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Forgotten Forest Railways of Japan: Steam, Timber, and the Making of Hokkaido’s Frontier (English Edition)

(著) 松野郷俊弘

作品詳細

[About the Book]

Deep in the mountains of Hokkaido, Japan, there once ran railways where steam locomotives moved slowly through the forests.

They were known as forest railways—lines laid to carry felled logs out of the mountains. At their peak, there were more than forty such lines in Hokkaido alone, with a total length reaching some 2,200 kilometers. Today, however, most have vanished, leaving behind only faint memories and scattered records.

This book traces the history of these forest railways across Hokkaido. It explores individual lines throughout the region, depicting the mountainous terrain, forest resources, the transition from steam to diesel locomotives, wartime increases in timber production, and the postwar demand for wood during reconstruction. It also follows the process by which these railways disappeared, due to factors such as the large-scale clearing of wind-felled timber after typhoons and the shift to truck transportation.

Forest railways were not merely systems for transporting timber. In remote mountain settlements, they also served as vital lifelines, carrying daily necessities and agricultural products. In other words, they were infrastructure that supported Hokkaido’s forest development and forestry industry, while at the same time forming an integral part of local community life.

By tracing the history of each railway line, this book offers a multifaceted portrayal of Japan’s railway history before and after the war, the development of forestry, and the lives of rural communities in Hokkaido.

To follow the path of these forest railways is to understand the industrial history of Hokkaido—and to revisit the footsteps of Japan’s modernization.

For readers interested in railway history, the history of Hokkaido, forestry, and industrial heritage, this book opens the door to a lesser-known journey into the past.

This book is a revised edition of “Hokkaidō no Shinrin Tetsudō (Forest Railways of Hokkaidō),” originally published in 2021.



[Author Profile]

Toshihiro Matsunogo

Born in 1933 in Kamifurano, Hokkaido, Japan. Author of “Keisatsushochō no Bibōroku (Memoirs of a Police Chief)”, “Sakuhoku no Tatemono Roman (Northern Architectural Romance)”, “Kyūmantsuboihen (The 90,000-Tsubo Incident)”, among other works.