Dialogue - Mikusa [Part 1] -

What prompted you two to start making things? Going back in time, what were you interested in when you were teenagers and students?

Hiroki : I was attracted to traditional ways of life from an early age, and as a child I would ask to go to a nearby folk garden every time I visited my ancestors' graves. I grew up in the countryside on the outskirts of Tokyo, and there were thatched-roof houses nearby, and I loved the beautiful original Japanese scenery of cows plowing the fields. At the same time, I was confused and saddened by the rapid disappearance of these things. In my early twenties, I traveled to Australia, where I met a family who lived a self-sufficient life. They built their houses with the surrounding wood, soil, and scrap materials, kept livestock, grew crops, cooked with firewood, and read books by candlelight. Their way of life was truly beautiful. They skillfully combined natural and old things. If you acquire the skills, you can make the things you need with your own hands. After returning to Japan, I started with what I could do. I started collecting things that were discarded near my house and making things that I would need for my future life. I didn't want to become something, I just wanted to get closer to their way of life.

Yoko : When I think back, I was the kind of child who would silently continue to create things by myself if I was given something. In my teens, I aimed to be a picture book author, and there was a time when I dreamed of becoming a photographer and continued to take pictures. I entered a design school, and worked in design in my twenties. At the same time, I was searching for what suited me, trying my hand at cooking and pottery. One day, I started to touch fabric, and had a strange feeling that I had been doing needlework for a long time. However, rather than specializing in one material, I think that any material would do for me. Creating things with my hands has always been there, no matter what time I look back, so it's natural for me.

In addition to your work as a creator, you also share your "self-created lifestyle" through books, videos, blogs, etc. How did this idea come about?

Hiroki : Rather than trying to communicate what happens at each moment, I have had one thing I wanted to communicate from the beginning, and I have been continuing to communicate that. Why did I start doing this? Since I was a child, I have loved traditional lifestyles and nature, but I was born and raised in a newly developed residential area on the outskirts of Tokyo, and I witnessed how the beautiful scenery and lifestyle of Satoyama were destroyed without hesitation. And the house I lived in was on top of a mountain that had been cut down.

Yoko : Nature disappears like a mountain of building blocks collapsing. I continued to watch this scenery even after I got married, and I saw a mountain behind my parents' house disappear in an instant.

Hiroki : My beloved thatched-roof house was destroyed, the milk vetch and rice paddies disappeared, and the sleep-inspiring chorus of frogs and the cries of owls echoing through the forest suddenly disappeared. It happened so fast it was scary. I wondered if it was okay for humans to continue doing things like this forever. There was an overwhelming flow that could not be controlled, and even as a child I realized that people were heading in a terrible direction. No one seemed to question it, and I felt lonely, thinking that I was the only one who felt that way.

My experience in Australia taught me the way of life. I realized that instead of just lamenting, we should create the ideal environment ourselves. I realized that it is possible to live in modern times by valuing nature and old things and creating things with our own hands. Their daily lives, which are never shown to anyone, were so beautiful that they brought tears to my eyes. I wanted to preserve as much of the nature that is being lost in modern times, the old ways of life, and the spirituality that lives there. However, it is not enough for one person to do so. I thought that there would be people who would respond if they saw a beautiful life like theirs, so I decided to do my best to convey that to them. I believe that if you practice this kind of life properly and convey it to others, people who will respond will definitely appear.

As time passed, you lived in a US military house in Fussa, Tokyo, and then you moved to Kurohime. Did you find the place you're currently on right away? Also, did you have your eye on a location, such as somewhere with a warm temperature or near the sea?

Hiroki : We both had a common image of wanting to live on the prairie. I loved the American TV drama "Little House on the Prairie" since I was a child, and Yoko has always been fascinated by the sight of vast grasslands. We've been searching for the ideal place for over 10 years since returning to Japan. There are plenty of good places in Japan, but we just couldn't find the place that was destined for us.

Yoko : Rather than going to see something based on specific information, we were looking for a place that would resonate with us both emotionally when we stood there.

Yoko : US military houses are being demolished year by year for various reasons, such as inheritance, by their owners. Now they are lost in the city and are so sparsely scattered that they are hard to notice. Our landlord was planning to demolish the house we were living in, but we persuaded him to let us stay. After a year of renovations, which had been in a dilapidated state, we finally decided that we wanted to demolish it again when things had settled down. From that point on, we started to actively look for land. And that's when we came across a place called "Kurohime."

Did you find the place "Kurohime" on your own, rather than someone telling you about it?

Hiroki : It all started with a single photograph. A photo of Mt. Kurohime seen from a wide open pasture. A stream flows through a grassland covered with wildflowers and green grass, with white snow-capped mountains in the background. It was a landscape that seemed like a foreign country, even though it was in Japan. It captured the hearts of the two of them, and they decided to go and see it once. They also had the idea that it would be the final resting place chosen by C.W. Nicol(*1), the author of a book they had read in their student days. Having been involved in Arctic research and African national parks and seen forests around the world, Nicol says that while there are 84 species of trees in his native Wales, there are 1,300 in Japan. It was Nicol who told them about the richness of Japan's forests, which many Japanese people are unaware of.

Yoko : Bears became extinct from his hometown about 1,000 years ago, and wild boars 400 years ago. Nicole was surprised to hear that bears live in Japan. He was also impressed by the way these animals coexist with people, and the knowledge and high skills of Japanese hunters who live with nature.

Hiroki : At the time, Japan was in the bubble era, and nature was being destroyed one after another. So Nicole used her own money to buy the forest and began activities to protect it. Even if the Japanese destroyed all the forests, she wanted to protect this one forest. She wanted to restore the forest to its lushness once again. I was moved by her activities, and the name of the place remained in my memory. As time passed, I would pass by the area by train and car. The nature was so deep that no man-made structures were visible, and it left a strong impression on me, as if I was looking at an ancient landscape. Events like this made me even more aware of the place called "Kurohime."

Yoko : One day, on my way home from work in Nagano, I stopped by Kurohime for the first time.

How did your heart react at that time?

Yoko : Even now when I think about it, my heart fills with emotion and tears come to my eyes.

Hiroki : We both just stood there.

Yoko : When we were traveling around Japan, we would talk about "where we would live" and get excited about it, but we couldn't find the words to say it. Finally, we both said, "This is it."

*1: CW Nicol was born in South Wales, UK. He moved to Canada at the age of 17 and then worked as a technician at the Arctic Biological Station of the Canadian Fisheries Research Service, where he conducted research on marine mammals. Since then, he has participated in 12 expeditions to the Arctic. In 1980, he settled in Nagano Prefecture, where he continued his writing career, and in 1986, he purchased a desolate piece of woodland to begin forest restoration activities. He named the woodland "Afan Forest" and began his restoration efforts.