Gokanosho

A collective name for the five former villages of Hagi, Nitao, Momiki, Shiibaru, and Kureko, which occupy the eastern half of the Izumicho district (formerly Izumi Village) in Yatsushiro City, eastern Kumamoto Prefecture. Located in the upper reaches of the Kawabe River, a tributary of the Kuma River, and surrounded by mountains 1,300 to 1,700 meters high that form the backbone of the Kyushu Mountains, the area has been considered a hidden place along with Itsuki Village to the south. The river valley is deep and waterfalls can be seen in many places, but the mountain shapes are simple and not steep, with many gentle slopes. As with other villages deep in the mountains of Japan, the residence of refugees and woodworkers is the mainstay of the village's founding traditions. The fact that this regional unit has been passed down unchanged through successive rulers, from the Aso clan, to the Hosokawa clan, to the Amakusa magistrate (tenryo), is due not only to geographical isolation, but also to the strong control of the land stewards (who were treated as ojoya under the magistrate's rule) who oversaw the settlements scattered on the gentle slopes of the mountainside and on the river terraces, and the strong solidarity between the land stewards. It is said that hereditary land stewards owned and controlled areas the size of old villages during the Edo period. Koba-saku (slash-and-burn farming) was practiced to secure food and agricultural products in this region, and tenant farming was carried out with the land steward as the landlord and the peasants as tenant farmers. Since the Edo period, land stewards had been dividing and transferring forest land to their peasants, but after the Meiji Restoration, forestry-related slash-and-burn farming began to be practiced, and transfers increased, and rent for the tenant farming practice could now be paid not only with the harvest but also with the labor required for planting trees. These changes did not play out uniformly in the five former villages; in the first half of the 1930s, the tenant farming practice had almost disappeared in Hagaki and Momigi, and it was common for each farmer to practice kiba cropping (growing buckwheat, foxtail millet, adzuki beans, taro, etc.) on their private land. However, in Kureko, Shiihara, and Nitao, the tenant farming practice is said to have continued until the second half of the 1950s.

Except for the period of food shortages around the end of the war, much of this land was slash-and-burn farmland created by burning scrub forests to prepare the ground for reforestation. The spread of reforestation increased the demand for forest roads to transport timber, and in response, the Gokasho Forest Road was constructed, with its entire length (approximately 25 kilometers) opened over a period of 14 years from 1943 (Showa 18). It was an opportunity to escape from this remote region, and today part of it has been upgraded to National Route 445, strengthening its role as a tourist road. Tourist attractions include the mountains, waterfalls (Sendan Todoro), and virgin forests that form the heart of Itsuki-Gokasho Prefectural Natural Park, as well as a suspension bridge over a deep valley and a mosaic-like forest landscape reminiscent of the remains of kiba-saku farming. There is also an ancient dance (a national selected intangible folk cultural property, Kureko), Kagura dance (Hagiki and Momigi), moon worship and waiting for the 23rd night of the year (Nitao), puppet spinning (Nitao), and the large thatched, hipped-roofed house of the former land lord's family (Nitao).

[Yamaguchi Morito]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

熊本県東部、八代市(やつしろし)の泉町地区（旧泉村）の東半を占める葉木(はぎ)、仁田尾(にたお)、樅木(もみき)、椎原(しいばる)、久連子(くれこ)の旧村5か村の総称。球磨(くま)川の支流、川辺(かわべ)川の最上流域で、周囲を九州山地の脊梁(せきりょう)をなす1300～1700メートルの山々で縁どられていることから、南接の五木村(いつきむら)とともに秘境とされてきた。河谷は深く、各所に滝がみられるが、山容は単純で、急峻(きゅうしゅん)さに欠け、緩傾斜面が多い。日本の山地の深奥村の例にたがわず、落人(おちゅうど)・木地師(きじし)居住が村立て伝承の柱になっている。阿蘇(あそ)氏、細川氏、天草(あまくさ)代官（天領）と支配者がかわるなかで、この地域的単位が不変のまま継承されてきたことは、地形的隔絶もさることながら、山腹の緩傾斜地や、河岸段丘上に点在する集落を統括してきた地頭(じとう)（代官治下では大庄屋(おおじょうや)待遇）の支配力の強さと、地頭相互の連帯の強さとにもよろう。世襲の地頭は、江戸時代には旧村規模の範域を領有、支配していたといわれる。この地域の食糧農産物確保のための木場作(こばさく)（焼畑耕作）には、地頭を地主に、百姓を小作人とする焼畑の小作経営が存在していた。江戸時代から地頭の百姓への山林分割譲渡はあったが、明治維新後、林業的焼畑もみられるようになって、譲渡も増え、また小作慣行の小作料も、収穫物だけでなく、植林手間でも支払いができるようになった。これらの変質は、旧村5か村において一様に展開したのではなく、昭和10年代前半では、葉木、樅木では小作慣行はほぼ消滅し、各農家は私有地に木場作（ソバ、アワ、アズキ、サトイモなどを栽培）を行うのが普通であった。しかし、久連子、椎原、仁田尾では小作慣行は昭和30年代後半まで行われていたという。

　終戦前後の食糧難の時期を除けば、その多くは、植林のための地拵(じごしら)えを前提にした雑木林地の火入れによって造成された焼畑耕作地であった。植林の普及は、用材搬出のための林道開削要求を高め、これに応じて建設された「五ヶ荘林道」は、1943年（昭和18）から14か年の歳月をかけて全線（約25キロメートル）開通し、秘境からの脱出の契機となったと同時に、今日では、その一部は国道445号に昇格し、観光道的性格を強めている。観光対象には、五木五家荘県立自然公園の中心をなす山岳、滝（栴檀轟(せんだんとどろ)）、原生林などのほかに、深い谷に架かった吊橋(つりばし)、木場作跡をしのばせるモザイク状の森林景観、さらに秘境であったがために伝えられている古代踊（国の選択無形民俗文化財、久連子）、神楽(かぐら)（葉木・樅木）、月拝み・二十三夜待ち（仁田尾）、人形回し（仁田尾）、旧地頭家の大屋根の茅葺(かやぶ)き寄棟造(よせむねづくり)民家（仁田尾）などがあげられる。

［山口守人］

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