伊豆半島松崎町における桜葉畑景観の成立過程

Abstract

The leaves of Oshima cherry (Prunus Wilson var. speciosa Makino) are edible and used to wrap sakuramochi. Seventy percent of leaves of the Oshima cherry are produced in Matsuzaki town, Izu Peninsula. In this town, cherry trees are cultivated for harvesting their leaves. These trees are closely planted and pruned, enabling them to grow many tillers, which spread out and form the distinctive landscape in this area. In this study, we investigated the actual distribution, forming process of leaves in cherry tree fields, and change in the production process in Matsuzaki town. From the results, we assumed that the number of cherry trees planted corresponded to the amount of charcoal produced. However, the field cultivation method of cherry trees was devised only by the end of the 1960s, after the production of charcoal decreased due to an energy revolution, which resulted in a crisis in the cherry tree leaf production. It was considered that cherry tree fields were distributed throughout Matsuzaki town. However, our results show that these fields are unevenly distributed.