I’d dropped my digital camera in the river earlier that day, so I was forced to use my old Minolta SRT after the lens began steaming up. We spent this day on the farm of Tanaka-san, the father of one of the locals we were travelling with. Tucked away in an isolated location on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, I learned about the life of these horse farmers.
The harsh landscapes of the northern island of Hokkaido are amongst Japan’s most uninhabitable. Its people endure long hard winters with a climate closer to that of Europe’s northern extremes than mainland Japan. Kushiro in the South East has less snow than other areas of the island but this only means that the deep winter temperatures become significantly colder than anywhere else. The climate also affects the temperament of its inhabitants who generally have more patience than their neighbors on the mainland; they understand the power of nature, constantly reminded of its extremes, even developing their own vocabulary to describe the cold. The Japanese history of the island is still young, however, the first settlers came here in 1869, pioneers from all across Japan adopting influences from Russia and the native Ainu people as they struggled to make a life in this new environment.
The Tanaka family has been breeding Ban’ei, or working horses as they’re known in Japan, for 74 years on their farm in Tsurui, a remote area just outside Kushiro. Tanaka-san’s father, a first generation migrant from Hyogo, started farming after their family restaurant was destroyed by fire. Back then they had buffalo, sheep, goats, turkeys and even ducks. Now almost 81, he and his wife still work the long ten-hour days required to manage the 28 horses they have, along with a stable of cattle.
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