The careful application of several layers
of earth, and then plaster.

The result can look like a work of art.

Kyle Holzhueter, from the USA,

has mastered
this traditional Japanese technique,

and advocates for “natural building.”

His work is highly regarded, and he
receives commissions from across Japan.

But there's another important aspect
to Holzhueter's life and work.

In a community
with fewer than 90 residents,

he promotes an approach of living
in harmony with nature.

We explore the path Holzhueter
has been walking,

and the rewarding way
of life he has discovered.

Hello and welcome to Japanology Plus.
I'm Peter Barakan.

Today we present one
of our Japanophile profiles.

I'm in Okayama Prefecture in
western Japan, in a place called Kamimomi,

which, as you can see,
is way up in the mountains.

There was a long,
winding road to get here,

and on the way, I saw a lot of the kind
of terraces you can see behind me,

which were built hundreds
of years ago for rice cultivation.

The terraces are still in use,
although the population here,

as in many parts of rural Japan,
is dwindling,

with young people moving away
to the cities,

and just a small number of older people
left to maintain these communities.

I'll be talking to Kyle Holzhueter,

who's mastered the art
of traditional Japanese plastering,

and lives a life in tandem
with nature not far from here.

- Hello Peter.
- Good morning. Hi.

- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.

It's quite a view up here.

Yeah, we're probably
at about 400 meters in elevation.

Okay. And it's a little bit cold.

Yeah. Yeah,
it was a cold morning this morning.

Yeah.

It must be nice in the springtime,
though, I'm sure.

The spring is slow.

It takes a long time
for it to warm up here.

But, but the falls are long,

and...and I like the winter
because the grass stops growing.

I mean, during the summer,
it's a lot of cutting grass.

Oh, okay. From that point of view. Okay.

Kyle Holzhueter is a plasterer.

He uses traditional Japanese techniques.

Traditional architecture begins
with a frame.

Carpenters create the basic appearance
of the floors, walls and ceilings.

Earth and plaster are among the materials

that may be applied to the walls
to make them strong and beautiful.

This work is done
by a “sakan,” a plasterer.

It's an occupation in its own right.

Plastering techniques have been passed
down in Japan for over a thousand years.

This expertise is showcased
in many traditional buildings.

Holzhueter has mastered the craft,

and now teaches it at workshops
in Japan and elsewhere.

Lovely wall here.

- Is this your work?
- Yeah.

- Can we have a look?
- Yeah.

- That's plastering?
- Yeah.

It doesn't really look Japanese.

No, it's not.

It's kind of inspired by North American
and European plastering techniques.

Oh.

Yeah. These are the soils that we used.

This is a red clay
from Yamaguchi Prefecture.

And this is a yellow clay
from Aichi Prefecture.

I prefer to use as natural and
as raw unprocessed materials as possible.

And Japan has a tradition
of using colored clays

for interior and exterior finishes.

Okay.

I oftentimes tend
to avoid new building materials,

like highly processed
industrial building materials.

I also kind of avoid pigments.

Pigments meaning artificial coloring?

Yeah, artificial coloring. Right.

I see. I see.

Looks beautiful though.

Kyle Holzhueter was born in 1977,
in Wisconsin,

an area of the United States known
for its dairy farming.

Agriculture was part
of his life growing up,

and he was surrounded by nature.

At university, he majored
in philosophy and religious studies.

He was especially drawn to Buddhism.

In his fourth year,
he came to Japan for the first time.

The scenery and cuisine
he experienced inspired a strong desire

to live in harmony with nature.

Back in the US, Holzhueter
became involved in “natural building,”

which emphasizes sustainability.

He enjoyed plastering in particular.

In 2007, he returned to Japan

and began to explore the theme
of community development.

A first-hand encounter
with a Japanese plasterer

made a strong impact.

After earning a PhD,

he went on to become an officially
certified plasterer in Japan.

You've done plastering in America as well.

Are there any major differences
between the way it's done there and here?

Yeah. I think the main differences
between plastering in Japan and

the United States is Japan has
the tradition of many fine layers.

You use a strong binder
with a lot of fiber,

and many fine layers in Japan,
I think, are the characteristics.

Whereas in Europe and North America,

they would use a heavier sand mix
and it would be a thicker plaster.

And they don't layer it on?

It is layered, but not quite as detailed
as the Japanese, as far as I understand.

This display shows
how a wall is completed.

From left to right,
we see how layers are added.

The panel on the right
is the finished item.

One feature of this multi-layer process

is that it contributes
to the durability of the finished wall.

In the first section
we see the earth that forms the base.

This is recycled earth,

like old earth plaster
that we get from old buildings.

From this building.

And this can be crushed up and reused.

That's the beautiful thing about earth,

is that it can be reused over
and over again.

Okay, yep.

For example,
this earth here is 100 years old.

Right.

But it could have been used
in another building before that.

So, I mean, this could have been used for

hundreds and hundreds of years,
potentially, as an earth plaster.

And the earth is mixed
with additional straw fibers.

The more fine fibers you can get
into the plaster, the stronger it is.

I see.

It provides bending strength
and tensile strength to the plaster,

which makes it very strong
in an earthquake.

I think that's probably
the biggest characteristic

of Japanese plastering is
the high use of fibers in the plaster.

So that would have been devised
many hundreds of years ago

because of earthquakes happening,

and people knew that they had
to find a way to make things hardy.

- Exactly.
- I see.

A layer is applied that includes
some kind of mesh, or netting.

The mesh helps to prevent cracking.

Earth plaster containing fine straw fibers
and sand is also applied.

This produces a flat surface
with an even texture.

Then comes the final coat.

This white layer is made using hydrated
lime, hemp fibers, and seaweed glue.

The glue inhibits quick drying,
leading to a more attractive appearance.

In North America, there isn't
a long earth building tradition,

so a lot of the earth building knowledge
is being rediscovered.

On the other hand,

Japan has a 600-year-old,
a 1000-year-old earth building tradition;

a living tradition.

And that...

that knowledge and understanding is passed
down from generation to generation.

And you can see just the understanding,

the difference in understanding
of the materials.

And fortunately, I've been able to pick up
a little bit of that understanding.

Okay.

For example, like that,
the brown coat plaster,

I mixed up that plaster with, no, like,
I didn't measure any of the materials.

You have a feeling for the materials.

- It's quite similar to cooking.
- Yep.

If you watch a good chef cook,

they're not,
like, measuring out everything.

They know what it's supposed to taste
like, and they know what goes into it.

- Right, right. Okay.
- Yeah.

The tools are another distinctive feature
of Japanese plastering.

Trowels come in around a thousand forms,

differentiated by material,
shape, and size.

Holzhueter will take several
dozen trowels to a work site.

Would you like to try?

You know, I did this once before,

and I didn't make a very good job of it.

I'm a good teacher.

- What the hell, let's have a try.
- Okay, let's give a try.

Peter is going to practice moving plaster
from the hawk to the trowel.

And the trick is to move
your hawk vertical just for a second.

Okay.

Oops.

You're doing it off the bottom
and I'm doing it off the side.

Just like that.
Hey, you're getting better.

Nice.

Oops.

No worries.

Oh, I've got it on the handle again.

This is actually harder than it looks.
Hold on.

On the path to mastery of his craft,

Holzhueter constantly sought harmony
with nature.

He was greatly influenced
by a book about permaculture—

an approach to sustainable lifestyles.

In 2003, he visited Australia,
the birthplace of the concept,

and became qualified to teach it.

Now you teach about permaculture.

I'm not quite sure what that means.

Perhaps you can explain it.

Permaculture began in the 1970s.

It was actually the, the word
was coined by two Australians,

Bill Mollison and David Holmgren.

It's a design system
for sustainable human habitats.

And David and Bill
were actually strongly influenced by

East Asian satoyama,

or East Asian farming,
rural farming communities.

And I think the more
I get to know satoyama,

the more I can see that

it's actually designed according
to permaculture principles.

Of course, the farmers have never heard
the word permaculture.

Sure.

It's a part of their culture.

Sure.

Like, for example, in permaculture,

we talk about using kinetic energy
in designing and building a site,

so using gravity
to move materials through a site.

So, for example, when looking
at a traditional Japanese homestead,

behind the home
you have the plantation forest,

and that's because you want to

bring heavy timbers
from above the house down.

You don't want to carry heavy timbers up.

And then above the plantation forest,

you have like a mixed deciduous forest
that's oftentimes coppiced.

The trees are cut
in a rotation for firewood,

and then they're turned into charcoal,

and then that light charcoal
is brought down to the house.

So using gravity to move materials
down towards the house

and at the top of the mountain is,
in permaculture, we say zone five,

the area where the human hand is not,
human intervention is not included.

And that's just left
to be natural habitat.

Of course, the people living
in Japanese communities don't know that

this is why it was designed.

It's a mountainous country,

and people have always lived
in these fairly remote regions.

They didn't have any other way but that.

Yeah.

It had to be sustainable

because there was no other way
they were going to survive.

Exactly.

And now it's just
become a part of the culture.

I mean, this idea of permaculture
is relatively new,

but in a way,
it's just going back into the past.

But it's not simply a revival of the past.

It's a combination of all of those skills
and knowledge in the past

with our new appropriate technology.

For example, the solar hot water heater.

Okay. Alright.

In 2017,

Holzhueter and his wife Kazuko moved
into a 200-year-old house in Kamimomi.

Trying all sorts of approaches,

they've steadily moved closer
to a sustainable lifestyle.

Kazuko is in charge of the cooking.

The main ingredients are rice
and vegetables that they themselves grew.

Today they will also enjoy meat
that a local hunter gave them.

They're having a wild boar
and potato stew.

For cooking, they use firewood.

The wood may be timber from
forest thinning, or discarded material.

The house has a wood-burning heater
that Holzhueter made.

It heats the room,
and also keeps the bed warm.

It seems like an idyllic way of life,

and very much what they hoped to achieve.

But it does pose challenges,
as Kazuko explains.

It was tough to get used to.

For example, with gas cookers
you can quickly adjust the flame.

Here you have to adjust the fire inside.

At first it was quite fun.

But when you have to do it every day,
it turns into a real chore.

Nevertheless, I feel that the more
I put into this way of life,

the more rewarding it becomes.

Soon after moving to Kamimomi,
Holzhueter set up a permaculture center.

This offers him one way to share

the techniques
and know-how he has acquired.

I had farmed most of my twenties,

and worked as a builder,
mainly plastering, most of my thirties.

And I wanted to find a place
that I could use all those skills:

farming and natural building, plastering.

So we found this, kind of by chance,

found this property in the countryside.

Wow. You just happened upon this place?

Yeah.

And took a photo
of the main house and showed it to

the local village chief,
and he said, hey, that house is open.

Would you like to meet the owner?

And that's how it began.

Okay.

And every year
we offer a variety of courses.

We have a year-long rice
cultivation course

where we cultivate
the terraced rice fields here.

We do natural building courses.

Okay.

And then as a part of those workshops,
we renovate these buildings,

the 50-year-old main house,

the 100-year-old kura,

and we're building a new building

almost from materials
entirely from this mountain.

Holzhueter and his workshop participants
are building a house

that reflects community identity
and uses local resources.

It showcases
diverse materials and methods.

All the timber comes from the local area.

The north side is the coldest,

and so the north-facing wall
uses straw bales for insulation.

The straw is compressed into blocks,

which are piled up and coated with earth.

For the west-facing wall,

Holzhueter had the idea
of using discarded rice husks—

an unconventional building material.

The east-facing wall features
a wooden frame

filled with a mixture of earth and straw.

All the main construction materials
are biodegradable,

Eventually, many years from now,
they will return to nature.

In Japan, a community like Kamimomi,

where over half the population is
at least 65 years old

is called “genkai shuraku.”

Here, the average age is actually 78.

In a struggling community,

strong social bonds
are extremely important.

Holzhueter holds
various kinds of workshops

to share his enthusiasm for rural Japan,

and encourage more people to visit.

In one year-long course,

participants meet each month
to cultivate rice using natural methods.

They gain hands-on experience
of the work involved in every season.

In winter, the fields are flooded.

Scattering rice bran and chopped straw
helps to nurture diverse creatures.

That biodiversity enriches the soil,

and helps to eliminate the need
for pesticides or fertilizer.

To prevent water leaking out,

the barriers between paddy fields
must be strengthened.

There are 17 participants,
some from as far as 600 kilometers away.

I moved to a place not far from here.

I wanted to get involved
in something like this.

That's why I signed up.

Rice farming doesn't have
to involve lots of machines

or harm to the environment.

Also, I love the idea of paddy fields full
of living creatures.

So I came to learn.

We started in the spring.

I've made friends, and learned a lot.

As a group, we all work together
on the various fields.

There's a really strong sense
of everyone working together.

It's fun.

And it's amazing what people can achieve.

Holzhueter believes

that the most important factor
in a sustainable lifestyle

is not personal self-sufficiency,

but an interdependent community
where people support each other.

I think this is an interesting model,

because if we can be successful here

in developing sustainable food
and energy and shelter on this mountain,

- it can be done on other mountains,
- Sure.

- in another genkai shuraku.
- Sure, sure.

So the fact that you're doing agriculture
and creating habitats

for people 20, 50, 100 years
from now is interesting,

because who knows whether this place
will exist 100 years from now?

I'm, I'm quite confident it will.

We, we get a lot of requests from people
that are interested in moving here,

people who are interested
in living this kind of lifestyle,

and also people who want
to cooperate and work closer with us.

So I'm confident that...

I'm...have a bright vision of the future.

Right.

The founder of permaculture,
Bill Mollison,

he said something kind of interesting.

He said that permaculturists
are time travelers.

We're producing food and energy,
building homes,

creating habitat, landscapes
that will provide food and energy

for people living 20 years, 50 years,
100 years from now.

It's quite different
from the current economic model.

The current economic model
thinks three months ahead.

We've planted dozens of fruit
and nut trees in the past couple of years

and reviving these crop fields is really
a gift for the next generation.

When I was studying
at the plastering trade school in Kyoto,

I was interested at that time becoming
the best plasterer in Japan.

And then my wife Kazuko got sick,

and we had to move back
to her parents' place in Hiroshima,

and I kind of forgot about
that kind of dream I had.

But I feel like
what we're doing here is more important.

It doesn't matter
how many beautiful walls I plaster,

society isn't going to change.

But through developing this site,

we can actually change the way
that people live,

the way that people interact
with their environment,

how they use resources,
where they get their food from.

So coming here, I was able
to connect all those different things.

Rather than just plastering,

I was able to connect farming,
natural building, plastering.

And you certainly seem
to have a lot of joy in it, too.

Yeah. Every day there's a new challenge.

On these Japanophile programs,
as you may know,

the last question is always the same one.

What is Japan to you?

Yeah. When I hear that question,
“What is Japan to you?”,

I think of, like, what do you think
of the essence of Japan?

Or what's the essence of Japan to you?

And for me, it's, in Japanese anshinkan,

like a sense of being at home,
a sense of being safe,

a sense of being nurtured, supported.

That's kind of how I feel in this,
in the satoyama.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thank you.