Horses

The History Behind the Horse-only Island
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Yururi Island is located right in front of the Kombumori fishing port in the Ochiishi area of Nemuro City. The strange destiny that led to this island becoming a utopia for only horses has a lot to do with the kelp (Kombu) from which the Kombumori community was named. The kelp symbolizes the richness of the sea around Yururi Island. The collected kelp must be dried by the end of the day, so the drying space must be secured. However, about 70 years ago, when the postwar chaos was still not over, the demobilized fishers or emigrated to Nemuro could not find a suitable place around the fishing port. So they went to Yururi Island to find a place to dry kelp.

Yet, most of Yururi Island is surrounded by cliffs that rise steeply from the sea surface, making it a plateau-like environment. Even if you open up the grasslands on the cliffs to make a drying ground, it is not easy to pull the heavy kelp up there. Therefore, the islanders used horses. It is said that the residents of the kelp guardhouses, which numbered nearly ten on the island, each lived with a horse.

As war gradually became a distant memory, however, the drying ground on Yururi Island became less and less necessary. The development of the area around the fishing port made it easier to secure new drying grounds. In addition, the power of the fishing boats was changed to motors, making it easier to go back and forth between the kelp collection site and the fishing port. The inhabitants of guardhouses have begun to return to the Ochiishi area. They left the island like sand falling from an hourglass…. Finally, the last islander left. That was in 1971. Only the horses were left on the island.

Even so, the horses of Yururi were happy. I guess you could say. The island was covered with Ainu Sasa nipponica. The horses loved to eat them, and many clean streams ran through the island. Former islanders used to return to the island to take care of the horses from time to time. In this way, horses lived through generations in a world that seemed to contain the ideal place for them to live. The island was transformed into a natural pasture, and the newborn mares were left on the island. When the stallions reached the age of one year (two years old at the beginning of the year), they were brought to the market for auction. Thus, records show that as many as thirty horses inhabited the deserted island at its peak.

However, it is always difficult to maintain the ideal in this world. The former islanders are getting older, and the management of the horses is becoming a burden. Transporting the stallions off the island requires special skills, such as lassoing. The number of people with these skills gradually decreases. In 2006, Yururi Island’s role as a natural pasture ended. To prevent breeding, the stallions were withdrawn from the island. The herd never grew, and the number of horses dwindled to 10 horses in 2013 and 5 the following year.

The horses of Yururi are destined to disappear quietly. But is it right to just let these horses go, as they are about to accept their fate? It doesn’t seem easy to answer that question. This island did not become a utopia for horses without reason. In the process, there were irreplaceable daily activities of people who desperately tried to live amidst the turbulence of history. Today, the horses running through the grasslands of Yururi Island are precious witnesses to this history.

In 2018, three new foals were released into the grasslands of Yururi Island. They have settled well and healthily into life on the island. The horses of Yururi began to make a new history. And today, the new herd is running free on the island, unguarded and unbound.