Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses the landscape formation process of Koiji Island in Minamata Bay, where Chisso Corporation's factory caused severe mercury poisoning, revealing that people do not attach meanings to a physical landscape but rather find signs in the growing landscape and respond to those signs.

Paper long abstract:

Minamata Bay is the spawning grounds for a wide variety of fish in the Shiranui Sea. Koiji Island, located in the bay, functioned a 'natural fishing reef' where fish, shellfish and fishermen gathered. Previously inhabited, this island was deserted after the release of methylmercury in the wastewater from the Chisso Corporation's factory, which caused severe mercury poisoning in the 1950s. Minamata disease (MD), first discovered in 1956, is a neurological syndrome caused by the consumption of fish or shellfish contaminated with methylmercury. In 1990, part of Minamata Bay was transformed into a landfill by the Kumamoto prefectural government. During this process, Koiji Island recovered its vegetation, a very noteworthy positive development in larger tragic context of MD.

This paper analyses the landscape formation process of Koiji Island, viewing its present landscape as the cumulative product of the contingent encounter and entanglement between human beings and nature. The analysis, focusing on the experiences and narratives of people living with MD and the environmental changes on Koiji Island, is based on field data collected over 28 months between 2006 and 2019. The people living with MD interpreted the island's regeneration as a hopeful sign of revitalisation and a symbol for rebuilding the relationships between people and between human beings and nature, which were destroyed by MD. This finding suggests that people do not attach various meanings to a physical landscape but rather find signs in the growing landscape and respond to those signs.