Bachiranu (ばちらぬん)

"The compassion of Yonaguni is just as it is told"

"Let us keep one another company as long as we are alive"

Thank you.

SOS (in Morse code)

You and I are completely different and also the same.

Being born as a human, I don't understand anything.

I wonder if the future me will remember...

... that I live here now

... and that I'm talking to you.

I doubt it.

It's easier to forget than we think.

Yet even if we want to keep as much as possible in both of our hands,

The passing of time leaves us with little.

"God of Toyama Utaki, we are in front of you"

"Please give us rainfall"

"The island withers from drought"

"Please give us rainfall"

"Our people are on the brink of death"

"Please give us rainfall"

"My request, from tonight"

"Please give us rainfall"

"This request, from tonight"

"Please give us rainfall"

"Oh, God of water for a bountiful harvest"

Forever and ever...

They'll get burned if you put them in the icebox right after catching them.

What happens if you shower in cold water right after sweating from exercise?

The outside of your body cools, but the internal heat remains, right?

So, you'll fall ill.

Fish have heat towards the core while their surface is cold.

They'll get burned if you cool them down rapidly from the outside.

A temperature gap between the internal and external heat

makes their flesh cracked and blistered.

If you want to sell them for even 1, 2 or 10 yen more,

you should handle them properly.

It's not only about catching the fish. Post-catch processing matters too.

Well, they're fine because they're for Sashimi.

But Marlin and such alike needs to be processed much quicker and more efficiently.

We are fragile, aren't we? You and I both...

I wonder if you will remember us.

In the past,

Elites from Yaeyama stationed in the local government office.

They bullied and oppressed the peasants in our island.

Households with five or six children...

They had to pay poll tax for those older than 15 or 16 years of age.

They owed 7 or 8 straw sacks per person.

Households that couldn't afford to pay struggled to survive

by transferring at least one or two of their kids to another household.

That's what our parents used to tell us.

Women had to pay tax with a textile called Kanai Irimono Guyufu.

Three reels per person...

They'd get in trouble if they didn't deliver three reels per person of the Kanai textile.

Since they didn't have a lamp, they made a torch with bound bamboo...

to continue spinning hemp and weaving textiles all night long.

Even if they couldn't wear those textiles,

they had to deliver them, otherwise they'd be punished.

It was such a hardship, my mother said.

"The island withers from drought"

"Our people are on the brink of death"

Elders went up Mount Urabu with a stick like this.

That path towards the paddy fields over there is called Nichikagan.

This path is towards Kantabaru, and that one is Nichikagan.

If you go along the path, you'll find a narrow creek.

We take a tray and a pot there,

spin the tray filled with water,

and offer a prayer.

We beg for the rainfall,

Otherwise, we suffer from drought, and the rice won't grow.

Rainfall brings abundant harvest.

That's why we put our hands together to pray to the God of rain.

When we go to Mount Urabu to pray...

This path comes from the street with the town hall...

A grandma who lived there

filled the tray with water and sprinkled water on everyone

with a bundle of straw, saying "it's rain, it's rain!"

"it's rain, it's rain!" Like this?

Yes, it means it's raining.

Everyone's clothes would get soaked when she sprinkled water,

saying "it's rain, it's rain!", you know.

That was just nice because it was hot, not cold, in summer.

So, everyone offered a prayer in soaking wet clothes.

That path is Nichikagan, and that path is Haikagan.

Your grandfather knows them.

By the way, where is the well mentioned here?

"Hmm... the well used for collecting water during the prayer for the rainfall"

I wonder where it was.

Don't you know?

No, I don't know.

It should be the well for the prayer for the rainfall.

There, we pray to the God of water.

It means "Oh, God, please help us as we human beings don't know anything"

"Please help us with the rainfall. We need food as we are born human"

We can grow rice and vegetables, but it will not work without rain.

Rainfall makes it happen.

Yonaguni's traditions will change from now on.

Some may continue the practice, but others may not.

More people abandon the practice nowadays.

We can't do them when we get old. We used to do everything when we were young.