Seasoning the Seasons

S3 E13: Sado Island: Into the Mystic Dreams

The stage for this episode of Seasons of Seasons is the largest remote island in the Sea of Japan, Sado, which lies beyond the rough seas. This island was feared as "the end of this world where ogres live" for more than a thousand years. Sado started to become an "attractive island" in the Edo period, when a gold mine began to draw people. Various cultures brought into the island by shipping in the Sea of Japan, coupled with the harsh climate of Sado, evolved into a form of its own, and are alive in the islanders' lives today. The surging waves often washed in and trap the times, and as such the island still embodies cultures of "old Japan" no longer seen in other parts of the country.