Presentation by Zia Saylor & Craig Martien
Subjects:
- Takamuro Sachiko and Keihoku Forests
- Kawarabayashi Shigeri and Keihoku’s Traditions
- Yamane Julia and the Waters of Kyoto
- Shinkansen and the Kansai Ecosystem
Sachiko Takamuro:
To begin with, we explore the work of Sachi-san, who is the co-founder of Forest of Craft, as well as a member of the shokunin collective. Forest of Craft is located in Keihoku, a mountain village outside Kyoto city-center, and is a community of sustainable shokunin who are committed to immersing themselves in nature as they develop their work. Forest of Craft takes a “cradle to cradle” approach to artisanal crafts, encouraging shokunin to make products that are sustainable and connected to the local ecosystem.
Sachi-san taught us several ways to view the Keihoku ecosystem, the first being as a natural ecosystem. Much of the work of the Keihoku community is to care for the forest. We learned how in the post-World War era, the government planted many cedars with hopes of using them as a resource. They then neglected the cedars, which has led to the cedars taking over much of Keihoku. This creates the potential for disaster in the modern day: the shallow roots of the cedars and monoculture growth has led to the danger that the cedars would fall and create tragedy.
In Keihoku, they also have tried to grow urushi as part of this rebuilt ecosystem. Part of that in the modern day now means contending with deer, who also enjoy eating the urushi. Just as ecosystems are intricately linked, one part cannot be introduced without impacting the others. To ensure the sustainability of the craft, the urushi trees will be sustainably harvested after growing new ones, perpetuating the craft and investing in the future. This also incorporates death and new growth as an important part of the ecosystem.
Keihoku also serves as an ecosystem of shokunin. Sachi-san defined ecosystem as a series of connections between people, and this is just that. There are many collaborations between the shokunin of Forest of Craft. One example of this is Nishimura-sensei and Hosai-sensei, who collaborated to put usuhi on pottery. Or Nishimura-sensei and Tsutsumi-sensei who regularly work together. This collaboration encourages growth as shokunin connect over different facets of the community.
Lastly, Keihoku itself is also an ecosystem of community. This is reflected in the collaboration with local 10th graders to maintain trees in the forest, and 4th graders to educate them on the environment. As the students grow and leave Keihoku, they will take with them lessons on how to care for the earth and the nature.
Kawarabayashi Shigeri:
~~~It is a pleasure to be speaking with you all today, thank you for coming, and I would also like to thank those of you who spent time with us over this past week very much. Before I start with my slides, I want to share my foundational attractions to this course. I am interested in the scope of time in relation to the shokunin with whom we are speaking. Specifically, how thousands of years of artisanal practices and history have shaped and have been shaped by the city of Kyoto, and how modern-day Japanese pop culture stands on the shoulders of this great history.~~~
KAWARABAYASHI Shigeri is a local meister of the town of Keihoku. The town is a rural satoyama on the outskirts of Kyoto, and it has been surviving sustainably for at least 1000 years. It implements an Edo-period “circular economy” system, which repairs and recycles materials in order to restore the town and the land that it occupies to a better state.
He is a former lumber rafter on the Katsura River, bringing logs from the Keihoku area to Kyoto. Rafters would work in the winters, when the water was not being used for the rice fields. A favorite food to eat during breaks from rafting, we learned, was nattō mochi.
Kawarabayashi-sensei is the owner of and lives in a 650 year-old kayabuki thatched house. With a wood stove fire in the central room, the smoke rises into and out of the thatched roof, repelling insects and encouraging the proliferation of communities of microbacteria. Kawarabayashi-sensei stated that these bacteria help him and other occupants of similar homes to build resistances to natural dangers, such as the coronavirus. In addition, the smoke strengthens the ropes in the building.
We learned from Kawarabayashi-sensei that life in the mountains can be difficult but rewarding. Towards the conclusion of our visit, he even asked our group if we could think of anything that could help him to live a happier life. We were unable to provide an answer.
Regarding the ecosystem of Keihoku which Kawarabayashi-sensei inhabits, the allure of the natural landscape is the first and most important component. This aspect of the town – its rushing streams and its surrounding mountain vistas – illuminates why many of Keihoku’s inhabitants moved to the town from other, more urban areas, and why domestic and international tourists, such as ourselves, visit the area. Indeed, the beautiful scenery and, originally, the surplus of strong lumber are principal reasons why Keihoku is a thriving town in the present day. According to Kawarabayashi-sensei, the people of the mountain regions are united not by blood but by a common appreciation for their lifestyles and their communion with an isolated, yet beautiful, natural setting. The residents of this area, furthermore, have certain metrics and systems which ensure their harmony with nature. For example, loggers utilize a calendar which indicates auspicious dates on which lumber can be cut down without bugs living inside.
Kawarabayashi-sensei’s home is another example of humans living with and inside of settings prepared from natural sources, and which function according to natural schedules and processes. By living amidst sweat, smoke, straw, and bacteria, he is able to be healthy, strong, and self-sufficient. Certain decorative pieces in his home, in addition, are designed and manufactured from construction materials, such as wooden beams which were converted into a symmetrical sculpture. Here in this photograph, we can just make out the smoke rising through the thatched roof.
In Keihoku or anywhere else, we learned, people can live a similar life so long as they work hard and live at the pace of nature; that is, in line with the cycles and movements of inochi in the world around them.
Julia Yamane:
Our ecosystem experience culminated with Julia-san, who taught us about Kyoto as an ecosystem connected by water, as can be seen in the rivers that run through the city. These rivers are crucial for tea, tofu, soup, purification ceremonies, and providing life to the city with water. This creates a cultural ecosystem of sorts.
The rivers also create an ecosystem of time, connecting the past and the present. As seen in our experience with Kawarabayashi-san, rafting has a long history in Kyoto, and rivers are crucial to that. At our present, we are at a crossroads with rivers, and how we treat them now will set us up for the future.
Lastly, there is a community ecosystem created around the water: many wealthy residents of Kyoto live on the beatific banks of the river. Conversely, many of the traditionally lower classes were relegated to the flood-prone areas in a segregation of sorts. This has led to the creation of different communities at different points along the river, all tied together in one large ecosystem.
Just as Sachi-san said in reference to an ecosystem of people within Keihoku, the water also connects all of the shokunin we met with for this project, albeit in different ways. For some it is an input to their materials, for all it is an input to their body and daily life. One thing that is clear, however, is that each of our shokunin is a part of this water ecosystem.
Shinkansen and the Kansai Ecosystem:
Thus far, Zia and I have spoken about individuals whose work and interests center around the analysis and nurturing of certain ecosystems and communities. We were taken aback, then, when during our visit in Keihoku we learned about plans by the Japanese government to construct a Shinkansen bullet train from Osaka to the Sea of Japan. The proposed route, as you can see in these images, would travel through Kyoto and under the Keihoku area and other mountainous park regions. From the perspective of the residents of Keihoku, this project would be extremely disruptive in multiple ways. According to miyama-no-shinkansen.net, “More than 80% of the route… will be newly dug tunnels. … The construction will take 15 years and produces enormous amounts of waste earth, likely to contain arsenic and other toxic substances in some part. … [It] will transform the tranquil valleys, depriving them of their vitality and severing their underground water courses. It will also destroy the livelihoods of the people who have protected this area for so long.”
Despite the claims of some researchers that the railway would not disrupt underground structures, such as water supplies and mountain roots, the people of Keihoku believe otherwise, and that such a construction would perhaps awaken and enrage supernatural or divine entities or forces beneath the mountains. The ecosystem of the town of Keihoku, of its surrounding areas, and of the entire Kansai region are in danger due to the Shinkansen proposal, and while certain economic considerations are especially important for the people who live on the Sea of Japan, it appears highly necessary for the Japanese government to listen carefully to the concerns of the residents of Keihoku and of other similar populations about the health and sanctity of their ecosystem.