Abstract
This is a series of work that I created for the 2009 original exhibition at the Kuma Museum of Art (in Kumakogen-cho, Ehime Prefecture) “Let us go back home! Our fields will get desolate, Why not go back home? [i] –Rediscover Kuma through the lenses of travelers” (presented by Risa Kayahara, Keiko Sasaoka and Ai Takahashi). What is the wealth of mind in Japan today when the gap between urban and rural areas is being widened? With this question in mind, I photographed Kuma-kogen (highlands), its people and landscapes, for one year and a half.
An hour’s drive from Matsuyama City takes us to Kumakogen-cho (the town of Kuma highlands), located at the foot of Mt. Ishizuchi, the highest mountain in the Western Japan. In the heart of mountains about 800 meters high, the town is covered with snow in winter, which is rare in Shikoku. Situated on the road between Tosa and Matsuyama, the town used to be a hub of flourishing forestry. However, Japanese timber price fell sharply, and the town went through the “Merger of Heisei,” – the municipal mergers and dissolutions that took place five years ago. The town lost many jobs, and a lot of people left Kuma, their native land.
There are two kinds of landscape. One is the landscape composed solely by nature. The other bears the trace of human activities. It is this landscape with human activities that characterizes the mountains of Kuma. People planted trees and always lived with the mountains. A Native American saying goes, “landscapes are events.” These “events” we perceive by our senses, not by words.
There are people who live their life with joy, even under the harsh nature and difficult financial conditions – people stay living there no matter what. These people I respect. People are born in this land and buried in the same land, which strikes me as a very simple yet happy life. No advertisements need to highlight this land as a tourist destination. The shooting stars and fireflies always fill the land with light. Many times, this flow of light caught me with its beauty, which might be just a usual scene to the people in the land.
Even in the time of turbulent changes, there are certain things which never change, flowing quietly yet ceaselessly, like a vein of underground water. As long as there are people – five or even one person – who live in the village, I would like to visit their land and listen to the breath of their lives. It is in this place that a basic Japanese culture is deeply rooted. It is an indispensable warm feeling that we have when assured we have a home to return to – for autumn festivals or New Year’s Day. Hoping this warmth be forever, I wish to photograph various parts of Japan.
[i] The tile of the exhibition is taken from a poem written by a Chinese poet Tao Yuan-min(365-427). Through this poem Tao Yuan-ming expresses a sense of liberation he felt when he retreated from government service into a village life.
中文
成長於東京大都會區的高橋安以，對於故鄉因都市高度發展所帶來的巨變，有著熟悉但疏離的感觸，她踏上旅程，盼能追尋心目中的第二個故鄉，期待與讓她感到懷念的人們相遇。
她遠赴日本東南邊──四國地方愛媛縣的上浮穴郡，深入久萬高原山巒之中的村野聚落，這裡的人們，有些環繞著區公所周圍居住，有些沿著縣道聚落，縣道往山中 深入，那裡還有人煙。與自然共存，聚落們各自形成不同的生活型態，保有根源深厚的日本文明，延續傳統的形式，安居於此地，過著簡單幸福的生活。
生活於現代文明的我們，長久以來被快速與進步追趕著，高橋安以親自拜訪這些土地，聆聽人們生活的氣息，透過鏡頭，引導我們體會那些不變的風景，以及改變中 的風景，像一脈地下泉水，安靜地流淌不曾間斷。藝術家期許這份難得的溫暖能永久存續，而後也將持續拍攝，日本各地不同的面貌。