permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

Satoyama: Japan’s Secret Watergarden | Watch Free Documentary Online
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/satoyama/

Each home has a built in pool or water tank that lies partly inside,
partly outside its’ walls… A continuous stream of spring water is
piped right into a basin, so freshwater is always available. People
rinse out pots in the tank and clean their freshly picked vegetables.
If they simply pour the food scraps back in the water, they risk
polluting the whole village supply. However, carp can scour out even
the greasy or burnt pans. They do the washing up in Satoyama villages.
This traditional arrangement is called the riverside method. It’s used
all over Japan. Cleaned up by the carp, the tank water eventually
rejoins the channel.

Imagine a realm where the season’s rhythms rule, where centuries of
agriculture and fishing have reshaped the land, yet where people and
nature remain in harmony. Sangoro Tanaka lives in just such a
paradise. At 83, he’s the guardian of one of Japan’s secret
watergardens.

Over a thousand years, towns and villages have developed a unique
system to make springs and water part of their homes. From inside
their houses, the stream pours into Japan’s largest fresh water lake,
near the ancient capital of Kyoto. This is a habitat so precious, the
Japanese have a special word for it, satoyama, villages where
mountains give way to plains. They are exceptional environments
essential to both the people who maintain them and to the wildlife
that now share them.