#risewithhenoko: Tinsagu Nu Hana (てぃんさぐぬ花 )

Beautiful, multi-generational Hawai'ian Uchinanchu (Okinawan) performance of "Tinsagu Nu Hana" (Balsam Flowers), one of Okinawa's most beloved folk songs.

Lyrics:

Tinsagu nu hana ya chimi sachi ni sumiti
Uyanu yushi gutu ya chimu ni sumiri

Tin nuburi bushi ya yumiba yuma rishiga
Uyanu yushi gutu ya yumin naran

Yuruha rasu funi ya ninu fua bushi miati
Wan na cheru uyaya wandu miati

Takaradama yatin migaka niba sabisu
Asayu chimu migachi uchiyu watara

Makutu suru hitu ya atuya ichi madin
Umuku tun kanati chiyunu sakai

Nashiba nani gutun nairu gutu yashiga
Nasan yui karadu naran sadami
Nasan yui karadu naran sadami

English translation:

Just as my fingernails are stained with the pigment from balsam flowers,
my heart is painted with the teachings of my parents.
Although the stars in the sky are countable,
the teachings of my parents are not.
Just as ships that run in the night are guided to safety by the North star,
I am guided by my parents who gave birth to me and watch over me.

There’s no point in possessing magnificent jewelry if you don’t maintain it;
people who maintain their bodies will live life wonderfully.
The desires of the person who lives sincerely will always run true
and as a result she will prosper.
You can do anything if you try,
but you can’t if you don’t.

With many thanks to the Hawaii Okinawa Artists Collaboration 2017

Featured Artists: Reverend Shindo Nishiyama, Derek Fujio Sensei, Derek "Ichiro" Shiroma Sensei, Eric Wada Sensei, Norman Kaneshiro Sensei, Keith Nakaganeku Sensei, Allison Yanagi Sensei, Jon Itomura (HOCA), Cyrus Tamashiro, Kathy Oshiro, Yukiko Pierce, Janine Kiyosaki, Nathan Nishida, Kymberlie and Katelynn Arakaki, Brandon Ing, Carolina Higa, Chantel Ikehara, Shelby Oshiro, Travis Oshiro.

With Special Thanks to:
President Doris Oshiro (Jikoen Hongwanji), Honolulu Community College Mele Program, Moanalua Mene-Tv Broadcast Journalism, and Blue Planet Recording Studio

Not Forgotten: Share Your Christmas with Tohoku, Japan

Share Your Christmas with Tohoku will do they final Share Your Christmas delivery Sunday, May 26, to the fukko Jutaku housing area in Miharu and to the town of Katsurao which is on the outside edge of the 20km exclusion zone where some people have moved back.

Many, many thanks to these wonderful people for remembering and supporting the survivors of 3/11's  unnecessary, human-caused meltdowns.

"Christmas, my child, is Love in Action. Every time we love, every time we give,  it's Christmas."

- Dale Evans

Alicia Bay Laurel and Takuji - "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance" at Hiroshima Nagarekawa Church, which stands on what was ground zero

Our friends, Alicia Bay Laurel and Takuji, performing "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance" in Hiroshima 08/08/2015. Author/artist/vocalist/songwriter Alicia Bay Laurel and jazz multi-instrumentalist Takuji perform John Lennon's anti-war classics "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance" at a peace concert that was part of the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, August 8, 2015, at Hiroshima Nagarekawa Church, which stands on what was ground zero in Hiroshima.

10,000 sing Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" — Japan's Beloved Anthem of Peace

This is a video of the Osaka "Number Nine Chorus"—10,000 singers who perform "Ode to Joy" (originally named "Ode to Freedom") every December. The soloists and orchestra are professionals; however the rest are singers from the community.

The Japanese love of "Ode to Joy," the final movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, began during the First World War, when German prisoners of war performed the Ninth Symphony for the first time in Japan in 1918.

The Japanese nickname for the uplifting movement — "Daiku" ("Number 9") — alludes to Article 9, the Japanese Constitution's Peace Clause which outlaws war as a means of conflict resolution.  Beethoven's  lyrics are from a poem celebrating human unity by Frederick Schiller.  The 19th-century century German philosopher was preoccupied by the quest for freedom and human rights. Like many of his era (which spanned the American Revolution), he championed political ideals based not on coercion and tyrannical brute force, but instead by reason, goodwill, dialogue, and democratic process.

Worldwide, "Ode to Joy" has long been considered a peace anthem, a song of resistance to not just war, but also state repression. Chilean democracy demonstrators sang the song during PInochet's dictatorship. Chinese protesters sang it during the march on Tiananmen Square. This year, the music and lyrics are even more meaningful to the Japanese and Okinawan supporters of democracy and Article 9, the Japanese Constitution's Peace Clause.

...Brother love binds man to man

Ever singing march we onward

Victors in the midst of strife

Joyful music lifts us onward

In the triumph song of life...

Human rights attorney Scott Horton tells us that Beethoven was drawn to Schiller's writings because the composer longed for liberty, however omitted the "deeper, more political charge" of the final stanzas of "Ode to Joy" to veil his challenge to the repressive Hapsburg regime from which he received patronage.

...the work is radical and blatantly political in its orientation...It imagines a world whose nations live in peace with one another, embracing the dignity of their species as a fundamental principle, and democracy as the central chord of their organization. Its long appeal to Beethoven lay in just this intensely subversive, revolutionary core. To start with, as Leonard Bernstein reminded his audiences, the poem was originally an “Ode to Freedom” and the word “Joy” (Freude instead of Freiheit, added to the third pillar, Freundschaft [Friendship] came as a substitute for the more overtly political theme...

Beethoven reckoned, of course, that his audience knew the whole text, just as he knew it, by heart. He was by then a crotchety old man, Beethoven, but he knew the power of a dream, and he inspired millions with it, to the chagrin of his Hapsburg sponsors.

Schiller’s words are perfectly fused with Beethoven’s music. It may indeed be the most successful marriage in the whole shared space of poetry and music. It is a message of striking universality which transcends the boundaries of time and culture. It is well measured in fact to certain turningpoints in the human experience.

Some of the lines from Schiller's poem omitted from "Ode to Joy":

...Persist with courage, millions!

Stand firm for a better world!

...Deliver us from tyrants’ chains...

(-JD, originally posted Dec. 25, 2014, reposted because the themes are even more important for Japan, Okinawa, and the entire world given heightened popular activism for freedom, liberty, human rights, democracy, and peace, in the face of growing global state authoritarianism and militarized repression of nonviolent citizen movements.) 

10,000 sing Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" — Japan's Beloved Anthem of Peace

This is a video of the Osaka "Number Nine Chorus" of 10,000 singers who perform "Ode to Joy" every December. The soloists and orchestra are professionals; however the rest are singers from the community.

The Japanese love of "Ode to Joy," the final movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, began during the First World War, when German prisoners of war performed the Ninth Symphony for the first time in Japan in 1918.

In Europe, exactly one hundred years ago, German, French, and British soldiers engaged in a spontaneous holiday ceasefire, emerging from the trenches to exchange food, drink, and even play soccer, sharing a brief moment of humanity during the brutality of war.

The Japanese nickname for the uplifting movement — "Daiku" ("Number 9") — alludes to Article 9, the Japanese Constitution's Peace Clause which outlaws war as a means of conflict resolution.  Beethoven's  lyrics are from a poem celebrating human unity by Frederick Schiller.  The 19th-century century German philosopher was preoccupied by the quest for freedom and human rights. Like many of his era (which spanned the American Revolution), he championed political ideals based not on coercion and tyrannical brute force, but instead by reason, goodwill, dialogue, and democratic process.

Worldwide, "Ode to Joy" has long been considered a peace anthem, a song of resistance to not just war, but also state repression. Chilean democracy demonstrators sang the song during PInochet's dictatorship. Chinese protesters sang it during the march on Tiananmen Square. This year, the music and lyrics are even more meaningful to the Japanese and Okinawan supporters of democracy and Article 9, the Japanese Constitution's Peace Clause.

...Brother love binds man to man

Ever singing march we onward

Victors in the midst of strife

Joyful music lifts us onward

In the triumph song of life...

Human rights attorney Scott Horton tells us that Beethoven was drawn to Schiller's writings because the composer longed for liberty, however omitted the "deeper, more political charge" of the final stanzas of "Ode to Joy" to veil his challenge to the repressive Hapsburg regime from which he received patronage.

...the work is radical and blatantly political in its orientation–it envisions a world without monarchs at a time when the distant colonies of North America alone offered the alternative. It imagines a world whose nations live in peace with one another, embracing the dignity of their species as a fundamental principle, and democracy as the central chord of their organization. Its long appeal to Beethoven lay in just this intensely subversive, revolutionary core. To start with, as Leonard Bernstein reminded his audiences, the poem was originally an “Ode to Freedom” and the word “Joy” (Freude instead of Freiheit, added to the third pillar, Freundschaft [Friendship] came as a substitute for the more overtly political theme...

Beethoven reckoned, of course, that his audience knew the whole text, just as he knew it, by heart. He was by then a crotchety old man, Beethoven, but he knew the power of a dream, and he inspired millions with it, to the chagrin of his Hapsburg sponsors.

Schiller’s words are perfectly fused with Beethoven’s music. It may indeed be the most successful marriage in the whole shared space of poetry and music. It is a message of striking universality which transcends the boundaries of time and culture. It is well measured in fact to certain turningpoints in the human experience.

Some of the lines from Schiller's poem omitted from "Ode to Joy":

...Persist with courage, millions!

Stand firm for a better world!
...Deliver us from tyrants’ chains...

-JD

9.20.14 "All-Okinawa" Henoko Rally with Nago Mayor Susumi Inamine, Senator Keiko Itokazu, Gubernatorial Candidate Naha Mayor Takeshi Onaga, & 5,500 Okinawans Representing Seven Generations...

Nago Mayor Inamine, wearing his dugong, sea turtle and coral reef fish cloak,

 addresses 5,500 participants at the rally at Henoko on 9/20/14. 

(Photo: New Wave to HOPE)

Upper House Member of the National Japanese Diet, Ms. Keiko Itokazu 

addresses 9.20.14 rally at Henoko. (Photo: MP Keiko Itokazu)

Okinawan elected political leaders raise "fists of anger" 

to demonstrate unity and determination at the 9.20.14 rally at Henoko. 

(Photo: MP Keiko Itokazu)

Some of the 5,500 rally participants.  

(Photo: New Wave to HOPE)

Okinawans protecting their sea. 

(Photo: Pietro Scòzzari)

Henoko preservationism is a multi-generational family activity. 

The grandchildren of these children will represent the Seventh Generation 

of Okinawa's democracy and peace movement which began at the end of WWII. 

The Seventh Generation is a Native American ecological concept that urges the current generation to live sustainably, for the benefit of the seventh generation into the future.

(Photo: Pietro Scòzzari)

Henoko elders greeted by gubernatorial candidate, Naha Mayor Takeshi Onaga. 

The elders, youth during WWII, represent the second generation 

of the Okinawan Movement. 

(Photo: Pietro Scòzzari)

Not forgotten: Takae Village in Yanbaru, Okinawa's subtropical rainforest. 

(Photo: Pietro Scòzzari)

Wonderful photo of Ms. Etsuko Jahana, director of the House of Nuchi du Takara 

(Life is Precious) at Iejima. The small island, just west of Okinawa Island, 

is the birthplace of Okinawa's democracy & peace movement.  

Jon Mitchell's description of House of Nuchi du Takara:

 "Upon entering, visitors are confronted with a small set of bloodstained clothes 

and the description that they belonged to an Okinawan child 

stabbed by Japanese troops to keep it quiet when U.S. soldiers were in the vicinity. 

Other displays record the postwar “bayonets and bulldozers” period when, in the 1950s, 

the Pentagon violently seized farmers’ land to turn the island into a bombing range.

 Exhibits include photographs of islanders’ homes razed by U.S. troops 

and several dummy nuclear bombs dropped on the island during Cold War training drills."

(Photo by Kizou Takagaki, via Save the Dugong Campaign Center)

The Okinawan Movement draws inspiration from the African American Civil Rights Movement, including its anthem, "We Shall Overcome." 

(Photo: Pietro Scòzzari)

Henoko's signature Rainbow Peace Flag. 

The rainbow flag has been adopted internationally as a symbol of the peace movement

 and was first used in a peace march in Italy in 1961.

(Photo: Pietro Scòzzari)

Environmentalists, Article 9 supporters, and musicians lead Tokyo 8.23.14 Solidarity Rally for Okinawa

Photo: Twitter@soulflowerunion

Especially supported by Japan's environmentalist and musician communities, Tokyo demonstrated solidarity with Okinawa at the 8.23.14 rally in front of the prime minister's residence protesting landfill and construction at the dugong and coral habitat at the Sea of Henoko.

Supermoon over Kyoto, Perseid meteors all month

Supermoon over Kyoto. (Photo: Robert Yellin) 

Jordan Sand: "Tokyo Vernacular: Common Spaces, Local Histories, Found Objects" - Author's Lecture at Sophia Univ, June 9, 2014

Today at 6: 30 p.m.. cultural historian Jordan Sand will give a public talk at Sophia University (Bldg. 10, Room 301) on his new book, Tokyo Vernacular: Common Spaces, Local Histories, Found Objects.

A must-read for anyone who lives in or is interested in Tokyo, Temple University historian Jeff Kingston's review at the LA Review of Books is a great synopsis/commentary:

TOKYO IS HOT these days, and not only because it has cutting-edge design, fashion, and more Michelin stars than anywhere else on the planet...Alas, it is also about 160 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant where there were three meltdowns in March 2011. There are still 100,000 nuclear refugees who have fled the adjacent hot zones, and it appears that many will never be able to return to their ancestral homes.

In his excellent new book, Tokyo Vernacular: Common Spaces, Local Histories, Found Objects, Jordan Sand, a Georgetown University professor of Japanese history and culture, draws our attention away from the headline hype to reveal what Tokyo and some of its denizens are really up to and what they care about. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, Sand slips us under the skin of this megalopolis and helps us understand how it has been evolving, focusing on the battles and passions that have animated neighborhoods, activists, and artists...

Controversy has clouded the euphoria that followed the winning bid for the 2020 games, as about 90 percent of Japanese don’t believe Abe’s reassurances to the International Olympic Committee that the problems at Fukushima are under control...

Tokyo’s Olympic slogan is “Discover Tomorrow,” a motto meant to convey an upbeat message about recovery from the 3/11 disasters and signaling that the story of Japan’s decline has been exaggerated, given bright prospects for its cutting-edge technologies and industries. But when Tokyo got the nod, NHK television showed images of what the snazzy Olympic athlete’s village will look like, then jumped to an interview with some displaced Fukushima residents forced to live in shabby temporary housing due to the reactor meltdowns. Unsurprisingly, they expressed envy and resentment while raising concerns about the diversion of resources and construction crews to Tokyo...

The extensive 1964 Olympic demolition and rebuilding was the third ravaging of the city during the 20th century, following the 1923 earthquake and the March 1945 firebombing that leveled vast swathes of eastern Tokyo. A fourth maelstrom hit with fin de siècle urban renewal, as the erection of shiny high-rises and tony shopping complexes transformed large areas of the formerly distinctive cityscape, making parts of Tokyo look like any city anywhere. The demolished low-rise, low-density neighborhoods of single-family homes and mom-and-pop shops might have been a bit dilapidated, but they exuded a coziness and sense of community that has been erased. Sand helps us understand what has been lost, as intimate exchanges of neighbors have given way to impersonal market exchanges...

Since so many people lost friends and family in the 1945 firebombing by the United States, it is one of the most retold stories in oral histories, with accounts of spectacular flames and the apocalyptic aftermath of a city reduced to ashes and panoramic vistas over smoldering ruins. But outside of Japan this is one of the forgotten horrors of WWII...

The battles over public spaces continue into the 21st century, especially in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster...

Although much of this narrative dwells on loss and retreat, Sand closes on a rousing note:

Yet time plows forward, burying histories and throwing up new ruins in its wake. New groups of people will gather around surviving places and things, making them tell new stories of loss and redemption, and creating new societies of friends.

Deep Kyoto: "Three years ago today" recounts an encounter with Japanese grace & generosity when stranded in a rural train station on 3/11/11

In "Three years ago today,"  Michael Lambe of Deep Kyoto, writes about being stranded during a sight-seeing trip in Wakayama, a rural region south of Kyoto, three years ago, when trains stopped running on  3/11.

Lambe, part of the KJ community, captures Japan's diverse facets and complex textures — missed by those who would paint Japan in flat negative or romantic stereotypes. The long-time resident of Japan recounts his contradictory experiences, with sensitivity and understanding.  Lambe acknowledges the discomfort that accompanies awareness of the few in Japan who support whale and dolphin killings; and the few more in Japan who would wish to reinstitute WWII-style authoritarianism and militarism that resulted in so much death and destruction in the  Asia-Pacific, including within Japan itself.

At the same time, Lambe pays tribute to the natural and cultural beauty of the archipelago, and the spontaneous kindness, generosity, and grace of many Japanese people.

His eloquent thoughts resonate with all who know and love Japan.  It was difficult to excerpt this beautiful essay/blog; every word and image contributes to the meaning of the whole:

On this day of remembrance, I would like to share with you some simple memories of March 11th that have taken me three years to properly digest. I was far removed from the disaster then, but of course the events of the day made a big impression on me...

Finally the railway company gave up on our stranded train, and buses were hired to carry us to Osaka. It was now evening and I will always remember what I saw from the window as our bus pulled away. The railway staff, who had never stopped apologizing, lined up outside the station, doffed their caps and bowed, and continued to bow to us until we were out of sight. And we in turn bowed to them. I suppose this is not an unusual gesture in this country. But something about that simple, gentle civility touched me then and continues to touch me now. There are those who would have you believe that Japan is best represented by its nationalist politicians, or its bureaucrats, or by whaling and dolphin hunting communities in some coastal areas. These are aspects of Japan that should not be ignored, but they are also a tiny part of the main. It is people like those who helped us that day, the cheerful local shopkeepers, the bento lunch box makers and the railway workers, always doing their best, looking out for those in need, taking responsibility for a situation as it arises – they make up the backbone of Japan. People like that raised funds for Tohoku. They were the ones who volunteered. They keep this country ticking. Simple, working, well-mannered people concerned for their fellows. They doff their caps, and I love them for it.

Kyoto Journal: Emerging Futures From Tohoku

Rensho-an, Koriyama, Fukushima (Photo: Kyoto Journal)

Great interview with Tohoku volunteer Bob Stilger by Mizuho Toyoshima and Lucinda Cowing at KJ.  In " Emerging Futures From Tohoku," Stilger describes how the vibrant and diverse civil cultures of Tohoku, a center for the slow and local movement, are rebuilding a post-3/11 Japan from the grassroots in myriad ways:

A week ago, Sunday, we had a delightful small, reflective dialogue at a place called Rensho-an in the town of Tamura near Koriyama, Fukushima. There was a group of maybe twenty people, most of them from the Tamura area, a few from other parts of Fukushima and elsewhere. Rensho-an is a beautiful space built by one Watanabe Shumei, a prolific artist and a man who enjoyed life. Over the course of Watanabe’s life — he died 7 years ago — it was a retreat space for people who knew of Watanabe’s work to come and spend time with him and Jinko, his wife. Jinko is now turning Rensho-an into a “learning center for life.” So, people came together just to be with each other, and to look back over their journeys these past few years.

After that dialog, I hosted a gathering of leadership from the Transition Town Movement in Japan and others from our Tohoku Futures Network. We spent two days to exploring what has transitioned in learning that might be useful in Tohoku at this important time.

After my meetings in Fukushima, I went to Otsuchi for the last of a series of four Future Sessions meetings, where people had come together to discuss what they could do themselves to make Otsuchi a better place to live. Some people in Otsuchi complain there that there are no longer any jobs; almost all fishing boats were destroyed in the tsunami. But those who attended the meeting are taking a different perspective and saying, “What do we have and how can we use it?” One of the ideas that they are working on is to make use of a local network of underground streams known to be incredibly pure and fresh, which enabled them in the past to cultivate wasabi, and also produce tofu. Now one idea is to recreate an industry centering on wasabi and tofu that last existed in the 1800’s, and tourism as well...

...one thing that has come up in many conversations is that conditions in each part of Tohoku are extraordinarily different. It is evident the coastal areas of Miyagi and Iwate have more in common with each other than they do with more inland areas of those same prefectures. When you visit Sendai, which is inland Miyagi, you find most people just want to get back to the old normal, whether or not they liked the old normal. That is not what is going on in the coastal areas. There is a sense that 3/11 opened up a new future, now it is a matter of finding out what it is and how to we create it...

There is a growing discontent over globalization, and in Japanese businesses much of this stems from not feeling connected to the people who buy and use their goods and services. Many are asking, “How do we relocalize?” This is one example of collective culture, in which the good and relationships of the whole takes precedence over that of the individual. The negative side of that is of course the idea that “the nail that sticks out gets pounded down” and feelings of “I don’t want to stand out.” That said, I have noticed over the past three years that the challenge of individuating from a collective culture is smaller than that of creating a collective out of an individualistic culture. 3/11 was a kick in the ass for people to stand up for what they believe, but they are doing this while staying connected to the collective at the same time. I think this is the energy we need all over the world: the capacity to differentiate while staying connected.

Bob Stilger charts his observations in "Fukushima's Future," published at Open Democracy:

In less than a day, nearly 18,000 people were dead or missing, and almost 300,000 were homeless. The old normal was gone. Today, communities in the region are struggling to reinvent their lives, but what will their future look like in a context that is permanently changed?

...People in Fukushima live in one of three broad realities.  Some are still overwhelmed with despair, since everything they know and love has vanished.  Some would leave Fukushima in an instant if they had a way to relocate elsewhere.  And others have declared that “this is our home, so we will make a new life here together.”  They know that the past is gone and that an unknown future is waiting to be born.

For many, this is not just a matter of regaining property or livelihoods, it’s a profoundly spiritual question that centers on the meaning of happiness and the quality of life...

This transformation is one of ordinary people who are raising their voices and using their hands, reaching out to each other, taking one step forward and then another, to build new lives in a place that they call home.

IMA 3-Year Anniversary @ Tokyo this Sunday: Celebrating awakening, resilience, compassion, community as we transition to a Post-3/11 World

Right: Poster for Jeffrey's Jousan's "Tohoku Laughing"; Right: Dean Newcombe and Justin Berti of IMA. 

Photo: IMA (Intrepid Model Adventures) 3 year Anniversary Party!

Until 3/11, nuclear plants supplied one third of Japan's energy; they're all offline now. However, they're poised for restarts in March. Instead of systemizing the radical energy conservation efforts instituted right after the Fukushima meltdowns and aggressively supporting a shift to renewable energy, the Japanese government and energy companies have turned to global-warming fossil fuels: oil, coal, LNG (liquified natural gas) to make up for the loss. Because of this increase in imported energy (compounded by a monetary policy aimed at devaluing the yen), Japan posted a record trade deficit in 2013, an economically unsustainable situation used to justify the planned return to nuclear power. 

However, the proposed restarts won't be met with complacence. Heightened awareness and social energy in post-3/11 Japan has given rise to deepening collaboration between old and new Nuclear-Free activists, Japanese people and expats, across interrelated issues (organic, local, slow, low-consumption, fossil-free, renewable energy, fair trade), and across borders.

This month a lot of this amazing energy is visible above radar. Canadian environmentalist Severn Cullis-Suzuki (daughter of David Suzuki) is traveling throughout Japan, screening Occupy Love, Velcrow Ripper's third film in his "Fierce Love" trilogy about nonviolent grassroots environmental and social change movements.

And one of the founders of Beautiful Energy, Dean Newcombe, has been spotlighted in a nice feature by Liane Wakabayashi at JT. The Japan-based Scottish model, founder of Intrepid Model Adventures, shared his story about how he was spurred to personal action after witnessing the plight of 3/11 survivors.

Knew Dean Newcombe and his colleagues are dynamic, but didn't realize the breadth, depth, interconnections of their activities. It's a little hard to keep up: volunteering and raising funds for reconstruction in Tohoku; bringing hot meals to and supporting nuclear evacuees from Futaba; supporting fair trade; raising funds for typhoon reconstruction in the Phillipines; instituting a scholarship fund for an orphanage in Bali; supporting Hafu David Yano's NGO which is building a school in Ghana; initiating Beautiful Energy's Nuclear Free/Renewable Energy advocacy every Friday in Tokyo; and screening socially significant films.

The charismatic leader and networker  explained how serendipity, combined with intentional support of authenticity, snowballed his initiative in Tohoku into many directions :

“One of the surprises that perhaps I didn’t expect,” says Newcombe, “is that the volunteers that worked with me in Tohoku would step forward to suggest Tohoku-related support projects that we could do in Tokyo.”

“I want them to apply skills they were born with to make right what they believe is wrong. Deep down we all see what is wrong and unjust in this world. It’s just our choice whether we do something about it!”

This Sunday, IMA and related groups are celebrating their three-year anniversary all day at the Pink Cow in Tokyo.

2pm – A documentary film "Tohoku Laughing" (笑う東北) by Jeffrey Jousan (30 minutes)

(Photo: IMA (Intrepid Model Adventures) 3 year Anniversary Party!)

Events include the screening of Tohoku Laughing" (笑う東北), a 30-minute documentary by Jeffrey Jousan:

Filmed in September 2012 in Miharu, Fukushima, Ishinomaki, Kitakamigawa, Oiwake Hot Spring and Minami Sanriku

It took about 2 years after the Tsunami but people in Tohoku that we met started saying that they could finally laugh again,as if they had entered a new stage in dealing with their horrific experiences. Everyone's process of dealing with these events continues and will continue for some time.

This is a little film to share the healing and life affirming power of laughter, from the awesome people of Tohoku. Please come to Tohoku and laugh!

This post sounds like a valentine, because it is, to all at Beautiful Energy, Hot Meals for the People of Fukushima (双葉町交流プロジェクト( and IMA, MTM, et al., with appreciation for their efforts (born out of compassion), creating ripple effects, bringing people together in unexpected ways to help actualize the best in each other and a peaceful, affirmative, life-sustaining world.

(Photo: Beautiful Energy)

Alexis Dudden: Will the U.S. practice the democratic values it preaches in Okinawa?

Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, and 28 boats with local (mostly elder) activists from the "Save Life Society" stage a flotilla, with a large 'dugong' on top of Henoko reef where a proposed American military base

 would be built across important dugong habitat. With the planned construction of the airbase, dugongs, 

which are one of Japan's cultural icons and protected animals, are about to lose their habitat. 

(Photo: Greenpeace calls for dugong rescue in Japan: Protest against American airbase intensifies, 2005)

Great article—"Democratic Values and US Bases in Okinawa Will the U.S. practice the democratic values it preaches in Okinawa?"—at The Diplomat by historian Alexis Dudden (one of the signatories of a statement by North American authors, scholars, filmmakers, in support of democracy and peace for Okinawa) overviews the history of local community opposition to the proposed destruction of the last habitat of the critically endangered Okinawa dugong and repeats a question Okinawans have been asking for a long time:

...Villagers who had never considered themselves politically active joined the cause.

The numbers remain small but consistently larger than the government-backed construction companies have anticipated; at one point, fearing confrontation, Japanese surveyors received special permission from the U.S. military command and launched their boats from nearby Camp Schwab instead of the public dock at Henoko. Protesters responded with a peaceful flotilla strategy: an “in water” sit-in made up of kayaks and other small craft. The struggle intensified with government-backed construction firms attempting to bore holes through the coral reefs to erect scaffolding on the one hand, while protesters tried everything in their power to stop them. In December 2004, several construction workers became reckless with their heavy equipment; a few members of the “Society for the Protection of Life” wound up in the hospital. News of their injuries outraged fishermen throughout Okinawa. In solidarity, they sailed to Oura Bay, expanding the resistance from protecting life in Henoko to protecting life in all of Okinawa.

Share Your Christmas With Tohoku, Japan!

(Photo: http://www.shareyourchristmas.org/)

Jacinta Hin, Jeffrey Jousan, and the others at "Share Your Christmas With Tohoku, Japan" personify good will, good cheer, generosity, and love — everything the spirit of Christmas is supposed to be about. This will be their third "Share Your Christmas" series of gift giving (December to February)  to people in Tohoku, of all ages, who have been affected by the natural disasters and the ongoing nuclear meltdowns.

Their first delivery will be in Fukushima at Esperi, a "farmer's market set up by local farmers trying to overcome the 80 percent drop in vegetable sales since Fukushima Daiichi exploded. It will be an evening of Christmas music, cakes and hopefully many wonderful presents! This is our first pre-Christmas delivery so we can use everyone's support. Please send presents as soon as you can. There will be children, parents and grandparents."

Here's the link to their website: http://www.shareyourchristmas.org/ And to their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/512117675563080 (uplifting to follow) and  their message:

Send a personal Christmas present to someone in Tohoku!

Share Your Christmas collects presents and delivers them on your behalf to someone in Tohoku, Japan, affected by the Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster of March 11, 2011, and still living in difficult circumstances. We are collecting gifts from now until the end of January. We are especially looking for gifts for our first delivery on December 17. Scroll down for details on how to send us a gift.

To unconditionally share a gift is a small thing in many ways, but for the people of Tohoku it means so much. Connection. Comfort. Love. Someone somewhere cares, is thinking about them, if offering a small piece of their heart from somewhere far away.

This will our third year to bring Christmas joy and warmth to the people of Tohoku. We collect gifts from now until end of January. Our first delivery is December 17, to an organic farmers community in Fukushima. We plan to visit several more places in Tohoku during the first months of 2014. We distribute presents at Christmas parties we organize.

Hundreds of thousands of people are still living in "Temporary" housing with permanent housing a distant dream and making ends meet is an uphill battle. Many older people have resigned themselves to dying in their temporary residences. The people of Fukushima still live with the fear of the long term effects of radiation and the immediate danger of another accident at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Every year, fewer and fewer people visit the region and residents move away. People feel that they have been forgotten.

This is why we are going back again this year (and for many years to come) to Share Your Christmas! Please help us bring some warmth to the hearts of the people of Tohoku.

HOW TO SHARE YOUR CHRISTMAS

Pack your gift and post it to:

Share your Christmas,
c/o Jeffrey Jousan
Katsuragi Nesaki 45-1
Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0824
Japan
Tel: 81-29-828-4990

Please wrap the gift in clear wrapping with a bow and card attached. You can write a message, your name and even contact information if you would like the recipient to contact you. You can even include your picture if you like.

We also accept donations in place of presents. We use them to buy party supplies, buy extra presents, purchase needed supplies and cover transportation costs.

For more details on Share Your Christmas, reports on past deliveries and instructions for sending a gift or making a donation, please visit:

http://www.shareyourchristmas.org/
https://www.facebook.com/shareyourchristmaswithtohoku

Thank you in advance for your heart for Tohoku!

Jacinta Hin & Jeffrey Jousan

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今年の"あなたのクリスマス"を、ギフトを贈ることで東北の人たちとシェアしましょう！"Share your Christmas"はクリスマスのプレゼントを集め、あなたの代わりに東北へとお届けする団体です。

2011年3月11日、地震、津波、原発事故の影響を甚大に受け、既に3年が経とうとしている今もなお、数千、数万もの人々が"仮設"住宅で"常設"の自分の家を再び取り戻すことをはるか遠くの夢とし、苦境の中で必死に生活しています。

私たちはそうした方々へギフトを届けるため、今から2014年1月末日までプレゼントを集めています。無条件にプレゼントを集めて送る、というこの活動は数多ある支援方法の中の小さなこと。

けれど、東北で仮設住宅で寂しさに耐えながら一人で暮らしているおじいちゃん、東北を忘れないでほしい、とお伺いした際に私たちに涙ながらに訴えるおばあちゃんたちにとってはとっても大きな意味を持つことなのです。

どこか遠くの誰かから小さな心のかけらを贈り物としていただくこと。
それは、東北の人とつながること、悲しみ、苦しみをやわらげること、愛を感じること。誰かが気にとめていてくれると感じ、そして心に留めていてくれる人のことを考えること。

今回で私たちがクリスマスの喜び、ぬくもりを東北にいる人々に届けはじめて3年目となります。今回は、今から2014年1月末までギフトを集めています。

特に今は、私たちが今年初めてプレゼントをお届けする日：12/17（12/15下記住所に必着）までに送っていただけるよう呼びかけています。最初のプレゼントは福島にある有機農家のコミュニティにお届けします。また、二回目以降のお届けとして2014年最初の2,3カ月間くらいの間に、東北の他の場所もお伺いしようと考えています。

ギフトの送り方は以下をご覧ください。

プレゼントの送り方／
下記の住所に2014年1月31日までにお送りください。
※第一回目のお届け：12月17日に間に合わせるためには12月15日必着です。

〒305-0824
茨城県つくば市葛城根崎45-1
c/o Human Arts Experience
ジェフリー　ジョーサン
シェア・ユア・クリスマス

電話029-828-4990
プレゼントは中身が見えるよう透明な袋に入れてください。
新品、新品同様の美品（あなたの家で一度も使われなかったもの、箱から出してほとんど使っていないもの、そして見た目が綺麗なもの）でお願いします。あなたのアイデアでリボンをかけたり、カードを付けてもOK。メッセージを添えたり、もし受け取った方と連絡を取りたい場合は自分の名前や住所を加えたり、自分の写真を入れても！

また、プレゼントの代わりにお金を寄付する形も受け付けています。
寄付いただいたお金は、12/17のクリスマスパーティに使用したり、新しいプレゼントや必要な備品の購入、福島までの交通費負担などに使わせていただきます。

Share Your Christmasのさらに詳しい情報、ギフトの送り方、寄付の仕方、過去のSYC活動の様子、プレゼントの写真などは、下の日本語サイトでもご覧になれます。
http://www.shareyourchristmas.org/シェア-ユア-クリスマス/

お先に、東北のために心の込もったプレゼントを有難う！

Jacinta Hin & Jeffrey Jousan

We found these guys as the sun was going down over Ishinomaki city. They are on top of the foundation of a building that was washed away. It's actually in front of the Manga Museum. It was early July when came across them and the sounds of reggae music (an Ishinomaki original song about never giving up). It was the first time after 3.11 that a felt a sense of hope. When I was there again on 11.11 the stone "Kabigon" was still there. (Jeffrey Jousan) — at Ishinomaki.

Final Staw: "What a Natural Farmer Eats"

(Video: Final Straw)

Via Final Straw, a documentary by Patrick Lydon and Suhee Kang:

This series of 'Short Take' interviews offer sneak peaks of characters from the upcoming documentary film, which explores Japanese natural farming and the relationships between people and the environment.

This time around, we meet Osamu Yoshino, a natural agriculture farmer, and Keiko Domae a food activist who started one of Japan's first Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) networks. These two individuals worked together to build a successful natural farm by fostering a strong consumer awareness of the relationship between food, farm, and people...

Natural Farming was brought to the modern day agricultural world by two Japanese farmers, Masanobu Fukuoka and Mokichi Okada, and since its introduction has been slowly making its way into communities around the world who wish to create a more sustainable life, and to create closer connections with the land in our towns and cities.

More about Final Straw:

Due for initial screening in Spring of 2014, Final Straw is a cinematic exploration of Japanese natural farming, and...individuals who offer simple solutions to modern issues of sustainability, both on the farm and in the city. The film interacts with a cast of office workers, chefs, musicians, and farmers alike, all of who are students of the late Japanese farmer/philosopher, Masanobu Fukuoka.

It all started on a small mist-covered mountain farm in South Korea, and continued to include over 20 natural farmers in East Asia and the USA...And today, with over 1/2 of the world’s population living in urban areas, it seems we need to revisit this connection with nature more than ever before.

More about Osamu Yoshino, Keiko Domae, and the development of CSA in Japan:

Natural Agriculture farmer finds locating a market more challenging than letting go of chemicals (Lisa M. Hamilton, Newfarm.org, Feb. 13, 2004)

Community-Supported Agriculture in South Korea: "Ground Zero for Food Sovereignty..."

The Korean Women’s Peasant Association (KWPA), a national organization of women farmers

 based in Seoul receive the 2012 Food Sovereignty grand prize. 

(Photo: Grist)

In "South Korea: Ground Zero for Food Sovereignty and Community Resilience," published last week at The Nation, Christine Ahn and Anders Riel Muller describe how South Korean small farmers and the communities, food buyers supporting them are challenging the country's industrial elite who want to end traditional organic Korean agriculture and outsource food production to corporate-owned plantations in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.  These visionary small farmers helping to pioneer the direction of sustainable agriculture for the world:

...And yet, despite a series of domestic and international policies that have sought to systematically eliminate them, South Korean farmers and peasants are fighting back. They have protested the WTO and bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) for two decades, inspiring peasant farmers throughout the global south to mobilize against the free trade regime. At home, they are trying to build a domestic food sovereignty movement that is ecologically sustainable, socially equitable and economically resilient by producing healthy food, creating dignified rural livelihoods and reviving farming communities.

Instead of being blinded by South Korean high-tech bling, our eyes should be on South Korea’s food sovereignty movement. It offers the rest of us robust alternatives to the highly consolidated, industrialized, energy-intensive and chemical-dependent globalized food systems that dominate all of our lives.

In August, we co-organized and participated in a Food First Food Sovereignty Tour where we visited South Korea’s leading organic farms and progressive farmer-consumer cooperatives. South Korea is now a leader in the Asian region in organic production, so much so that the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements set up its offices there. And while there were many inspiring organic farms and gardens, two organizations stand out: the Korean Women Peasants Association (KWPA) and Hansalim.

“The food that is being sold by capitalism is sold as a commodity instead of food that sustains us,” explained Jeong-Yeol Kim of My Sister’s Garden, a KWPA project. “That’s why we believe that helping farmers thrive is the only way to fix this food crisis, and the pathway to do so would be to ensure that consumers and every citizen join us in the process of making this come true....

“Children today have no connection to the rural land,” explains Jeong-Yeol. Unlike previous generations, many children today no longer have grandparents or relatives living in the countryside who are connected in any way to farming. “So part of the effort of this partnership is to expose children to food production.”

...hese KWPA projects seek to radically alter the structure of the Korean food system and to de-commodify the linkages between consumers and producers. It has not been in vain. In 2012, KWPA was awarded with the Food Sovereignty Prize for their work to defend the rights of small-scale women farmers in Korea and preserve the cultural heritage of Korean native seeds.

In 1986, even before farmers’ markets and CSA programs became popular in the United States, South Korean farmers and consumers began Hansalim. “Han” in Korean means great, one, whole and together, and refers to all living things on earth. “Salim” refers to domestic activities that must be managed to care for one’s home, family, children and community, as well as to revive and give life.

With 2,000 growers and 380,000 consumer members, Hansalim is among the world’s largest and most successful agricultural cooperatives, creating an alternative economy that supports organic farmers and local agriculture, producing healthy food and protecting the environment in the process. Despite the global financial crisis, its sales have been growing annually by 20 percent.

(Photo: eng.Hansalim.or.kr)

Beautiful Energy - 1st Anniversary Celebration - Tokyo - Nov. 30, 2013

(Photo: Beautiful Energy)

Via Jacinta Hin and Natsu no Color of Tokyo-based Beautiful Energy/The Stand for a Nuclear-Free World.

Beautiful Energy is... born out of the weekly Friday anti-nuclear demonstrations in Tokyo in front of and around the prime minister's residence and Parliament. Through inspired, peaceful action we stand for a nuclear-free world that thrives on renewable energy.

Our current, ongoing project is Candles for Peace. Every Friday, from 6-8pm Japan time, we gather in front of parliament in kokkai gijido, joining the weekly anti-nuclear protest, and create a beautiful display of candlelight to symbolize our intentions...

This group of visionary citizen activists in Tokyo radiate positive (and beautiful) emotional, ethical energy and holistic vision.  They're engaged in outreach and support for Fukushima nuclear refugees, (including bringing hot meals to elder refugees living in a shelter).  Sharing their kind of healing, constructive worldview is a first step in our collective transition from toxic to nontoxic, renewable energy production and use.

In November it will be one year since we lighted our Beautiful Energy candles for the first time. Time for a little celebration!

You are invited to our anniversary party in Tokyo on November 30. Join us for an intimate evening with live music, delicious graceful vegan foods and of course candles!

Date: November 30 (Saturday), from 19.00 – 22.30pm
Place: Bar GariGari (Tokyo, Setagaya-ku, Daizawa 2-45-9, .. Building B1 /

http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1318/A131801/13126176/dtlmap/ / opposite Ikenoue Station, Inokashira-line (2 stops from Shibuya)

Charge: 2,000 yen (inclusive vegan buffet foods, music charge and charity donation).

* Vegan foods provided by our Friday neighbors Yuko Ogura and Yayoi Ito of Guerilla Café

* Drinks are not included. Please order at least one drink at the bar

* 500 yen will go to Share Your Christmas (SYC). SYC collects and brings Christmas presents from around the world to people in Tohoku affected by the 3/11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster (https://www.facebook.com/shareyourchristmaswithtohoku)

Please bring your own chopsticks, so we may reduce waste and spread eco-energy!

19:00 Start

19:20 Anniversary Speech

19:30 Special Message from people from all over the world♪

19:45 Music time: nuclear-free world songs by Natsu, Chris and other Beautiful Energizers! (details to follow)

20:30 Enjoy conversation with each other!

22:30 End

Kindly let us know no later than November 20 if you plan to attend (and sooner if you can).

7th Organic Film Festival - Tokyo - Nov. 23-24, 2013

Via Organic Consumers Union:

The 7th organic film festival will be held in Tokyo on November 23-24, 2013.

This will be a great opportunity to catch up with recent trends and watch documentaries from Japan and abroad. The theme this year is “Holding on to the Soil” to reflect the hardships many farmers are experiencing, with special focus on Okinawa and Fukushima.

Location: Hosei University, Sotobori Campus (between Iidabashi and Ichigaya stations on the Sobu line)

Tickets: 1800 Yen (pre order) 2500 Yen ( at the entrance)

For more information please check the official website (J): http://www.yuki-eiga.com/

Keibo Oiwa on the Localization Movement & Heirloom Vegetable Revival in Yamagata

In Keibo Shinichi Oiwa Tsuji's (14-min.) talk, "Cultural Creatives and Localization Movements in Asia," at the 2013 International Society of Economics and Culture (ISEC)  Economics of Happiness conference, the slow life advocate explores the heirloom vegetable revival in Yamagata, a prefecture in northwestern Tohoku:

Many people feel that localization is isolation. This is totally wrong. In fact, localization is to rediscover and recreate relationships. It restores meanings to relationships.

I will try to illustrate this with one example from Japan.

Shonai is the northeastern part of Japan, in Yamagata Prefecture. At the center of this local food movement is a charismatic chef and restaurant owner, [Masayuki] Okuda. Today he is one of the most renowned chefs in Japan and recognized as one of the slow food master chefs. He is known for his cooking philosophy: The distance that ingredients travel from field to table should be as short as possible. Dinners are served with the freshest of local ingredients, brimming with life energy.

When I met Okuda, he was a young and unknown chef and had just opened his own restaurant in Tsuroka City. He was active in a citizens' group called "Good Water Fan Club" protesting the construction of a dam and trying to preserve underground water wells that were soon to be destroyed.

I asked him why he got involved in this kind of movement. And his answer was, "The kernel of cooking is water." In fact, the region of Shonai was known for good water throughout history, and good sake.

The name of his restaurant, Al che-cciano, sounds to Japanese like Italian, but is actually an expression in Shonai dialect, meaning "It's been always here, hasn't it?".

Just after he opened his restaurant, he became good friends with one of his regular customers, [Hiroaki] Egashira, an agronomist from Yamagata University. Okuda would tell Egashira that, "My mission as a chef is to let people rediscover the quality of almost forgotten local foods, to encourage and support local farmers, and to create a community with a vibrant local economy."

So this rediscovery is what Okuda really meant by Al che-cciano.

Egashira was so happy learning about his new friend's mission as he himself was just launching production of a variety of heirloom vegetables.  Inspired by each other's passion for heirloom crops, Egashira and Okuda formed a team and started to explore the Shonai region, looking for farmers still preserving heirloom seeds...Egashira formed the Yamagata Forum for Indigenous Crops, with a magazine called Seeds...The forum's researchers have identified already more than 160 varieties of plants which had been, at one point, heirloom crops, transferred from generation to generation, but which had been almost forgotten.  Today, the forum's membership amounts to almost 400 citizens with many different backgrounds.

Kusajima, one of the key figures in the Shonai local food movement, and now a member of the prefectural parliament, is a good example of the new political activism. At the time of the Great Kobe Earthquake in 1995, Kusajima left work in Tokyo, and went to work in the disaster zone in Kobe. It was there he felt, for the first time, that he was part of a community where people willingly helped and supported one another.

He decided to return to his native region, Shonai, where he got involved in environmental issues, and found himself in a community of ecologically conscious people like Okuda and Egashira. With the support of this group, he was elected as a city councilor, and later a prefectural member of parliament, independent of any political party.  Since he played a leading role in the Good Water Fan Club, Kusajima's main campaign was about safeguarding the natural water system.

His thinking has not only been influenced by modern Western teachings, but also stemmed from the ancient nature religion of the region. He's a believer and practitioner of Shugendo...of which one of the traditional centers is the holy mountains of Haguro, in the middle of the Shonai region.

Shugendo is an ancient religion that originated in ancient Japan. It's an amalgamation of Taoism, Buddhism, and Shintoism...In this tradition, enlightenment is achieved by attaining oneness with the kami (deity...or spirits). This enlightenment is achieved by understanding the relationship between human beings and nature...

Another member of the local food movement is [Satoshi] Watanabe, a Shonai native and professional filmmaker. Her second feature documentary is Reviving Recipes, a colorful portrait of a community in the making. The protagonists of this film are Okuda, Egashira, and a local businessman and partners whose mutual collaboration leads to the emergence of a new local economy.

Watanabe explains, "In plants are a living cultural heritage that have been passed through decades and centuries, to provide generations not only food...but also farming methods and cooking methods.  In this day of globalization, however, that heritage had been overshadowed by big-scale market agriculture and was on the brink of being forgotten."

Watanabe shares the view with fellow members of this movement: An understanding of heirloom plants leads to an understanding of food, farming, and all the people involved. To revive and pass on local heirloom plants is not just a means to enjoy the bounty of food, but also to create and strengthen bonds among local people.

He and all the supporters of the film hope that Reviving Recipes will help remedy the serious problems surrounding food and farming today, not only in Japan, but throughout the world.

It is important to note that the local food movement in Shonai has its roots in the movement to safeguard the communal access to deep underground water and seeds. The sense of the commons is the foundation of a community. Starting with air, water, and seeds. This is what global corporations are trying to commodify.

The sense of the sacred is essential for community, especially in a time of global market economy when nothing is sacred and everything is translated into monetary value.

The local food movement in Shonai is inseparable from the local spiritual tradition like Shugendo. I recently interviewed one of the leaders of this tradition, Hoshino...and he defined what the meaning of yamabushi [practitioner of Shugendo] is.  It is a connector. Anybody who connects things and people: that's yamabushi...

It is a connector, anyone who connects.  All of us here might be yamabushi.  It is a community of prayer.

The word for happiness in Japanese is shiawase.  Awase means to relate and to bring together. This implies that being slow is an essential part of happiness.  A slow life is a happy life. A slow economy is not a bad economy. A slow business is not a bad business.  It is an art that restores, discovers, and creates meaningful relationships between humans and nature, humans to the land, to the community...

As we get local, we get better connected.  Our life gets more interesting and exciting. A slow life is an exciting life. But I'm afraid it might be a busy one.

Oiwa Tsuji is a professor of international studies at Meiji Gakuin University, and the co-author (with David Suzuki) of The Japan We Never Knew: A Journey of Discovery (with David Suzuki), a groundbreaking travelogue/history/exploration of Japan's indigenous, environmentalist, peace, and nuclear-free movements.

More: 

"Japan's Heirloom Vegetable Revival" (April 6, 2012, Slowfood.com)

Sloth Club (Japanese)

Slow Japan (Sloth Club blog in English)

More great speakers from the 2013 Economics of Happiness conference on video:  http://www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/conference-video-gallery-2013.

Alex Kerr's beautiful old/new Japanese country houses and the movement to save traditional Japan

Great talk and breathtaking photos by author and historic preservationist Alex Kerr at TEDx in Kyoto on his mission to save Japanese country houses (minka).

Japan is so rich: the natural environment, the fantastic traditional culture, the wealth of beauty and materials and spirit of lifestyle that you find in these old places. It's there and it can be saved.

Kerr uses double-paned windows for energy conservation. If his country houses were updated for solar, renewable energy, that would be even more modernizing, given 3/11's call to shift, downsize energy usage.

The reason small towns in Japan (and elsewhere) are experiencing depopulation is because they were built around local (agricultural, fishing) economies that have been collapsing under the global food industry's drive towards ever-increasing expansion...Japan's food sufficiency is now at 39%; when Alex Kerr came to Japan as a child (1960's), the nation’s food self-sufficiency rate was around 80%.

Kerr's work to restore country houses is one facet of a larger grassroots-driven local revitalization movement that seeks to save traditional Japan's agriculturally-rooted, rural cultures.

Tragically, Tohoku, much of which was stricken by the 3/11 disasters, was the bastion of Japan's sustainable, slow life, organic and heirloom food movement.  Areas in Tohoku not affected by the catastrophes (Yamagata) continue pioneering these shifts.

Elsewhere, young Japanese people are leaving urban areas to return to their rural roots to farm and open organic retreats.  Japanese singer Yae and her mother Tokiko Kato (also a renowned singer) have a farming community in Kamogawa (near Tokyo) that opened during the 1970's.  It's a model of downsizing energy use, revitalizing traditional self-sufficiency, and cultivating simplicity.

During his youth, Alex Kerr fell in love with Japanese country houses and the traditional culture that make up their  landscapes.  He belongs to a distinguished tradition of foreign residents (Lafcadio Hearn, Ernesto Fenollosa...) who worked to preserve traditional Japanese culture because they found the passing of its richness and beauty unbearable.  One can sense this appreciation in the atmosphere of Kerr's restored and beloved country house, Chiiori, in western Tokushima, a prefecture in Shikoku, on the Inland Sea.

Kerr is now acting as an advisor to rural Japanese villages seeking to stem depopulation by building up local tourist economies through restoring country houses (for short-term stays) and revitalizing local culture.

Spurred on by different motives—profit-seeking (sometimes, but not always, mixed with sincere appreciation of Japanese architectural heritage)—foreign and Japanese investors who are renovating older homes for rental income are also part of the drive to save and restore older Japanese houses, especially in Kyoto and Kamukura.  It's great that these minka and urban traditional houses (machiya) are being preserved, however historic preservation springing from this limited motivation may lack the larger vision and quality of Kerr and others who appreciate the multidimensional contexts of traditional Japanese culture.

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More about the country house that captured Kerr's imagination and heart as a teenager: "Bringing an 18th-Century Farmhouse Back to Life" (Liza Foreman, NYT, Dec. 27, 2012)

Chiiori: Alex Kerr's first Japanese country house. (Photo: Alex Kerr)

More about restoring Japanese traditional houses as a business: 

"Japan’s Forsaken Homes Restored to Historic Styles Yield 80%" (Kathleen Chu and Katsuyo Kuwako, Bloomberg, Nov. 20, 2012)

"Historic Homes in Tokyo Attract More International Buyers" (Desiree Quijalvo, realestateco.jp,  Oct. 30, 2012)