This time we visit Japan's third-largest prefecture, Fukushima. The mild climate and snowy mountains have shaped diverse microclimates and customs, and widely varied crafts. From a sake brewery that's dedicated to the natural environment, to a studio that updates traditional local toys, and even a basketry artisan who uses mountain plants. Natural disasters and local history have played a role in the delicate beauty of Fukushima's designs. Join us on our hunt!
We're on a "Design Hunt," to find unique, regional designs from around Japan.
Today we're visiting Fukushima, Japan's third-largest prefecture by area.
Fukushima has mild weather but snowy mountains,
leading to diverse microclimates and customs that have shaped a wide variety of arts and crafts.
Natural disasters are part of Fukushima's storied history,
and local designs have a "delicate" beauty.
Join Shaula and me, on a design hunt in Fukushima!
Fukushima has an abundance of water flowing down from its many mountains.
Rich soil makes for plentiful harvests, and the region is also famous for its rice.
Japanese sake is made by fermenting rice and water,
so it's hardly a surprise that Fukushima is famous for its excellent brews.
Koriyama lies in central Fukushima.
A 300-year-old brewery here is gaining a following for its sake made from 100% organic rice.
As a sake lover myself, I can't wait to find out more.
Hello!
- Hi, welcome!
- Welcome.
- I'm Shaula.
- A pleasure.
I'm Niida Yasuhiko, 18th-generation head of the brewery. Welcome.
I'm his partner, Maki. Hello.
I hear a very soothing sound. What is this?
Our brewery is unusual for only using local spring water and organic rice.
That's what we're known for. 100% natural spring water and organic rice.
And a beautiful cherry-tree branch!
The 300-year-old cherry by the entrance blooms right around our brewery festival.
I see. If the tree is 300 then presumably the brewery is even older?
It was founded in 1711.
Incredible.
For 313 years we've had these excellent conditions.
The water has flowed and the rice fields have prospered.
We want to care for both of those resources.
Both partners were born and raised in this area.
The fields have been in the family for generations,
and they grow their own rice with no agrichemicals.
Their crops are certified as organic produce.
They also inherited 70 hectares of mountain land around their rice paddies.
They regularly visit the mountain to maintain the pure spring water.
The water and rice are broken down with koji mold spores.
The natural microbes that live in the brewery ferment the mixture,
making for completely natural sake.
Let's take a tour.
There was a lovely fruity scent when we walked in.
Like strawberries? Natural microbes include lactobacillus and yeast.
The ones in our brewery seem to give off a strawberry scent.
Since you rely on natural bacteria, no two batches are the same, right?
That's right.
It's like wine, how the grapes taste different every year.
True.
Our rice changes each year. So do our microbes.
One year they might be more acidic.
But that's just the natural choices they're making.
Naturally fermented sake may vary, but it will always be well-balanced.
That's something your body will appreciate.
Interesting! There's always an element of surprise with flavor or timing.
Exactly.
- It's bubbling!
- Yes.
This sake was started last year.
The bubbles are proof of natural microbes hard at work.
It's so active!
Natural microbes create a lot of foam which then dies off.
This really makes it feel alive.
- Drives it home, right?
- So alive.
Have a sniff.
Oh, lovely!
It can have an acidic or sweet smell.
- Delicious!
- Thank you.
Amazing.
Wooden barrels.
My grandfather focused on forestry but his cedars were left untouched.
We cut some down to make our barrels. We'll make a new one each year.
- Every year?
- That's the plan.
Sake brewers usually use enameled tubs to ensure stable production.
This brewery began swapping them out for wooden ones in 2017.
The family's cedar trees grow too thickly.
Cutting some down provides materials "and" helps keep the local forest healthy.
Microbes enjoy living in wooden barrels, and the sake takes on a woody fragrance.
However, the brewery became concerned about a lack of coopers,
so staff learned the necessary skills, and they now craft their own wooden barrels by hand.
We use our own bamboo.
Really? For the barrel hoops?
The longer the bamboo, the bigger the barrel.
We have bamboo over 20 m high on our land.
The barrels use no nails or glue.
Truly local sake in every way.
It really is.
I'm super curious about this. It's a piano, right?
Yes, Maki is a jazz pianist.
Really?
Microbes are alive, so good music might encourage good fermentation.
Let's have a listen!
I feel all the microbes perking up!
How amazing to hear jazz in here.
It makes us so happy to hear good music - it's a real pleasure.
It seems natural that other creatures would feel the same about it.
Japanese people talk of 'ki,' the atmosphere of a place.
Maybe microbes are part of that.
They're everywhere, after all. It makes sense they'd play a role!
This is fascinating!
Niida Maki is in charge of the brewery's product branding and its package designs.
Fewer people drink sake each year.
We need to attract younger people.
So the designs are kind of pop.
It's almost modern art!
The circles are timers. Sake from 2023, 2022, and 2021.
Oh, I see!
In 100 years, the circles will be all white.
It's an annual sake made from the previous year's sake instead of water.
This is a special sake. Our kids made the label art on our mountain.
How lovely!
This design uses minimal ink and paper, employing the gently curving hiragana script.
It's one of the brewery's standard products.
How does it taste?
It has a little color.
Yes, we use unpolished rice.
We don't tinker with the finished sake, so it has a golden color.
Let's have a sip.
Delicious!
Thank you.
- So warming!
- I agree.
It's dry with a little sweetness. Nothing cloying, a clean flavor.
The sweetness of the rice and the microbes' acidity are well balanced.
Preserving the local environment is, of course, very important.
Could you tell me your perspective on that?
Our biggest job now is to preserve the right environment for brewing.
Create more organic rice paddies.
A healthy mountain guarantees clean water.
Once the environment is in place the 'ki,' the atmosphere, improves.
Another thing we've done is put beehives by the warehouse.
Oh wow.
And we got Japanese honeybees.
It's a sign that the whole area is improving. We're delighted.
The Japanese honeybee population is in decline due to residential development and agrichemicals.
But not here!
Let's try some honey.
The bees spend a year gathering pollen from all over to make wildflower honey.
Wildflower honey.
A lot of flavors.
Yes.
So honey reflects the local area.
It does.
My visit has shown me that you don't take things for granted.
You're working very hard to preserve and maintain it all.
Thank you.
The 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused environmental havoc in Fukushima.
Yes, our local area was measured for radiation but it's untouched.
We shouldn’t be using nuclear power.
If we can become self-sufficient for energy, we won't need to.
The disaster strengthened our focus on self-sufficiency.
I hope we can pass on a better environment to the next generation.
Gratitude for the natural world, and a drive to preserve the environment.
I feel these are lessons we could all benefit from.
Fukushima prefecture is a "treasure" trove of traditional, and regional, toys.
These are made using "hariko" papier mâche, which pastes paper to a mold.
The two most popular are from Aizu in western Fukushima: "Okiagari-Koboshi," and "Akabeko."
Both are beloved parts of everyday life here.
I'm visiting a workshop that's "updating" these regional toys.
- Hello!
- Hi, I'm Andy.
- I'm Hayakawa, a pleasure.
- Nice to meet you.
Please, come in.
- Here they are!
- Yes.
- Koboshi.
- Okiagari-Koboshi and Akabeko.
Koboshi symbolize different things.
‘Okiagari' means to get up.
Like this.
They get back up when knocked down.
This is said to reflect Aizu's samurai spirit.
Wow, this is Munch's "The Scream."
Yes, that's it exactly.
Right?
There was an official request from Norway to combine Munch and the dolls.
It was to mark his 150th anniversary. They liked that the toys always get up.
Munch's paintings are often stolen but they always return to the museum.
They felt there was a connection there. So we made a Munch Okiagari-Koboshi.
How wonderful!
I make the designs for our studio.
- You designed these?
- I did.
Hayakawa Minako is the second-generation head of the studio.
She began training under her father right out of high school.
She's handled the painting for 40 years, and began designing 15 years ago.
- Here is an Akabeko.
- With a nodding head.
- Very charming.
- So cute!
- It's a favorite.
- Has it always nodded?
Oh yes, it was a deliberate design made by a historic artisan.
Really?
It's very fun.
- They're playful.
- That's it, exactly.
Akabeko have "long" been popular among Aizu's residents.
The toy's history goes back around 400 years to a major earthquake.
Legend has it that red cows were used to help rebuild a temple.
Residents decided to leverage that strength for the local economy.
It began as piecework for samurai and farming families, and continues to this day.
Hayakawa has "updated" the toys with colorful designs.
I chose Fukushima colors, such as fruit that's grown here.
Oh, I see!
So this is peaches. Muscat grapes.
Ah, yes!
There are blueberries, and persimmons. Not oranges.
Persimmon!
I chose the colors to try and showcase Fukushima produce.
Updated Akabeko. Fascinating!
This one has headphones!
- Tap its head.
- Oh wow! It's nodding along!
Very into the music.
So cool.
This Akabeko commemorates a "music" festival that began in Fukushima.
Hayakawa's designs all stem from a desire to "invigorate" her hometown.
The studio has taken up new production challenges.
Its founder wanted to preserve traditional crafts,
so he experimented with new machines and molds.
He found a way to minimize costs to just paper and water.
Production increased and they can now make "500" a day.
But the painting is still done by hand, as is traditional.
Red wards against evil, while the black spots on the torso offer protection against illness.
Excuse me.
You're adding the heads?
Yes, that job is done here.
And it has to be done by hand.
That's right.
Because it moves.
- You check it.
- Yes.
- It looks difficult.
- No, it's just practice!
Really?
Methods may change but the heart of what we make is the same.
That never changes.
Hayakawa has created around 30 varieties of Akabeko toy.
But "one" design marked a turning point for her.
A historic Japanese wave design, called seigaiha.
Hayakawa made it as part of a reconstruction project after the Great East Japan earthquake.
After the disaster, I had doubts about what I was doing.
There were so many people in need.
Here I was making Akabeko.
But I knew there was more I could do for others.
I can't get that tsunami out of mind.
I'm sure.
But there are things we mustn't forget.
The true meaning of the wave pattern is that waves bring good things.
I want everyone to overcome the negative association, to move past that.
One of the people who came to see our products lost their house.
It was swept away by the tsunami.
They saw these and said, ‘What peaceful waves.'
That really helped me.
I felt so relieved and happy.
- It made it all worth it.
- I'm sure.
Design "helps" people.
The gentle warmth of the Akabeko lives on today.
My last stop is Mishima, a small community of 1300 people, nestled between mountains.
Many of the residents here are basketry artisans.
They harvest grasses and plants from the mountain and weave them into "simple," "beautiful" items.
In this "snowy," "isolated" region,
weaving baskets and boxes was a winter task that provided the community with tools they needed.
It's a custom that goes back "millennia."
Similar woven baskets have been found on archaeological sites.
Some are made with precious materials.
Each summer, over 10,000 people gather for a basketry event.
However, many basket weavers are getting older.
I visited a young artisan who moved to the area to learn the craft.
Mitsui Koji? Hi, I'm Andy.
Yes, I'm Mitsui, a pleasure.
- This is your workshop?
- Yes.
You're making something?
A basket from crimson glory vine.
Do you harvest the materials yourself?
Yes, I cut it on the mountain.
Now I'm adjusting the thickness as I weave.
How do you adjust it?
With this knife. I make it thinner like this.
You scrape it?
Too thin and it won't be strong enough.
So I have to be careful.
What else do you use?
- Other than the vine?
- Other than that, yes.
Walnut, the bark of walnut trees. And silver vine.
- Silver vine?
- Yes, another vine.
Do they all grow in this region?
Oh yes, walnut and silver vine grow very close by.
Glory vine is harder to reach.
- Deep in the mountains?
- Yes.
Mitsui has an exhibition space further back in his workshop.
His "painstaking" work has spread through word of mouth.
Today, people visit him in order to buy his products.
- What's this one?
- Silver vine, for washing rice.
Lovely!
It's said to be softer than bamboo so it doesn't scratch the rice.
I see.
So it tastes better.
More of your work, bags this time.
Yes, it has a different pattern from the earlier basket.
Now I look closely, every motif is different.
Lighter cases!
These tiny ones are made from leftover materials.
Pieces that are too short for a bag.
So I use them on these. I try not to waste anything.
- What's this?
- I wove around a chair.
That's incredible!
When I first moved here I couldn't weave a bag.
I thought I'd have more use for a chair to sit on, so gave it a try!
Wow, thinking outside the box!
You mentioned that you moved here.
Yes, from another prefecture.
Why?
I wanted to earn a living with my hands doing something I liked.
A job with no retirement.
- A lifelong career.
- I liked that idea.
Mitsui wanted to learn a unique, "local" craft that used "local" materials.
He moved here with barely any possessions,
and started life in a community where he knew nobody.
How did you learn all this?
I found a teacher in Mishima.
Here in town?
Yes, they taught me how to weave crimson glory vine and silver vine.
How amazing you found a teacher right here. It feels like fate!
It made all the difference.
- It must have!
- Definitely.
Mitsui has lived here for seven years, and married a local last year.
Today he's part of the town.
- Hello!
- Hello.
- Nice to meet you.
- A pleasure to meet you.
This is Watanabe Yukiko.
As one of Mitsui's neighbors, she's kept an eye out for him since his arrival.
- I've seen his work.
- Isn't it lovely?
Beautiful.
His work is so neat! I admire it a great deal.
She makes amazing work.
Really?
I weave but I prefer to use a type of sedge for my work.
His senior pupil!
Oh, he helps me too. All kinds of everyday things.
I see.
It's mutual!
It's a small community. Everyone knows one another.
It's true. He's lovely, so it's easy to ask for help.
We have a good relationship.
I enjoyed the "beautiful" basketry of Mishima, and the local warmth.
I love how the sake brewery in Fukushima is following ancient tradition.
I see hope for closer links to nature for the next generation.