The Forming Process of a Minshuku Region in Hakuba Mura, Nagano Prefecture

Abstract

Minshuku are cheap lodging houses or their management in a tourist resort. Most of them are usually operated by farmers and fishers as their side work. Minshuku has rapidly developed since about 1960 with the increase of recreational demands in Japan and minshuku regions have emerged here and there. Generally they were typical agricultural or fishing regions in less-developed areas in Japan. It is an urgent subject to clarify the conditions for the forming process of a minshuku region. The aim of this paper is to present the explanatory model of the forming process of a minshuku region by describing a representative one, in order to make clear where and on what conditions the minshuku region has been formed.Studies about minshuku are still few and requiring further systematic consideration for the studies. The author already wrote a paper which deals with the actual status of the development of minshuku in Japan. In this paper he made clear that the minshuku regions can be classified into those located at coastal bathing resorts and those located near skiing grounds. For that reason he examines here the forming process of a minshuku region, taking the case of Hakuba Mura, Nagano Prefecture, as a typical latter type.The results are summarized in Table 6.The period from about 1910 till world War 2 was the germinal stage for minshuku. In this period the region was primarily agricultural, for each household in this region made a living most by farming. But the agricultural productivity was very low in the case of most other snowy and cold highlands. Hence the farmers had necessarily to supplement their income by non-agricultural economic activities. Such state stimulated the emergence and development of minshuku with the spread of skiing and mountain climbing as sports, particularly since around 1930. Mountain slopes in this highland were generally wastelands or broad-leef woodlands, where the farmers were gathering grasses, straws and fuel woods. Such conditions could easily be used for making skiing grounds.The second stage was the period from World War 2 to about 1960. In this period the development of the region as a tourist resort got into its stride. After World War 2 the development of tourism such as the installation of ski lifts was made by the local capitals earlier than other similar regions, because Hakuba Mura was already well known as a tourist resort. It attracted the Tokyu capital of Tokyo, one of the greatest private railway companies and nation-wide tourist enterprises, which played later a large role in the development of Hakuba Mura. In these circumustances the farmers have made possible the development of minshuku by the best use of various regional conditions such as the presence of silkworm rearing rooms and stables or the low productive mountain slopes, which originated in the former economic activities. On the other hand, the techniques for rice growing have advanced and the compound management of minshuku with rice growing has been settled, because of the stability of producer price of rice and the better seasonal distribution of labour.The third stage was the period after 1961. In this period the capital investment for minshuku has been popularized and a result was differentiation of minshuku in respect to the scale of management. Various other tourist developments have also been made. Part of arable lands near the regional center have been converted to tourist facilities like parking places, sports grounds and so on by some of the minshuku which rely largely on minshuku rather than on agriculture. Many parts of wastelands and broad-leef woodlands were changed into skiing grounds and mountain cottage lands. For these developments much of the communal lands have been well utilized.