional society should also be taken into consideration. Its forming process is as follows. The leaders of this community found it desirable to increase the number of minshuku households, because they had already started minshuku and wished to expand the ski ground, but part of the lot for a new ski ground was under control of the community as a whole. By increasing the number of minshuku, they could easily change the land utilization from woods to a ski ground. In various ways, the leaders encouraged the non-minshuku households to set up minshuku. Still, 60% of the households in Suginosawa are non-minshuku. Yet most of them hold some relation to minshuku and ski ground management. In the first place, they often serve at the neighbouring minshuku managed by their relatives, just in the same way as they help them to farm the land. What is more, the rent of their common land for ski ground is used for the improvement of their residential environment, for example, pavement of the main road, construction of their community hall, etc., just in the same way as they made use of the common woods for the material of their houses. In consequence, to gain more income is not the only reason minshuku has increased in this village. And the increase of minshuku has influenced most of the households. The author, therefore, regards the case in Suginosawa as “minshuku community” rather than minshuku region, the village making up a “community for ski ground management.” It is often said in Japan that the traditional community system prevents the village (region) from developing or modernizing. But in Suginosawa, the system has had the function to develop and modernize the village. So, the author concludes that geographical research for minshuku and modernization of a rural region should be made having in mind the thought that a traditional social system can often bring a modern system into it.