Irori Life in winter

Japan is heavily urbanized on plains and coasts but it has beautiful backcountry in the mountain. I think they even still have bears in mountains, even on main island.
 
I always love these posts that come from outside our usual geographic bounds. Thanks so much for starting this thread. Looking for to more of your adventures!
 
Now that looks like a great destination? How did you travel? Was it a hike in? Great pics.
 
Thank you all for looking and nice feedbacks.
Inside of the house looks like this. As you can see, even electricity is available.
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This is the outside of house in last autumn. This time I went there with the bike in the picture.
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I'll try to answer the questions about smoke.
There are several windows opened just below the roof to let smoke out,
but as you can imagine, not all smoke does go out :D
So running fire with minimal smoke is quite important to Irori life.
And actually, I was smoked quite seriously :D
I heard this smoke has some role in preserving the house by preventing
insects those will do damage to houses, just like smoke preserves meat.
Anyway, Irori is quite smoky that in case of wealthy family,
sometimes they used charcoal instead of wood.

Here's more menu we did in this spring, a small stream trout being grilled alongside of stew.
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Again I thank you all for looking and posting.
 
Nice pictures, nice read! Thanks for the post!
Looks like in one shot you all were cleaning the floor - that's a sign of responsible visitors! :)
 
Wow! I would so dig having a fire pit in the middle of my living room! I would love to someday visit this Irori village. I like that cooking pot, and the stew sounds great by the way, the old ways seem so much better...how did things get so complicated in the process of "getting easier"? Somehow I think some of our for bearers were tricked into following this modern path so someone could get rich!
 
awesome pics man...:thumbup: looks cold, the complete opposite of the weather here...:o it was waaaay warm today...

i love that blade too man... looks like a perfect utility/belt knife...
 
mistwalker said:
Wow! I would so dig having a fire pit in the middle of my living room! I would love to someday visit this Irori village. I like that cooking pot, and the stew sounds great by the way, the old ways seem so much better...how did things get so complicated in the process of "getting easier"? Somehow I think some of our for bearers were tricked into following this modern path so someone could get rich!
Click to expand...

Happy to see you love this Irori life.
Surely this is a nice place to visit.

mtnfolk mike said:
awesome pics man...:thumbup: looks cold, the complete opposite of the weather here...:o it was waaaay warm today...

i love that blade too man... looks like a perfect utility/belt knife...
Click to expand...

Yes, mtnfolk mike, it was quite cold.
Thanks for your comment on the blade.
 
fujita yuji said:
Happy to see you love this Irori life.
Surely this is a nice place to visit.
Click to expand...

I love that way of looking at things. Also I really like how that fireplace allows for sitting in a circle, like the firepit in my back yard but without all shifting winds moving the smoke stream around into faces.
 
Is this " irori " in the old " Minka" (people house)? I know that use wood charcoal will have less or even no somke.

I used have a mud stove call "Shichi-rin" (seven-wheel) for BBQ but I only seen

irori in TV.
 
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Your pictures reflect a fascination that I have always wondered about: Rural Japan. I am not interested in all the business of Kyoto and Tokyo, but have always wondered about the more natural side of Japan. These pictures are great and thank you for a brief look at your countryside.

Joe
 
Erlkonig said:
Is this " irori " in the old " Minka" (people house)? I know that use wood charcoal will have less or even no somke.

I used have a mud stove call "Shichi-rin" (seven-wheel) for BBQ but I only seen

irori in TV.
Click to expand...

Erlkonig, you know everything.
Also, Shichi-rin is nice as you said.
Although limited to small blades,
I used to do some forging and heat-treatment with it :)

Joezilla said:
Your pictures reflect a fascination that I have always wondered about: Rural Japan. I am not interested in all the business of Kyoto and Tokyo, but have always wondered about the more natural side of Japan. These pictures are great and thank you for a brief look at your countryside.

Joe
Click to expand...

Thanks Joezilla you like rural Japan (Inaka in Japanese).
We still have great field here and heavily urbanized area is actually
quite limited. But not many people here recognize it to my regret.
 
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