高原のソバ畑

お盆の頃に播種されたソバは、9月中旬になると一斉に白い花を咲かせます。越後三山を背景に、斜面を埋め尽くすその白い花々は、まさに壮観です。旧堀之内町や旧広神村では、昭和30年代に地域の人々が干拓した高原状の土地が、現在は牧場やユリ畑、蕎麦畑などとして利用されています。新潟県内で高原の風景を味わえる場所は、津南町や妙高高原と並んで数少なく、ここもそのひとつです。

私なりの「高原」の定義を述べるならば、それは建物や鉄塔など人工物が視界に入らない、もしくは遠くに小さく見える程度で、ある程度の広がりが感じられる場所です。その意味で言えば、ここ大平高原は標高こそ高くはないものの、私の考える高原の条件にぴったり当てはまります。

夏は暑さが厳しいものの、蕎麦の花が咲く頃にはようやく涼しさが感じられるようになり、山々には行き合いの雲がかかり始めます。

Buckwheat seeds sown around Obon bloom en masse with white flowers in mid-September. Against the backdrop of the Echigo Sanzan mountains, the slopes are covered with these white flowers, creating a truly spectacular sight. In the former Horinouchi Town and former Hiroshin Village, the plateau-like land reclaimed by local residents in the 1950s is now used as pastures, lily fields, and buckwheat fields. There are few places in Niigata Prefecture where you can enjoy highland scenery, and this is one of them, alongside Tsunan Town and Myoko Highland.

If I were to define “highland” in my own terms, it would be a place where artificial structures like buildings and towers are either not visible or only faintly visible in the distance, and where there is a sense of openness. In that sense, although Otaira Highland is not particularly high in elevation, it perfectly fits my definition of a highland.

While summers can be quite hot, by the time the buckwheat flowers bloom, a pleasant coolness begins to settle in, and the mountains are adorned with drifting clouds.

PENTAX645Z 29mm 1/80秒 f:14

©️photo by Nakamura Osamu