16 Apr 2007 - My name
is Kenji Ito and I have been a nature photographer
for more than 20 years. I am fascinated
by the beautiful mountains and sea of Hokkaido
here on the northern island of Japan.
I was born and raised in Saitama, a metropolitan
area in the middle of Honshu Island, but
after spending my student life in Hokkaido
I decided to stay. Since then I have been
a nature photographer. I am especially attracted
to the winter scenes of Hokkaido. However,
in recent years I have seen a lot of changes
in the environment of Hokkaido, making it
harder to capture such winter scenes.
More rain, less snow
I used to enjoy skiing from the end of
November in 11000s when I was a student
in Hokkaido. But in recent years I have
been unable to go skiing because we are
getting more and more rain instead of snow.
The surroundings of Iwamizawa, the city
where I live, used to be known as the area
with the second heaviest snowfall in Hokkaido,
but now it is getting less and less snow.
In normal winters you would be finding residents
shovelling snow everyday from the end of
December to February. However, for the past
five years, this is no longer necessary,
especially in the winter of 2006-07 when
it was so warm that I had to shovel the
snow in my neighborhood only three times.
People in Iwamizawa are happy that they
are free from the heavy work of shovelling
snow, but at the same time they are worried
that the snowfall is decreasing so rapidly.
The famous snow festival in Sapporo suffered
from a severe lack of snow in the winter
of 2006-07. The organizers had to actually
bring in snow from outside the town.
Photographing winter with less snow
One of the things that has fascinated me
most on Hokkaido has been its beautiful
winter scenery. For more than 15 years,
during winter, I was always able to take
photos of magnificent snowy mountains and
floating sea ice.
Unfortunately, in recent years, there have
been fewer opportunities to take pictures
of such amazing scenery. I now have to wait
until February to photograph winter images.
Even then it is difficult to take good pictures
of the mountains because winter temperatures
do not drop low enough (such as -13 to -15°C
as in previous years).
I believe these changes are due to global
warming.
Because of the warmer weather the mountain
snow becomes wet snow instead of dry snow.
Wet snow is troublesome for me because it
easily melts. Because of the changes in
the snow conditions I need to stay in the
mountains for at least a few weeks in order
to take good winter pictures. This makes
my job much more difficult. I used to be
able to spend the night in the mountains
by making a bivouac, a kind of hut in the
heavy snow. But because there is less snow,
and the snow has become wetter, this is
sometimes impossible. It is becoming more
and more difficult to stay longer in the
mountains in winter.
Less sea ice drifts
Every winter, sea ice drifts from the Arctic
region towards Hokkaido. However, I find
that the extent of drifting sea ice around
the Hokkaido area is decreasing every year.
Even if it comes, it does not cover the
entire sea as it used to do, and in the
last couple of years I could see the sea
water between the sheets of drift ice, which
was impossible a few years ago. in the winter
of 2006-07 I did not manage to take one
single picture of the winter sea completely
covered by drifting ice. Yes, we did get
some drifing sea ice, but much less than
before.
When the sea is completely covered by drifting
sea ice it affects the local weather. When
this happens, we are getting more continental
weather rather than island weather. But
when the sea is not covered entirely by
ice, as is more often the case in recent
years, we have more fog and mist, which
is more like the weather we have in spring.
These winters without heavy snow, with more
rain and more fog are making me feel that
the weather in Hokkaido is changing rapidly.
I would not be surprised if my photos of
the ‘old’ snowy landscapes around Hokkaido
will soon be regarded as a documentary,
to show people how Hokkaido’s winters looked
like several years ago.
Scientific background
The Japanese Meteorological Agency reports
that the snow in the Hokkaido area dropped
sharply from the mid-1980s by one-fourth,
due to rising temperatures and more rain.
The agency also released a report about
the changes in the extent and duration of
drift sea ice between 1970 and 2006. According
to this report, the extent and duration
of drifting sea ice is affected both by
temperature and by wind. Although it is
unclear which of these are the more dominant
factors, the report confirmed that the duration
of drifting sea ice has decreased and that
the extent has decreased by 4.4% each year
during the last 35 years.
