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IWATE | Kenji Miyazawa
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PAPERSKY #65
IWATE | Kenji Miyazawa
I went to Ihatov in search of Kenji Miyazawa's vision. A trip to Iwate that connects stories and the present
More than 100 years ago, Kenji Miyazawa, who painted a world where nature and people coexist in his hometown of Iwate, put his vision into practice. The agricultural lifestyle that touches the earth, and the world of imagination that freely transcends dimensions, overlaps with the new lifestyles and visions of the future that are spreading on a global scale since the coronavirus pandemic. This issue proposes a journey that takes you back and forth between Kenji's world and the present, touching on the people of Iwate, including their lifestyle and culture. Guests on the trip are illustrator Izumi Shiokawa, who loves Kenji's literature, and musician Keitani Love Kojima. We will go on a fantastic and realistic journey through Ihatov with two people who express their own world through words, sounds, and illustrations.
■Izumi Shiokawa Profile
Illustrator. She works on illustrations in a wide range of genres including advertisements, magazines, and products. In 2019, she published a collection of poems and paintings, ``Haru to Shura,'' which includes drawings based on the poems of Kenji Miyazawa. Using Kenji's words as a motif, he has opened a new frontier as an illustrator with a new interpretation.shiokawaizumi.com
■ Profile of Keitani Love Kojima
Musician, writer, translator. He pursues a creative world with acoustic tones and delicate songs, including ``Blanket Day'' (NHK Minna no Uta). He also continues his diverse activities as a radio DJ, novel writer, producing reading events, translating Chinese literature, and making his Chinese debut in April 2021. instagram ID: @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 awesome 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 influenced 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.