400年の隠れ里。学び場創りで人を育み自然と歴史を守りたい！

 

 

Ceramic painter Kazuhisa Kusaba

 

 

Support life; Let's open up the way to self-sufficiency

 

 

●Look carefully where your own footsteps fall. Watch your step. Look at the real nature and essence...Right now, I am thinking about the weight of these words. In the face of the disaster caused by the novel coronavirus, many people continue to assert themselves every day. Needless to say, there should be a lot of productive discussion, but whether or not the incessant criticism and and anxiety provoking discourse is truly productive… Let’s leave that question aside.

 

 

From Protecting Life to nourishing life

And from nourishing your own life to supporting each other’s life

A turning point towards a society that prioritizes life

 

 

●Watching your step intently now means protecting life. At the present time protecting life takes priority over the economy. Then, taking one step further, setting one’s eyes on the future,  towards nourishing life (connecting vertically). And from there, escaping the old pattern in which somebody wins and somebody loses, towards nourishing each others lives (connecting horizontally as well).

 

 

● What does nourishing life mean? First and foremost it is the fundamental act of "eating" and the act of "making" that supports it. Thus, nourishing each other’s lives means man’s wisdom and work.

 

 

●In spite of being blessed with such abundant nature, Japan's self-sufficiency ratio has fallen below 40%. The increasing reliance on imports is partly due to a change in eating habits, but it is also a result of "economic prioritization". What has been regarded as important above all concerning the increasing urbanization is the "economic effect." Consumption is becoming the center of , and of behavior, and the words “citizen” and “consumer” are increasingly becoming synonyms. The reason why we cannot go on living, as soon as the economy gets depressed, is because the foundations of life are excessively slanted towards money. I would like to consider the matter of connecting people's lives as an urgent task.

 

 

● That's right. The Corona disaster imposes on us the nation-building foundation of a society that prioritizes life. I am now thinking of connecting life, by combining the traditional way of life of making things with the new method of networking.

 

 

Nourishing life, connecting vertically

 

 

●To nourish life by vertically connecting lives means participation in agriculture. Although agriculture is the foundation of existence, because young people are taking novel initiatives, migrating from the city to the countryside, leading semi-agricultural lives (home gardens and community farms), a wide variety of approaches has developed. In the depopulated areas, abundant fields are left forgotten and untouched, waiting for tillers. Make something to eat. That is the foundation of making things.

 

 

Nourishing life, connecting horizontally

 

● It is good to be self-sufficient growing things together, but if the value　system concerning food ​​is turned around and new winners (the countryside) and losers (the cities) emerge, there will be no human spiritual progress. Now is the time to break the deadlock of this way of thinking. As a message of spirituality toward the future, I would like to find the way to self-sufficiency.

 

 

Combing making things and networking

 

 

I think about  joining together the traditional way of making things with the new method of networking, so that people, who have difficulties due to not being able to sell their stock, and people, who have difficulties due to not having enough produce, could help each other out.

 

 

I would like to explore specific actions from now on.

If you agree with our goals, why not join us in thinking about a society that supports life together? Please lend us your wisdom.

 

It is also a big step forward that more and more people are thinking about life and the future.

I would like to set up a network for a self-sufficient society that supports life.

 

We support the ‘Junkan no Mura’ project.