“Those who live in Satoyama”

Soil, soot, ash, pigment, and canvas from Midori-ku

 

The artist spent a month with children in Midori-ku, observing the formation of ashes and soot from bonfires, collecting soil from the Nagatsuta area, breaking it into small pieces and shaking it, and creating several types of natural pigments of Midori-ku together.

 

The participants observed the nature of Midori-ku at the Niiharu Satoyama Center and painted pictures of the satoyama from there.

 

The tree seedlings and roots of the central work are inhabited by "living creatures that watch over the satoyama," which were drawn by the children.

The children drew their original creatures while thinking about the cycle of life they learned from their nature observation and the process of soil formation.

The four creatures on the left and right are a goshawk, a longhorn beetle, a Mole, and a Anthocharis scolymus.

All of them live in the satoyama of Midori-ku.

 

The staff told me about these creatures living in this area when we observed nature at the Niiharu Satoyama Center. On their backs, too, spirits drawn by children are watching over them. The plants around them are also a little more unique, but they are native to the satoyama.In the mountains, from the smallest to the largest, they eat, are eaten, are born, and decay, all living in a cycle.Human activities are part of this cycle, living side by side with plants and animals.This work is an invitation from a rich satoyama.I would like you to visit the creatures in this work with your own body.

 

Organizer: Yokohama Enmusubi Kochu Executive Committee

http://yokohama-enmusubi.jp/report/tsuchie.html