One such woman is Mai Suzuki (name changed for privacy), a former graphic designer from Osaka who married into a dairy and potato farm in Chitose in 2018. "My mother-in-law thought I was crazy when I refused to spray the edges of the fields," she tells me over a cup of yomogi tea she harvested herself. "She said, 'Those are pests.' I said, 'No, those are antibiotics, antifungals, and digestive tonics.'"
Below is a long-form article written in the style of a lifestyle or cultural essay, drawing from the fragments to build a meaningful narrative. Unearthing a Forgotten Wisdom In the rural outskirts of Chitose, Hokkaido—where mist clings to the potato fields and the Tokachi Plain stretches toward snow-capped peaks—there exists an old, unspoken tradition. It is not written in any tourism manual. It is whispered among farming families who have tilled the same volcanic soil for generations. They speak of the yome , the daughter-in-law, as the quiet engine of the homestead. But in recent years, a new phrase has emerged in these circles: “Chitose no yome wa yori yoi” — “The daughter-in-law of Chitose is better.” Better at what? At healing. At sustaining. At weaving the forgotten language of herbs back into the fabric of daily life. jux773 daughterinlaw of farmer herbs chitose better
But a shift began in the late 2010s—coinciding with a global pandemic, a renewed fear of food insecurity, and a deep, existential fatigue with urban consumerism. Young women, some with degrees in nutrition or environmental science, began marrying into farming families not as subservient laborers, but as partners in regeneration. Chitose, with its clean air, abundant springs, and proximity to both wilderness and the New Chitose Airport (a gateway to the world), became an unlikely epicenter. One such woman is Mai Suzuki (name changed
Here, the “daughter-in-law” redefined her title. She is no longer just the farmer’s wife. She is the farm’s herbalist, the soil’s chemist, and the family’s memory-keeper. The core of this transformation is herbs . Not exotic imports, but the hardy, often overlooked plants that thrive in Hokkaido’s cold climate: shiso (perilla), yomogi (Japanese mugwort), dokudami (houttuynia), fuki (butterbur), and tade (water pepper). For decades, these were dismissed as weeds. The modern agricultural system favored monocrops and herbicide sprays. But the new generation of daughters-in-law saw something else: medicine. Unearthing a Forgotten Wisdom In the rural outskirts
In Chitose, a quiet army of daughters-in-law is proving that the farm is not just a food factory. It is a living apothecary. And the woman who learns to read its green language—she is not a victim of tradition. She is the healer the tradition always needed, finally taking her rightful place.