charcoal making in iwate prefecture in japan

The pictures in the beginning of this file are from a trip to Japan in 2005 where we visited friends in Iwate prefecture, in the Tohoku region of northern Japan. A friend of theirs, Iwama-san, runs a charcoal operation in which he thins planted forests on the nearby mountainsides using draft horses, and then turns the wood into charcoal. He sells the charcoal for use as fuel, and the by-products for use as soil amendments and pesticides. He also uses the manure from his horses, which he is passionate about, for growing organic spinach and rice.