Off-the-Eaten Path Food Experience in Japan. "Meet the People and Places behind your Plates! "

Saturday 10 August 2019

Self-sufficient life in hidden mountain village in Noto peninsula


2 hours from Kanazawa by car, in an isolated village called "Noto's Tibet",  5 families live together. There is a zen temple, which is known to those in the know.

It is natural to live with neighbors and visitors like one big family members, according to the villagers ,sharing one big bath with 5 families, having meals, raising village children, and building houses together.


Visitors can experience zen meditation, yoga, cooking, indigo dye, and so on...

Zen meditation starts 6:30 in every morning. Some went to beach to catch fishes, some enjoyed drawing, everyone could do different things, but shared meals and life stories.

I wanted to learn about indigo dye more, and kept dyeing whole day.
A village mother and an artist, Keiko taught me indigo dye and sewing. She is growing indigo plants by seeds, making sukumo (fermented indigo plants) by herself and design her original textile.

handmade sukumo
tie-dye, shibori



Sewing khadi



hanging scroll by Keiko san

There are chickens in the farm. Fishes and shells can be caught in the ocean. Life is almost self-sufficient.



Many children are playing around together all the time in the fields, I had no idea whose children they are. Cats and dogs are also living together.

Grown up together with children from 5 families, they are still very friendly as if real brothers and sisters. Even after they got married and had children, they often come back to the village.

Nowadays, nuclearization of the family increases in Japan, and traditional community is disappearing. This style of co-existent life, something different from "ecovillage" or sharehouse, reminds us old and nostalgic way of living, which was standard before the WW2.

While meditation, so many ideas and future hopes came to my mind...




<neighbors>

Nakatani House, 400 years traditional house and Soba noodle cafe


Noto Ningyo washi : paper atelier