So much is happening at Minka Summit 2023!

YOSHIHIRO TAKISHITA

Keynote Speaker

Minka Masters Panel Member

Born in Gifu Prefecture in 1945, Takishita was a law student at Waseda University when he and his family befriended John Roderick, a reporter representing the Tokyo Bureau of the Associated Press. Learning that a minka in his hometown was about to be submerged in a reservoir project, they conspired to disassemble and move it to Kamakura, where it was rebuilt and quickly became the Gold Standard for minka restoration and renovation.

After hitchhiking around the world, Takishita established The House of Antiques, selling traditional furniture, screens, ceramics, and other treasures. He also became the preeminent self-taught minka architect, disassembling Gifu minka and rebuilding some 30 of them since 1967, mostly in the Kanto region but as far away as Buenos Aires and Honolulu. Many of these restored minka are featured in Takishita’s Japanese Country Living, an essential book for anyone that loves minka. He is also the focus of Davina Pardo’s documentary short Minka: A Farmhouse in Japan, beautifully adapted from Roderick’s same-named memoirs.

ALEX KERR

Minka Masters Panel Member

Writers’ Talks Corner

Long respected within the kominka community, Alex Kerr is a lifelong advocate of minka preservation and rural community revitalization. His own 300-year-old minka in the Iya Valley, Chiiori, is one of the best-known in all of Japan, and his revitalization efforts in Iya, rooted in sustainable tourism and living in harmony with nature serve as a model for other struggling rural villages.

After living in Japan during the mid-1960s, when his naval officer father was stationed in Yokohama, Kerr returned to Japan periodically, discovering the Iya Valley in 1971 and purchasing what would become Chiiori in 1973. He moved to Japan full-time in 1977.

Since Chiiori, Kerr has restored dozens of rural houses throughout Japan. His book Lost Japan (1993) was awarded the Shincho Gakugei Literature Prize for best non-fiction. His subsequent works include Dogs and Demons (2002) and Another Kyoto (with Kathy Arlyn Sokol, 2016).

AZBY BROWN

Minka Masters Panel Member

Writers’ Talks Corner

Making a Difference (Presentation)

Can restoring a minka really make a difference to local communities and culture? Azby thinks it can. In this talk, he will highlight how minka restoration has been part of efforts around Japan to reinforce local identity, pass down traditional sustainable practices and environmental awareness, and help preserve local culture for the next generations.

About the Presenter

Originally from New Orleans, Azby Brown has lived in Japan since 1985. A widely published author and authority on Japanese architecture, design, and environment, his groundbreaking writings on traditional Japanese carpentry, compact housing, and traditional sustainable practices of Japan have brought these fields to the awareness of Western designers and the public.

In addition to The Genius of Japanese Carpentry, he has written Small Spaces (1993), The Japanese Dream House (2001), The Very Small Home (2005), and Just Enough: Lessons in LivingGgreen fromTraditional Japan (2010). He retired in 2017 from the Kanazawa Institute of Technology, where he founded the Future Design Institute, and is currently on the sculpture faculty of Musashino Art University in Tokyo.

TOMOKO KUBO

Minka Masters Panel Member

Tomoko Kubo is an assistant professor of Urban Geography at the Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba.

Her publications on urban housing, urban shrinkage, aging city and globalization are widely evaluated, winning the IGU Early-Career Award 2022 and the MEXTYoung Scientists' Prize 2021. Her latest book "Divided Tokyo: disparities in living conditions in the city center and the shrinking suburbs (2020, Springer), was awarded by The Japan Association of Urbanology in 2022.

Other publications: Kubo, T. and Yui, Y. (2019) The rise in vacant housing in post-growth Japan: Housing market, urban policy, and revitalizing aging cities. Springer. She is a board member of ISA RC43 Housing and the Built Environment.

JOY JARMAN-WALSH (JJ WALSH)

Moderator: Minka Masters Panel

Joy Jarman-Walsh (JJ Walsh) is a sustainability-focused consultant and content creator based in Hiroshima. Originally from Hawaii, she co-founded GetHiroshima in 1999 and InboundAmbassador in 2019. Since early 2020, Joy has been the host and producer of Seeking Sustainability Live (SSL), a talk show & podcast of interviews with "Good People Doing Great Things in Japan." Many of the most popular episodes focus on the value of traditional Japanese buildings, design, and the inspiration from many kominka projects across Japan.

KAREN HILL ANTON

Writer’s Booth in the Mihnka Mall

Writers’ Talks Corner

Karen Hill Anton wrote the columns “Crossing Cultures” for the Japan Times and “Another Look” for Chunichi Shimbun for fifteen years. She lectures internationally on her experience of cross-cultural adaptation, and raising four bilingual, bicultural children. Much of her life living in a nouka at 懐山 is captured in her widely acclaimed memoir The View From Breast Pocket Mountain, Grand Prize Winner of the 2022 Memoir Prize for Books. Her novel A Thousand Graces is scheduled for a spring release. Originally from New York City, Karen has made her home with her husband William Anton in Tenryu, Shizuoka prefecture, since 1975.

Hannah Kirshner

Writer’s Booth in the Mihnka Mall

Writers’ Talks Corner

Hannah Kirshner is author and illustrator of Water, Wood, and Wild Things: Learning Craft and Cultivation in a Japanese Mountain Town. Her reporting has appeared in publications including The New York Times and Food & Wine, and on the Proof podcast from America’s Test Kitchen. She’s a Solutions Journalism Network Climate Initiative fellow, and winner of an International Gourmand “Best In The World” award for writing on Japan. Kirshner grew up on a small farm outside Seattle, studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, and now divides her time between Brooklyn, NY, and rural Ishikawa, where she's renovating a big kominka, a small house, and a workshop.

LAUREN SCHARF

Kominka Japan Board Member

Moderator: How I Found My Minka (Mini-Panel Discussion)

Lauren Scharf lives in a 1907 kominka north of Hakui on the Noto Peninsula with her Scottish husband, Puukko the standard poodle, and three surprisingly useful cats.. She and her husband entirely self-renovated, furnishing the place with an assortment of antiques, recycle shop treasures, hand-built items, and a few new pieces. Since the pandemic began, she has also focused her energy on organic gardening with the goal of being as self-sustainable as possible in a few years.

When not plastering walls or refinishing cabinets, she's the co-owner of Okuni: Japan Unbound, a travel company that emphasizes lesser-known parts of Japan and deep dives into Japanese culture and history.

ANDREA CARLSON

Kominka Japan Board Member

Moderator: Using Minka for Creative, Commercial, and Community-related Ways (Mini-Panel Discussion)

Initiatives to Protect and Preserve Kominka and Traditional Carpentry (with Koji Toda)

Andrea Carlson works in the International Relations Department at Aichi Prefectural University and is involved in local groups that are working to protect kominka and revitalize rural communities. She has a background in Social Psychology and carries out research and organizes conferences and seminars related to mental health support for young people with diverse backgrounds in Japan. Recently, she has also become involved in initiatives to use minka that are going to be torn down in creative ways in order to save the materials and raise awareness of traditional building methods. In the future, she hopes to restore a kominka in a rural area as a place to hold retreats for children and young people from marginalized communities.

KEIICHIRO TODA

A Yakisugi DIY Experience (Workshop)

The origins of the Toda Komuten date back to the Taisho era in the 1910s when Keiichiro Toda’s great-grandfather began working as a carpenter. Since that time, the family has worked in traditional carpentry and has long been active in working with NPOs to protect and preserve kominka and revitalize rural communities, particularly in the Okumikawa area. Toda Komuten also focuses on training young carpenters in order to pass on to future generations traditional building skills.

AUSTIN H. MOORE

Authentic and Responsible Preservation of Kominka (Presentation)

Retaining the cultural and historical authenticity of kominka is crucial to their long-term preservation. Tempting as it is to transform kominka to a level of comfort and convenience on par with modern Western standards, when doing so may irreparably change the fundamental structure and appearance, it is imperative that we resist. As custodians of treasures from the past, we have a duty to maintain the kominka's authenticity. Failing to do so imperils their future value from a cultural heritage perspective. Drawing upon my twenty-year experience with my own ca. 1868 kominka in Shiga, I will discuss doors, floors, kawara, bengara, and much more.

About the Presenter

Austin Moore is from the USA and has lived in Japan continuously since 1984. In 1991, he moved to Shiga and after living in a rented kominka on the western shore of Lake Biwa for twelve years bought a former Omi-shonin (merchant) residence in Hino Town in the east of the prefecture. Since then, he has fastidiously restored the buildings and gardens to their 1800s glory, paying careful attention to era-appropriate authenticity.

Austin has served as the Secretary of the Hino Historic Townscape Preservation Society since 2008 and is one of the founding Directors of the Shimazaki Zembei Foundation.

ARNO SUZUKI

The Utility of Tatami and Other Organic Housing Materials (Presentation)

Tatami, traditional flooring mats made of dried grass, was once the standard flooring for Japanese houses. However, in its natural form, tatami has been rapidly disappearing over the last fifty years. Although many people like tatami, they no longer use it in their houses, saying that it does not fit in a modern room with furniture. The grass mats also became unpopular because they invited mold and mites, especially when they are spread on concrete slabs. Tatami, however, was traditionally not just a type of flooring but also versatile furniture used as a table, bed, and chair, and it was not meant to hold modern furniture. Japanese companies created new kinds of tatami with harder synthetic cores and durable insect-deterrent chemical surfaces, but such materials do not provide comfort or micro-climate controlling functions as real grass tatami mats did. Most people thus stopped using tatami without knowing its real capacity, and as a result, tatami became rare, expensive, and alienated. The industry is dying, and a similar vicious circle is occurring with other organic materials, such as rice paper for paper doors and screens.

About the Presenter

Arno Suzuki, Ph.D. professor, Kyoto Tachibana University. Arno has been teaching traditional Japanese architecture and gardens for over twenty years. She studied wooden architecture at Kyoto University, landscape architecture at UC Berkeley, and received Ph.D. in design from Kyoto Institute of Technology for her research on intercultural understanding of living spaces. Before joining Kyoto Tachibana University, she taught at UC Davis and Kyoto University. She is an active member of the Architectural Institute of Japan, and she also serves on the board of directors for the Japan Society for Folk Architecture. She is a licensed architect (ikkyu-kenchiku-shi) in Japan, and a licensed landscape architect in California, USA. She recently published articles about how Westerners have been receiving Japanese architecture both in Japanese and English.

CHUCK KAYSER

Getting Your Garden Going Strong (Workshop)

The Power of Organic Farming (Presentation)

I was unprepared for what lay in store for me when I first started growing vegetables. The abundance of fresh organic food on my plate changed my health and outlook on life. The difficulties pushed me to become stronger physically, mentally, and emotionally. I have been overwhelmed by the connection it has created with my community and the natural environment. With little more than a sunny patch of land, some spare time and patience, this experience is open to any who care to try it. I will share my experience, give some tips, and field some questions for those daring enough to keep the tradition alive.

About the Presenter

Chuck Kayser has been teaching over 25 years and growing vegetables for more than 12. He now manages 5 fields in Shiga and Kyoto, farming 4 days a week and delivering vegetable baskets all over Kyoto city. He sometimes appears as a guest lecturer for universities, groups and other gatherings both in person and online. With the goal of spreading the word about the power of organic farming he hosts tours, events and volunteers at the farm, he has created a YouTube channel, and has constructed a classroom in Kyoto City to begin a gardening education program in 2023. Chuck continues to search for new ways to allow others to experience for themselves the tremendous value of joining a community dedicated to raising healthy food in balance with the environment.

EMILY KANEKO REYNOLDS

Tsuchikabe/Mud Walls: What They Are and an Overview of Their Restoration (Presentation / Demonstration)

If you have a minka you have tsuchikabe, and chances are there are areas that could use fixing. While professional work will last a little longer and look more refined, a willing and patient plaster DIY-er can produce pretty nice restoration results on earthen walls. This part talk, part demonstration will detail the characteristics of the common tsuchikabe (which are designed to be fixed to be beautiful decades upon decades), and go over reasons to keep them. There will be samples and materials. About half of this presentation will be dedicated to answering questions. Bring your unique case to get feedback, and so that audience members can benefit from the discussion.

About the Presenter

Emily Kaneko Reynolds was born and partially raised in Tokyo, learning Japanese from a young age. In her late teens she was exposed to permaculture ideology’s natural building philosophy in the US, and was particularly drawn to earthen plasters. 20 years ago she learned of Japan’s versions of earthen walls and was smitten. She has been learning more to share more, ever since. Emily currently works in a fourth generation sakan company in Kyoto. She has published two books, Japan’s Clay Walls: A Glimpse into Their Plaster Craft (2009) and Sakan at Work: Japan’s Natural Plasters (2019, awaiting re-publishing). She is also close to finishing a PhD in earthen architecture at Kyoto Institute of Technology. She recently moved to Keihoku, north of Kyoto City, with her carpenter husband. They are looking forward to both restoring old gorgeous wood and earth buildings, as well as creating wood and earth renovations which draw from both Western and Japanese manners.

JEREMY PHILLIPPS

Nantoka Naru? The Azumadachi of Tonami (Presentation)

Their white plaster and dark wood facades make the azumadachi, the gable-faced farmhouses of the Tonami Plain, one of Japan’s most distinctive minka styles. Inspired by samurai mansions, their dramatic and expensive design made them a symbol of rural wealth from the late Edo to the post-war periods. This is the Snow Country, so the oe, the spacious, high-ceilinged main room, has massive keyaki beams designed to withstand the weight of snow. Typically, azumadachi are located on large isolated sections in “scattered villages” (sankyoson), surrounded by a protective belt of trees. Strong, spacious, and ridiculously cheap, they are a great entry into the world of minka.

This talk will discuss the history and features of the azumadachi, then how I found and bought mine. I will also cover my restoration process from the perspective of a first-time amateur trying to do as much as possible himself. This sympathetic restoration is designed to bring the house back to its roots, exposing long-hidden beams and making the framing a design feature, while playing around with colours for a more modern touch. By using traditional materials and techniques, I gain a better understanding of how these impressive houses were built and used.

About the Presenter

Jeremy Phillipps has called Kanazawa home for more than thirty years, where his interest in architecture and built environments led to him doing his doctoral thesis on the post-Meiji history of Japanese urban space.

In between teaching at the university, translation work, and tourism-related projects for the government and local authorities, he found time to buy a traditional azumadachi gabled farmhouse, drawn by the massive wooden beams and pillars that support the house against the large amounts of snow common in the region. Also because owning a classic Jaguar wasn’t enough of a money pit….

While his previous knowledge of traditional house design was largely theoretical, he is discovering there is much to learn about the history and architecture of kominka from a more hands-on approach. In particular, he prefers traditional materials and techniques wherever possible to understand how these buildings were constructed, as a way to connect to the past.

SHOUYA GRIGG

Paying Homage to Shiguchi (Presentation)

‘Shiguchi’ refers to the traditional system of simple, nail-free timber joinery from which traditional Japanese buildings such as temples and kominkas were built. At SHIGUCHI, we pay homage to the beauty of these connections, celebrating their functional elegance and powerful symbolism. The result is a distinct blend of local Japanese vernacular traditions and culture that transforms the idea of luxury with its strong connections to nature and to both traditional and contemporary Japanese culture. The journey from finding these often abandoned structures, tranporting them to Niseko, and from their bones, creating a new way to live has been long and often challenging, with many lessons learned along the way. This presentation will discuss that journey and where Shiguchi is today - and what the future holds.

About the Presenter

Shouya was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1968, and the family moved to Western Australia in the early eighties, where he studied Film and Media Production at Perth Central Metropolitan College. In 1994, he moved to Hokkaido, Japan, and worked as a freelance photographer and radio DJ. Then, in the early 2000s, Shouya launched a media design company, Kookan Co. Ltd. This was followed up by a property development and management company, Sekka Style Co. Ltd. In 2007, he opened the Sekka restaurant and bar in Niseko and started to design luxury condominiums and villas. In 2014 the Sekka Boutique Hotel opened, and in 2016, Zaborin, a luxury ryokan. This was followed by Sekka Lab restaurant and bar in Kutchan, Somoza restaurant and gallery in Niseko in 2017 and in 2022, the latest chapter, ‘SHIGUCHI’ hotel and gallery opened in Niseko.

KENICHI TAJITSU

Working to Promote Sustainable Forestry (Workshop)

Kenichi Tajitsu, an Aichi Certified Highly Skilled Forester, is the Representative Partner at Shinshiro Kikkorys LLC. He graduated from university with a degree in aeronautical engineering. After graduation, he traveled around Australia and Japan by motorcycle. During his travels, he encountered the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake and witnessed the horror of natural disasters, which led him to enter the world of "forestry" with a strong interest in creating disaster-resistant forests and natural environments to protect human society.

CHIKAKO NAKANO

Creating Original Washi Panels (Workshop)

I am a washi paper artisan at Shitoya Nakano Hyouguten, which makes, mounts, and repairs interior and art products such as fusuma (paper sliding doors), shoji (paper screens), kakejiku (hanging scrolls), and byobu (folding screens). We have been providing these products for temples, shrines, minka, and machiya for three generations from Noe, Osaka City. Making the best of our knowledge of traditional materials such as washi, silk, lacquer, wood, and metals, we design, create, and install modern and contemporary fittings and interior elements, as well as those for truly historical Japanese architecture. We also create and sell small daily-use items and room decors using those traditional materials.

MIROSLAV BACHURA

A Sustainable, Energy-conscious Approach to Kominka Renovation (Presentation)

As an architect from central Europe, working in Japan, I would like to present my journey of renovating a Kominka complex at Sozosya, Shizuoka. Focusing on a sustainable, energy-conscious approach to renovating old buildings, earthquake prevention, and structural engineering limits/possibilities with other construction options applicable to Japanese wooden houses. In Europe, the progress in zero-energy housing in the last decades is significant, which unfortunately cannot be said about Japanese construction. The upcoming global warming poses a challenge, to which we need to adjust and prepare our buildings and cities. How can we effectively, and reasonably renovate, and insulate a Kominka or any other old Japanese house? Can we renovate respectfully without devastating the Genius Loci of the building? If one is to DIY renovate, what should he/she be careful about, and when is it worth hiring a professional?

About the presenter

My name is Miroslav Bachura, and I am an architect from Slovakia. I graduated with a double-degree master’s at Czech Technical University in Prague, Faculty of Architecture, studying architecture and urban planning. I became acquainted with Yoshiaki Amino, current dean of the department of Architecture, Faculty of Design Engineering at Hosei University, while I did an exchange program, where I learned a great deal about sustainable wooden architecture, which influenced me to become a research student at Waseda University, where I spent 2 years at Takashi Ariga seminar, researching urban morphology of Tokyo water canals and rivers. After Waseda University I chose to work at Marureve’s structural engineering office and Marudai, based in Fuji city. For 2.5 years I worked and learned about earthquakes and modern Japanese wooden structural engineering, as well as prepared Shizuoka-prefectural construction material for Tokyo Olympic 2020 Village Plaza. Currently, I am working at the Sozosya, an architectural design office, based in Shizuoka, focusing on building renovations, architectural design, and machizukuri, local urban development projects. Meanwhile, some of the projects I have worked on together with my friend Martin Kožnar in Prague are getting awards and exposure for sustainable architecture.

CHIO SUZUKI

Pianist, Piano teacher, Musica Humana Therapist

Chie Suzuki has long studied the concept of "a performance that makes both the player and the listener feel good in mind and body, and she has been active as a pianist and as a musica humana therapist (an instructor who teaches self-instructional music therapy). As a performer, she began her solo performance activities after graduating from university, and since 2000, she has been performing under her own theme, "Memory of the Universe. Since 2008, she has also focused on chamber music, collaborating with performers of various instruments, and since 2016, she has formed the picture book reading and music unit "Otomin" to combine classical music and stories. In the field of piano education, she has been teaching not only private lessons but also Hanon programs (workshops for the general public that anyone can do using the piano) and the YouTube lecture "Chio Method - Piano and Body Mystery Box", which is a completely new way of sensing and adjusting the body. She has started activities to widely convey the new way of body and body conditioning to the public. Suzuki san is also interested in Japanese lifestyles and handicrafts that apply this body usage to daily life, and plans to incorporate them into her future activities.

B.F.A. in Piano, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music

CANON

Flute Ensemble

Flute Ensemble Hanane is a group of flute lovers under the direction of Wakako Inoue who are active mainly in the Tokai region.

The group rehearses twice a month and performs mainly in volunteer performances, guest performances, and voluntary concerts.

The name "Kanon" is borrowed from the pronunciation of JOHANN PACHELBEL's famous piece "Canon," and the character for "hanon" expresses our wish for an ensemble that plays tonesthat are like beautiful flowers.

The group was founded in 2003 by a few volunteers, and will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year in 2023. The 20th anniversary concert is scheduled to be held in Nagoya City at the end of the year.