Friday, October 27, 2017

Landslide! A very short story for water source forests in Japan



On 11 July 2004, a slope near the peak of Mt. Gozen-yama 御前山 in Okutama 奥多摩, Tokyo, collapsed. At that time it rained heavily for sure, but the place had sustained itself till then with down-pouring. Nonetheless, the landslide of 2004 was huge and damaged the weir beneath the slope. It seriously affected the community of Okutama Town where the water from the weir was their life-line. Metropolis Government of Tokyo paid hundreds of millions of yen for the restoration. They also called for experts to investigate the reason why formerly stable mountain slope collapsed that time. Among the civil engineers for the study group, there was a zoologist, i.e. Dr. Seiki Takatsuki 高槻成紀who was then for Univ. of Tokyo. Reason? He is a leading expert for Japanese deer, and everybody knew the forest of the collapsed slope was eaten up by deer. The afforested coniferous forest had tall damaged trees only where starving deer gnawed at even the barks of such unappetizing stuff. There was no undergrowth or litter that could carry rain to the underground water system.




According to Dr. Yoshiharu Ishikawa 石川芳治 of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, when deer gobble up the ground vegetation, the fallen leaves from the tree canopy can be easily washed away by rain, especially on a steep slope. Once litter has gone, the soil beneath can be swept away rapidly, 1000 times more in volume than a place with 200g of fallen leaves covering 1m2. It’s the recipe for landslides. Moreover, even when a slope holds somehow, the rain water running down the mountain slope pushes down anyway the soil and debris into streams that are often water source for metropolitan area. River water becomes muddy at best. In worst case scenario of the most fortunate no-landslide situation, the stream collects lots of fragments from forests, like fallen trees and unfortunate deer swept away by the torrent. Purifying such water for safe human consumption requires lots of work and, hence, money. … Huh, it’s really Minimax. Game theorist must rejoice to have a practical example for their equations ... That’s why there is a kind of silent consensus among forest volunteers around me: if you want to attract lots of public fund for forest maintenance, it’s better persuading Water Authorities, rather than Environmental Protection Offices.


After rain in Tanzawa, sometimes we can find petit Cappadocia
where a collapsing slope has lots of tiny soil pillars with a stone on each top.
If there is something to hold on its head,
soil resists to be washed away completely,
as famously found in Cappadocia.

I’ve sensed that the offices for water have unspoken power within any governmental buildings in Japan. Even though, aging Japan cannot provide enough man-power to sustain optimal management for water source forests. Kanagawa Prefecture, including the City of Yokohama, is damned happy to work with forest volunteers. I suspect it’s one of the reasons why the Kanagawa Forest Volunteer training course can provide us such a generous grants … Yeah, Kanagawa Green Trust works closely with Nature Conservation Society of Japan, but we have almost equal lecture hours for the maintenance of water source forests and for nature conservation. Some of my class mates who are more inclined to the nature protection seem like a bit frustrated … “Well, so, we have to thin that forest for water management, don’t we?” At the other end, there are veteran forest volunteers who are not satisfied with prefectural policy of water source management with forest volunteers. “OK, we are enthusiastic volunteers happy to enter deep forests to preserve mountain soil for water. But, it’s obvious our effort is not at all enough to achieve the better conditions for the forests. There must be larger fiscal measure to deploy professionals who can do the job more efficient than we.”





I personally support prefectural policy of water source management that works with civil society volunteers. For one thing, I’ve learned Japanese forest has been for millennia a place of collaboration between government and civil society. The reason would be technical difficulty in Japanese forests. Japan is a relatively substantial archipelago that can be covered by deep forests unless humans concrete the ground and maintain it as such with continuous mowing. Our ancestors knew it, or I would say far better-understood the situation than we do in the 21st century. There is a book written by Dr. Conrad Totman of Yale, “The Green Archipelago; forestry in preindustrial Japan” (University of California Press, 1989). It’s a book written by an academic for general public, almost for the first time, about historical forest management in Japan. Certainly, 30 years later now from its first publication, there have been accumulated counter-evidences against Totman’s description. Even though, the basic conclusion of him looks robust.




According to Totman, for ages Japanese government had to find ways to mobilize commoners for physically demanding long-term jobs in mountainous forests. Quasi-slavery of 1500 years ago may have been able to harvest trees for massive temple constructions in Nara and Kyoto. It denuded the forests in Kansai Area, but soon people in ancient cities had to think how to manage the soil erosion and devastating floods during seasonal monsoons. They always returned to the same conclusion: planting and nurturing forests for generations is the MUST. Coercion did not work for jobs in steep mountains requiring 100 years as one unit time. There is no better way than asking long-term commitment from communities near forests, which demanded attractive policy incentives. That’s the conclusion Tokugawa Shogunate government reached in the early 17th century. Hmmmm … yeah, Japan is not suitable for palm oil plantation of shorter time span. Our forest is not on a flat semi-arid land like in Europe or America … Even today, mechanization of Japanese forestry is not much practical as for Germany. Man-power is needed as before. If shrinking population in mountainous community brings problems for traditional community-based water source management, why not soliciting helping hands from city folks? Thanks to very good highway systems, it does not take much time to commute between urban condos and deep mountain-forests during weekends. It’s like a present-day community can have a wider area with the 21st century technology. Attractive incentive nowadays could be generous grant for adult-education program, and free weekend getaway to take care of water source forests. That’s not bad, at least for us forest volunteers. Then, how about the result volunteers can provide for water source forests? Is it inadequate as the frustration of our senior volunteers says?


Volunteers are learning
how to hand-mow grass in water source forest.


Simply comparing the available number of men for forests between now and 100 years ago, it’s true the forests of the yesteryears definitely had a leg-up. But, it seems to me, the consequence for the forest itself was not that simple. The concept of land ownership and user rights, established 350 years ago with economic incentives from Shogun, is still very important in the 21st century Japan. (Oh, how difficult it is to take away goodies once it was given …) It means, when there lived more people in mountainous area, our grandpas did whatever they wanted to extract rents as much as possible from mountains and forests. According to Joe Suga 須賀 , Atsushi Ushimaru 丑丸 敦史, and Toru Okamoto 岡本 in “Grassland and Japanese: a journey of 10000 years in Japanese green field” (2012, Tsukiji Shokan,「草地と日本人―日本列島草原1万年の旅」, ISBN-13: 978-4806714347), Japanese were crazy to cut trees until very recently, say the 1950s. First of all, Japan had a long period of population growth that required more ag-land. People “developed” the forests for farms and rice paddies. Subsistence agriculture in Japan required lots of inputs from forest … leaf litters for fertilizer and logs for energy and tools. Such demand created intensive exploitation of forests. Moreover, the technology of Japanese agriculture was not much different from the present day thrush-and-burn. Even mountainous areas could not have enough time for establishing a thriving forest of lots of undergrowth. The 3 scholars had found many archeological evidences and old travelogues that showed the present day deep mountain forests were grasslands for hundreds of years. The authors said the majority of Japanese afforested area now (some 40% of the entire forests) returned to be a forest during the 1950s almost for the first time in a couple of millennia. Why people suddenly agreed to plant trees then? Government gave lucrative subsidies for afforestation, and the price of cedars and cypresses were phenomenal due to the post-war reconstruction boom. Money, money, money … The massive human intervention, being professional or not, is not necessarily useful to maintain reliable water source forests. Although juries are still out to give final evaluation about activities of forest volunteers, I think it would be better than abandoning the mountains all together as it has been so until the 1980s. Especially for securing clear and safe water from mountain forests …


A grassland
expected to be a broad-leaved forest in 20 years’ time


When we think such history of Japanese forestry, Kanagawa Prefecture scores relatively well. During Tokugawa Shogunate, 2/3 of the area was directly governed by Shogun in Edo, and the remaining 1/3 that was around Odawara City and Hakone was the domain of the Lord of Odawara who directly reported the Shogun the security situation of strategically important Hakone Checkpoint. The majority of the forests in Kanagawa were once the property of Shogun, and, after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, of the Imperial Family. The continuous protection by the central government spared many forests in Kanagawa from clear-cutting for about 500 years. We have preserved afforested areas of different ages, from roughly 450 years’ old forest of Daiyusan Saijoji Temple 大雄山最乗寺 to about 60 years’ old forest of Niiharu. (Oh, yeah, our Niiharu forest is a baby forest.) In addition, due to the proximity to many research institutes in metropolitan Tokyo, forests and mountains of Kanagawa are the most scientifically studied and monitored nature in Japan. Actually Dr. Ishikawa confirmed the importance of leaf litters from his experiments of soil erosion in Tanzawa 丹沢. Their research became the basis of collaboration between local governments and civil society in Kanagawa. Kanagawa Forest Instructor scheme is the oldest and the best in Japan with lots of public money. Admitting it is not sufficient for the entire forests of the prefecture, volunteers at least engage in responsible maintenance for several water source forests. It’s a kind of popular belief we, people of Kanagawa, do not have much water crisis as Tokyo or any other areas in Kanto Region because water source forests are relatively well-taken care of. Water system in Kanagawa does not have to go far as the other prefectures of Kanto, including Tokyo. The dams for water supply are in the forest of Kanagawa itself, and weirs are well-protected. All are at least partly because of historical reason and the measures taken from the lessons learnt. From next week, I tell you my adventure with dams and water source forests in Kanagawa Prefecture. They are beautiful nature spots worth a visit. 😊  Oh, by the way, the historical reasons for good maintenance of water source forests in Kanagawa is not exclusive for Shogun, but with international geopolitics and colonialism. I return to it in my later post. Stay tuned!


A water pipe joint once used for the City of Yokohama


Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター can follow up if you find something unusual during your hiking in water source forests in Kanagawa. The contact address is

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121 2430121 厚木市七沢657
Phone: 046-248-0323


You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/

Friday, October 20, 2017

War On Bold Mountain: Tsukuiko Shiroyama Park 津久井湖城山公園



When we google Earth, West Kanagawa is covered with green. On the border between the grey cities and green forest, the City of Sagamihara 相模原市 situates itself. Geologically speaking, the city can be divided in 2 areas both of which were created by Sagami River 相模川. One is Sagamihara Plateau where the downtown Sagamihara is spreading and creates a grey concreted area in Google Earth. Another is river terraces, where Sagami River runs in the middle of greenery. Actually the latter area is a gateway to climb the main ridge of Tanzawa Mountains 丹沢山系, and as such it’s very mountainous area. For millennia, the area has been the main route connecting mountainous middle Japan (I mean, Yamanashi, Nagano, and Gifu prefectures) and Kanto region. During the medieval period, a powerful warlord of Yamanashi, Takeda clan 武田氏, and another big chieftain of Odawara 小田原, Hojo clan 北条氏 who governed the entire Kanto region, faced-off each other in mountainous east Sagamihara, and so the present day border between Kanagawa and Yamanashi was determined. The largest fortress for Hojo family was strategically located on the border between the diluvial plateau and the river terrace of Sagami River. The place once-called Tsukui Castle 津久井城 is now Tsukuiko Shiroyama Parkof Kanagawa Prefecture 神奈川県立津久井城山公園. This week, I report you my adventure in Shiroyama hill 城山 with well-maintained trekking roads where parents can bring their venturesome kids to try their hiking skills. As remains of medieval fortress, it’s the biggest in Kanto region. I experienced how tough those samurais were in Shiroyama. They fought tooth and nail to defend their territory in such a steep mountain slopes. Amazing.


Shiroyama fortress, which is now a deep forest.


If you come to Tsukuiko Shiroyama Park outside of Kanagawa Prefecture, the easiest way is via Kenoh-do Express Way 圏央道 by car and exit from Sagamihara IC to reach to Tsukui Lake 津久井湖. (More to this lake in my later post: it has a deep connection with Yokohama.) Go to Shiroyama Dam 城山ダム, and beyond the dam, there is Tsukui-kanko Center 津久井観光センター, a tourism center of Tsukuiko Shiroyama Park that has an ample free-parking space. When you use public transportation, first go to Hashimoto Station 橋本駅 of JR Yokohama Line, JR Sagami Line, and Keio Sagamihara Line. Leave the station from the North Exit to take Kanachu bus service Hashi-01 01 (time table, here) to Mikage 三ヶ木 at bus stop #1 or #2. It’s about 30min ride to Tsukui-kanko Center Mae Stop (i.e. in front of the parking space) or its next, Kita-Negoya Stop 北根小屋. Those are the bus stops to hike Shiroyama forests. Around Shiroyama Dam is one of the best spots for cherry-blossom BBQ party in the area, and due to its proximity to the population center of west Tokyo, the place could be uber-congested in March-April. If you plan to go there in early spring, better to have a good planning.


The tourism center of Tsukuiko Shiroyama Park.
They daily sell local sweets, and fresh produce.
It’s a bit tricky to find #1 and 2 bus stops
in the north exit of Hashimoto Station.
When you exit from the ticket gate,
turn left and go to the open space
constructed above the bus-terminal.
Once you find the sign of this photo,
simply follow the arrows leading us to #1-3 stops.


77.7ha park on the western edge of Tsukui Lake is consisted of 2 flower gardens next to the dam (and the parking), Hana-no-enchi 花の苑地 and Mizu-no-enchi 水の苑地, a forest hill, i.e. the Shiroyama fortress, and an outdoor archeological museum called Negoya 根小屋 area where the ancient samurais for the fortress lived with their family. (2pp map of the park is here and here.) For you who are interested in Japanese history and archeology, the booklet here (in Japanese) explains the story of the place. According to this document, the place had a substantial expansion till April 1590 when the samurais of Hojo Clan protected the place surrendered to the army of Tokugawa Ieyasu 徳川家康. The museum is explaining medieval way of life of samurais. I think the nearest access to the museum is from Kitanegoya Bus Stop. From the bus stop, go back a bit to the traffic right and enter the community road going to the direction of the hill. The road meets with T-crossing and we turn left here. The third corner after turning left shows small shrine (Koami Suwa Shrine 小網諏訪神社) and steps ahead on the left showing the way to enter the hill. At the end of the steps next to the shrine, there is a bio-tech toilet with a nice view of Tsukui Lake, and a paved pedestrian road that connects the tourism center on the shore of the lake and the museum behind the hill. Turn right here and a 10min-or-so walk will bring you to the archeological site.


Shiroyama hill seen from Kitanegoya
Could you figure out the steps over there?
By the way, the community along the lake was built
in the 1960s by the people who moved
from the ancient communities along Sagami River.
They had to move due to Shiroyama Dam, operational since 1965.
So, the shrine next to the steps was moved
from the original place now in the bottom of Tsukui Lake.
The paved road to the museum.
A structure on the right along the road is …
A bio-tech toilet.
Your droppings will be processed by microbes
living underneath the toilet seats.
No water flushing is necessary
(; you must use the toilet paper provided there.)


The Shiroyama Hill itself is now remains of medieval fortress covered with a well-established forest. The trekking roads within Shiroyama have 4 viewing spots, 3 to the north and 1 to the south. This was the frontline for medieval wars, and the view from the fortress is located damned reasonably. The viewing spot to the south (in the map, the location with No.6) is at the entrance of museum coming from the bio-tech toilet where visitors can observe the entire village nestled in the beginning of Tanzawa Mountains. Beyond the samurai village was a fierce battle ground in 1568 with 40,000 soldiers of Takeda and Hojo Clans. The view along the road running near the toilet (No.4) is observing Tsukui Lake, along which runs National Route 412 connecting to Route 20 near JR Sagamiko Station 相模湖駅. From here, sentinels could spot the army of Takeda clan coming from the west. Another two (No.11 and 12) locate in the east of the Park looking down the megalopolis Tokyo. So, when the army of Tokugawa came from Tokyo (Edo), this was the spot for the watchmen of Hojo to find out. Actually, from No. 12 point, on a fine winter day, it’s possible to figure out beyond the trees Tokyo Skytree to the north. The current trekking roads in Shiroyama are remains of roads of the fortress connecting these viewing spots with the last stand of the lord of the castle at the peak (375m ASL). Naturally, they are ringed roads strategically connected by spokes.


A view from the toilet. Nice, isn’t it?
Unfortunately, when I’ve been there,
it was a short window of rainy summer days of 2017.
This was the best shot I could take
for a view from Shiroyama No. 12 to Tokyo.


Roughly speaking, the fortress has 3 ringed roads circling the peak which was the last bastion for the Lord of Tsukui Castle. The design of the routes is following the standard war strategy. The north side of the ringed road around the foot of the fortress contains the steepest and sometimes trickiest feature of the road within the park, including fragile ridges and long and rocky slope equipped with chains for the climbers. The entrance to the bastion was made difficult. (In the map, it is from Point No.1 è No.4 è No.60.è No.7èNo.8èNo.11èNo.12èNo.13èNo.2è No.1.) The second inner ring-road running through Point 18 and Point 15 is a utility road that does not require difficulty for the hikers who have managed the outer circle road of the fortress. The inner-most road, called Honjo Kuruwa 本城曲輪 (meaning, “the corridor of the last stand”), is more of a hallway within the castle around the peak. We can stroll Honjo Kuruwa in woods just like wandering in an urban park. Honjo Kuruwa has still ongoing archeological excavation so that please keep off from the cordoned-off places. These 3 ringed roads are connected by steep slopes all of which let us recall this is the place of war so that the approach to the peak cannot be easy.


The trekking route between points #2 and 13
equipped with chains to support hikers.
Though steep,
Kanagawa Prefecture maintains the roads well.
Viewing Tsukui Lake from Honjo Kuruwa
The archeological study is going on
at the peak of Tsukui Shiroyama.
There is a toilet at the peak.
In Honjo Kuruwa, they situated many boards
explaining the history and design of the castle (in Japanese).
The place is like an open-air museum.


By the way, #18 sign post of the second inner circle of Shiroyama is a photo point for Kanto Fureai-no-michi (Metropolitan Nature Trekking Route 関東ふれあいの道). It’s a sort of programme orchestrated by the Ministry of Environment of Japan to encourage metropolitan dwellers to experience nature surrounding the Kanto region. Kanagawa has 17 routes for the scheme (the detail is here), and you collect your photo taken at the designated points, send them to Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center, and they will give you a certificate of “conquering all the routes in Kanagawa” and a budge. (The address of the Center will be at the end of this post.) If you do the same for all the 7 prefectures in Kanto region, you send your photos of the last prefecture together with the certificates of the other prefectures. Then, you’ll receive a grand certificate and a special budge of your achievement. It’s a project of walking 160 courses of roughly 1800km … "Why did you want to climb Mount Everest?" "Because it's there." George Mallory.


Inside of the fortress,
the sign posts are located in a strategic point
so that in case you lose your route,
you can simply return to the sign post
to figure out your intended direction.
To report your achievement to the Conservation Center,
you take your photo with these signs.


There are only 3 openings to the second inner circle road from the outer ringed road. The easiest is from the museum area to No. 15. The road is steep but the widest and there remains a little bit of the stone-pavement. A part of second ring-road from the museum area is called “Kuruma-zaka 車坂,” i.e., Car Slope. It was possible for 2 cavalries to proceed on this route side by side. The staff of the fortress must have commuted to their office daily, sometimes with supplies loaded on a cart. The other 2 roads are trickier. One from the northwest of Koami Suwa Shrine, and another from the southeast No.13 point, both of which are very steep. At point No. 13 (approx. 350m ASL) there is a pond named Takaraga-ike 宝ヶ池, aka Treasure Pond, which is said to be never dried-up. Also, the water of the pond is always cloudy so that people believe when samurais were busy in Tsukui Castle, they must have washed tons of (sometimes bloody) Japanese swords there. I don’t know the legend was true, but the pond is surely the evidence that Tsukui Castle had maintained an abundant supply of water even under emergency. Next to the pond there is a small shrine, Iizuna Shrine 飯縄神社, that is a home of Iizuna-gongen who is an apparition of Acala presiding, needless to say, war. Iizuna-gongen’s main home is Takaosan (Mt. Takao) situated northeast of Shiroyama. Mt. Takao was also the territory of warlord Hojoh who treated anything connected with Iizuna-gongen well. It’s no wonder they donated another home for this deity within one of the most important fortresses in their territory. The road system around the shrine, called Iizuna Kuruwa 飯縄曲輪, is precipitous and contains lots of remains of dry mort and sentinel points including fire beacon platform site. Unless we pass this point we cannot enter the second inner circle road from the east.


Kuruma-zaka to point #15
At #4 there is this box for hikers to pick up a map of the fortress.
It’s the same map downloadable from the sites I cited above.
This is very useful info.
A way from #4 to #18 is
steep and winding trekking road.
Takaraga-ike
Iizuna Shrine
The view to Mt. Takao from the top of Shiroyama.
Takao is not that far from here.


From the second inner circle road to enter the Honjo Kuruwa corridor of the last stand, there is only one road. It starts from Point No.15. In the middle between No. 15 and the peak, there is a relatively flat space called Taiko Kuruwa 太鼓曲輪, which is considered to be the remains of a house for the second commander of the castle. After this pace, we face a small but very sharp valley called Horikiri 堀切 that was artificially created by digging the ridge to defend the last bastion. Now it’s just a short and steep going down and up, but before the place was almost a cliff and the samurais threw there a wooden rudimentary bridge named Hikihashi 引橋 that could be easily removed when enemies approached. At the end of climbing Horikiri, there is a large stone monument erected in the early 19th century by Shimazaki Tadanao 島崎律直, the village chief of the current museum area. He was a descendant of one of the followers of the defeated Lord of Tsukui Castle, Naitoh family 内藤氏, and paid cool 50 thousand Ryo in 1812, equal to USD 25 million now. It was a commemoration of the killed souls some 220 years ago then … Really, people remember such things for a very long long long time …


Point #15
Taiko Kuruwa.
Taiko means drums, and, for this case, war drums.
Academics are debating
the meaning of the name Taiko Kuruwa here.
I think it is natural for the second commander
to be in charge of war drum.
Don’t you think so?
Horikiri.
At the beginning of this place, there is …
Educational board explaining the logistics of war at that time.
Crossing Horikiri,
the slope is steep …
And there, this is a handsome 25 million dollar monument.
In Honjo Kuruwa, there is a post
inviting you to drop your own haiku or poem
depicting your impression of Tsukui Shiroyama.
Your art will be displayed in the museum of Negoya.


So, the ground of Shiroyama Hill probably absorbed lots of blood, and now the soil must be very fertile. Also, the place keeps the underground water very high. Near Takaraga-ike, 350m ASL, there is a remnant of gigantic cedar tree that was thunder-struck in 2013 and died at the age of approx. 900 years old. Cedars cannot grow that long and big unless there is enough groundwater. Naturally, the vegetation of Shiroyama Hill is rush and I found lots of mushrooms sprouting when I’ve been there during a pocket of wet summer days. Near Point No.2, they have a beautiful forest of cypresses planted some 120 years ago. The atmosphere is filled with the aroma of noble Japanese cypresses … The Park Office provides a nice free nature-guide booklet (in Japanese, downloadable from here). According to this document, Shiroyama Hill was a bald mountain when it was a fortress. Er, well, as a battle ground, of course lots of trees were simply obstruction. Samurais must have cut vegetation vigorously. Then, after conquering Tsukui Castle, Tokugawa Ieyasu grabbed the land and ordered to afforest the entire area massively in order to create a buffer zone, in case another enemy approached to Edo (Tokyo) from the northwest. Later, this defense policy was transformed to industrial policy of timber production. Now the border area between Tokyo, Yamanashi, and Kanagawa Prefectures have vast “public forest mountains” originated from the afforestation ordinance by Tokugawa Shogunate government. It’s a sort of important when we consider Yokohama’s water and forests. I return to the topic in my later posts.


Wooooooooow.
A cedar with violent death.
“I’m shy.”



The cypress forest here is designated as
one of the “Kanagawa’s best 50 forests.”


If you find environmental problems in Tsukui Shiroyama Park, please make a contact to the Park Center,

Tsukui Shiroyama Park Center 公園管理事務所(根小屋地区パークセンター内)
162 Negoya, Midori-ku, Sagamihara, 252-0153
252-0153  神奈川県相模原市緑区 根小屋162
Phone: 042-780-2420
FAX: 042-780-2422

The contact address for Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター is

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121 2430121 厚木市七沢657
Phone: 046-248-0323
You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/



Friday, October 13, 2017

(Aristotle, Oscar Wild, Paul Claudel, and Dante): Forests and Yokohama Triennale 2017

Reframe / Safe Passage, Ai Weiwei


In the year when American AA11 crushed into the World Trade Center of New York, the City of Yokohama started to have a triennial international art exhibition. 2017 is the year for the 6th Yokohama Triennale. In the previous shows, they had several installations connected with forest, like “Fogfalls #47670:Tales of Ugetsu” by Fujiko Nakaya.  Though, before I have never visited the event with “forest” or “nature” in mind. Now I am completing the training for Kanagawa Forest Instructor. I have at least some knowledge and experience about forest. To my surprise, it seems to me my adventure in forests so far has given me a new way to think the contemporary art in Yokohama Triennale. This week, I tell you what I’ve felt with this year’s show. It was like … very long way to be with Noh Theatre in Oyama Afuri Shrine


Project God-zilla
by Yanagi Yukinori
has also participated in
Yokohama Triennale 2017.


The subtitle of 2017 Yokohama Triennale is “Islands, Constellations & Galapagos.” According to the curator of the show, Akiko Miki, as this world is highly interconnected but people are forming tribal islands where the evolution of human psyche is similar to that of Galapagos, 


"The exhibition is structured like an aggregation of autonomous small solo shows, forming constellations of loosely-connected stars or archipelagos of scattered islands, and reflecting the ideas of fluidity and floating."
Akiko Miki, p. 72, The catalogue of Yokohama Triennale 2017 (October 2017, Organizing Committee of Yokohama Triennale) 

So, it’s rather easy to distinguish the installations that is talking about humans (or an artist) only, and the other works whose subject is something with nature (ocean, earth, forest, stars …). 2017 Triennale showed the works of Man Ray together with Miro, Ernst, Breton, and Tanguy as a kind of point zero for the evolution of arts defined as Islands, Constellations & Galapagos. The other works in this year’s Yokohama Triennale are descendants of these giants of the 20th Century. I noticed the world of these luminaries for the 20th century is something like a room with thick concrete walls. They are very different from Noh Theatre in Oyama Afuri Shrine. It should be difficult for sounds of a nearby stream coming in their universe. Before, when I saw the works of, say, Man Ray, I was like, “Wow, cool.” This time, I noticed the change in me … I had a kind of … suffocation. They are talking about THEIR things, nothing more. “Me, me, me.” Have the works of the 21st century artists in Triennale graduated from the predecessors’ self-obsession? They surely talk about global issues like alienation, isolation, ethnic confrontation, refugee crisis ... but, they look VERY anthropothene.


Trace Evidence,
Broomberg & Chanarin
Spermini,
Maurizio Cattelan
Green-light: an artistic workshop, Olafur Eliasson
yt/forty two,
Prabhavathi Meppayil
In Praise of Life, Susumu Kinoshita


Yes, some works pick up nature as their subject. Take “From Emissary Forks at Perfection” by Ian Cheng. It is a live simulation using computer graphics. The artist deliberately causes feelings of confusion, anxiety, and cognitive dissonance within us by constantly changing scenes over the large screen. The chosen scenery for this project is, grasslands and forests where many animals are hiding behind the “walls” of digital nature. How about “Wind-Light” by Naoya Hatakeyama? His panoramic photo depicts the devastation of 2011 Tsunami in Rikuzen-Takata City of Tohoku. Sam Durant tells the story when Commodore Mathew Perry visited Japan in 1853 represented by a desiccated tree. I don’t ask to make their art pretty with nature scenes. But forests don’t have to be a dystopia always, do they?


From Emissary Forks at Perfection, Ian Cheng
Front: a point in time, another point in the distance,
Sam Durant


Yokohama Triennale always has 2 little-brother events at BankArt Studio NYK and Koganecho Bazaar. There, I found a sort of explanation why artists dealt with the nature in that way. The theme of events at BankArt during the season of Yokohama Triennale 2017 is “A mysterious world of a forest, plants and the sea.” Along the bank of the canal, the artists created “Forest.” It looks like this;


Mysterious forest at BankArts,
Koro Ihara, Yoshiaki Kaihatsu, and the others


A third floor of BankArts Studio is the main exhibition space for several artists this year. The place was originally a warehouse for NYK Co. The building has only small windows and thick wall. The supply of sunlight is limited as we could find in the forest of coniferous trees, but it is difficult to find open atmosphere in BankArts. It is a space with the feeling of closed introversion. Lots of artificial flowers by Junko Maruyama are occupying the floor and the installations of the other artists are situated within them. Each art works represents the originality of artists, for sure, but the mystery coming from the “forest” is not from the forest but from humans. The forest in this case is represented by artificial pale white silk-flowers sticking to the concrete floor with a inorganic wire stem. That’s …


Flowers by Junko Maruyama
with a visual image created by Keisuke Takahashi
at the 3rd floor of BankArt
Big Wheel,Tatsuji Ushijima,
motored by solar power energy


In Koganecho Bazaar, the cinema production units YCAM Film Factory (= YCAM + Kuzoku 空族 + Studio Ishi) is showing a film “Senko-Issenri” (潜行一千里 “Secret Journey of 1000 miles”) that is the basis of their successful project BangkokNites. In it, a villager of Northern Thailand murmured “ Everybody gets out of this peaceful village of peach flowers to have more money …” The scenery projected on the screen is lush tropical green, and the camera was recording rickety journey of 4-wheel drive to a big city. OK. so that’s that. A very long journey is ahead of us to reach to the utopia suggested by SDG, if the contemporary artists are struggling in such world. I would say I could not find explosive power from those works of the artists of the 21st century, unlike the Noh theatre in Oyama created from the formalism established in the 15th century. Sad.


Welcome to the cinema world
of Kuzoku
The Other Side, Chim ↑ Pom,
talks straight about “building walls”
along the US-Mex border.
Book to Come (a part), Jun Bokyung


“Art not only imitates, but also completes it deficiencies.” Aristotle“Nature constantly imitates art.” Oscar Wild “Art imitates nature not in its effects as such, but in its causes, in its 'manner,' in its process, which are nothing but a participation in and a derivation of actual objects, of the Art of God himself.” Paul Claudel“Art imitates nature as well as it can, as a pupil follow his master; thus it is sort of a grandchild of God.” Dante

Yokohama Triennale 2017 and its younger brothers’ shows in BankArt and Koganeho will be held till November 5, 2017.

Senko-Issenri, YCAM Film Factory


Yokohama Triennale 2017: Islands, Constellations & Galapagos
http://www.yokohamatriennale.jp/english/2017/
August 4 – November 5, 2017 (Open for a total of 88 days), Closed on October 26
Main Venues: Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse No. 1, Yokohama Port Opening Memorial Hall (Basement)
Hours: 10:00-18:00, open until 20:30 on October 27-29, November 2-4

BankArt Life V-Kanko
www.bankart1929.com
August 4 – November 5, 2017
Venues: BankArt Studio NYK (3-9 Kaigan-dori, Naka-ku, Yokohama) and other locations

Koganecho Bazaar 2017: Double Façade_Multiple Ways to Encounter the Other
www.koganecho.net/koganecho-bazaar-2017/
August 4 – November 5, 2017
Venues: Studios, neighborhood shops, outdoor areas, etc. beneath and along the Keikyu Railway, from Hinodecho Station to Koganecho Station