Author(s)

T. Oyabu

Abstract

There are nine private houses in the village of Otsuchi-machi, which is located in the Ishikawa prefecture of Japan. However, only three people are living in two houses now. The district is an intermediate and mountainous area. It is now in a state of decay and half-deserted, but it used to have a lot of life in the old days, due to agriculture and forestry. In this study, an increase in the number of visitors is investigated based on various kinds of resources, for example the natural beauty of the area and local dishes (including unique mountain vegetables). There is a possibility that village people could live sustainably by offering a combination of local dishes and the experience of charcoal burning. It was deemed to be necessary to construct a database of mountain-vegetable dishes to meet a wide variety of visitors’ demands. Visitors can make a reservation through the same database, which is user-customized. It is more important to revitalize a local area in Japan than to contribute to improving the facilities at famous tourist spots. Keywords: local revitalization, rural-tourism measure, mountain vegetable. 1 Introduction It has been told that the inhabitants in Otsuchi-machi used to be Heike warriors that escaped from Genji, who vanquished the Heike. The village is located in Kaga city, in the Ishikawa prefecture of Japan. One hundred and forty one people (21 houses) were living there in 1916. The number of people had decreased to 21 residents by 1982. There was a branch of an elementary school and there were lots of activities until around 1965 in the area [1]. There was a massive fire in 1938 and thatched houses were burned out. There are now nine houses and three people living in two houses. They are one couple and a woman. Seven old

Keywords

local revitalization, rural-tourism measure, mountain vegetable