Hello everyone. My name is Tomohiro Nakamichi from Shibecha Town. This is my second year in Hokkaido, and I am looking forward to seeing how many subjects I will be able to capture this year that I was not able to photograph last year. This is "Shibecha Biyori", where I will tell you about the charms of Shibecha Town from my point of view. This time, following the feature on Lake Tangro in the last issue, I would like to talk about "Bekanbe collecting" in Lake Tangro.

Have you ever heard of "Bekambe"? Bekanbe" is the name of the plant that grows in Lake Tangji, and it is also called "Hishi-no-Mari" (water chestnut). The Ainu people in Tangji used to eat these hishi-nuts as a preserved food, but nowadays the number of bekambe pickers has been decreasing year by year and only a few people can be found. This time, we accompanied Mr. Tosa who is one of the few people who collect bekambe.

Early morning at 4:00 a.m. At dawn, we start collecting Bekambe.

There is a reason why he starts collecting early in the morning, because the lake is often calm (no wind). Indeed, on this day, Lake Tangji was foggy, but the lake was calm and very calm.

Lake Tangji in the morning surrounded by quiet fog. Bekambe can be seen on the surface of the water in the back.

There are many theories about the origin of Bekambe in Tangji Lake. There is a story that "Bekanbe, which lost its way in the past, asked the god of Lake Tangji to let it live and it became food for Ainu people living in Tangji" and "When the bear swam in Lake Tangji on its back, it liked the lake and came to live there". This bekambe has a very important role for Ainu people in Tangji.

Flower of Bekambe. Fruits grow behind the leaves floating on the surface of the water like this.

Now, it is time to start collecting bekambe. I wondered what kind of method we would use to collect them, and found that the method was quite classic. We go by boat and pick them by hand. Then, we put the fruits in a basket. That was all there was to it.

Mr. Tosa collecting becambe.

It is a very classic and simple method, but I was very impressed. When I asked him about it, he told me that in the past, some people had suggested using a net or some other more efficient method of collecting bekambe. I heard that in the past, there was a proposal to use a net or some other more efficient method. However, they have chosen this method of hand-picking to avoid uprooting the cucumbers and to avoid environmental impact.

In these days of advanced technology, I was just impressed by the low impact approach of canoeing on the environment and the very low impact method of collecting by hand. I believe that this activity, which is carried out in a way that puts as little burden on the environment and its surroundings as possible, is in the spirit of the SDGs of today.