Traditional Japanese Honeybee Beekeeping in Kozagawa, Wakayama

30min | HD | 2019 | English Subtitle

Production
SHINKAI Rika, Maximilian SPIELGELBERG, Christoph RUPPRECHT
(Research Institute for Humanity and Nature)

Filming/Editing
SAWAZAKI Kenichi (Living Montage)

Most of the commercially available honey in Japan is produced by European honeybees. European honeybees were introduced into Japan in 1877, and are widely kept since then. But native wild honeybees (Apis cerana japonica) also live in Japan.

We do not have a precise history of beekeeping of Japanese honeybees, but at least from the Edo period (17 century-), beekeeping was practiced in mountainous areas. In particular, the honey produced in Kumano, the southern part of the Kii Peninsula, was famous enough to be depicted in the ‘Nihon Sankai Meisan Zue (Special Food Products in Japan)’ (published in 1799).

In Kozagawa town (Wakayama Prefecture) in the Kumano area, "traditional" Japanese honeybees beekeeping is still practiced today. This film takes a look at the relationship between honeybees and local hobby beekeepers, honey harvesting, and how to build hives and swarm catchers.

Check out our website! ↓
Archives of Japanese Honeybee (Apis cerana japonica) Beekeeping
「ニホンミツバチ・養蜂文化ライブラリー」
https://japanese-honeybee.info/film/

The production of this film was supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science’s Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (No. 19K01215), the 2019 Interactive Communication Initiative of Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN : a constituent member of NIHU) and the FEAST Project of RIHN (No.14200116).