IWATE | Kenji Miyazawa

PAPERSKY #65

IWATE | Kenji Miyazawa

I head to Ihatobu to find Miyazawa Kenji's vision. A journey in Iwate that connects the story to the present

It was more than 100 years ago that Miyazawa Kenji, who depicts a world in which nature and humans live together in his hometown, Iwate, began to practice his vision. The agricultural lifestyle that touches the earth, and the imagination that freely transcends dimensions, are now visible in conjunction with new lifestyles and visions of the future that have spread worldwide since the COVID-19 pandemic. This issue introduces a journey that touches people's lives and cultures around Iwate, and travels back and forth between Kenji's world and the present. The guests on the trip are Shiokawa Izumi, an illustrator who loves Kenji literature and musician Kojima Keitany Love. We head out on a fantastic and realistic journey of Ihatov with the two of us who express our unique world through words, sounds and illustrations.

■Shiokawa Izumi Profile
Illustrator. He works in a wide range of genres including advertising, magazines, and products. In 2019, he published a poetry and art collection called "Spring and Shura," which depicts drawings on Miyazawa Kenji's poetry. Based on Kenji's words, he opened up new ground as an illustrator with new interpretations.shiokawaizumi.com

■ Profile of Kojima Keitany Love
Musician, author, and translator. We pursue an original world with acoustic tones and detailed songs, including "Blanket Day" (NHK Everyone's Song). He also continues to be a wide range of activities, including radio DJing, writing novels, producing reading events, translating Chinese literature, and making his debut in China in April 2021. instagramID: @keitaney_love

Cultivating a Quiet Joy

In this issue of Papersky we welcome you to the wonderful world of Kenji Miyazawa’s Ihatov. The Dreamland that author, philosopher, scientist, musician, record collector, vegetarian, and utopian social activist Kenji Miyazawa created based on his home state of Iwate.

Despite Kenji’s deep knowledge of the world, science and his amazing creativity; to many he is no more than a rusty old author of children’s literature whose name appears in Japanese textbooks. It’s our hope to update Kenji’s image to the true Philosophical, Genius, Hipster he is. And most importantly to share his grand vision to a peaceful life in the universe for all people with true equality amongst all living beings and an utmost respect for the natural environment.

To do this we travel to Iwate, visiting locations that affected Kenji’s thinking and stories. We begin our exploration in his birth town of Hanamaki. Next up, we travel into the story The Night of the Oakwood which takes us to the Mount Hayachine area. From here it’s onto the town of Tono and into Kenji’s fantasy The Story of the Zashiki Bokko. And we wrap things up by diving into Gauche the Cellist in Morioka before jumping on The Night on the Milky Way Train in the Sanriku area.

Kenji Miyazawa in his creation of Ihatov and through his stories, poems and essays was not only an astoundingly talented writer but he was a 21st Century visionary born in the 19th century. He was quietly writing while contently chuckling about a vision to enhance the welfare of all people everywhere. The constant theme running through all his work is interconnection: We are all connected to each other as well as to every natural phenomenon on Earth and in the universe.

In short, his worldwide view is cosmic. He sees every object or phenomenon on Earth, organic or inorganic as being linked to all else both on this planet and in the universe. He is the grandaddy of chaos theory. And if read carefully one will notice his work cultivates a quiet joy to help Japan prosper into a more humanistic future.