Common Gardens to Forbidden Forests: Food Procurement Pollution and Policy on Tokunoshima

In this paper, I explore the interactions of the gods of Tokunoshima, a colonized subtropical island, highlighting how human presence is part of each garden’s agenda. The rivers, the snakes, the rocks, the gardens, and even the pests that come to consume the gardens—all are considered gods on Tokunoshima, as related by Elder Susumu Machida and Elder Takefumi Tsukawa, even if our/their fellow human and non-human beings consider us/them dangerous pests. I examine the interactions of the various Gods with reference to the forms and kinds of gardens on Tokunoshima—those that have been locked away for safe keeping, those that have been abandoned, and those that are capitalist ruins—that I have learned about through life stories told by Indigenous Elders. I will also explore the other names for gardens, the ‘secret spots’ of seaweed harvesters, fishers, and gatherers of other precious foods.