[Edible Forest Creation] Instructor / Puppeteer

​平井 航

Wataru Hirai

He works for a forestry company in Sagamihara City, where he is involved in the maintenance of water source forests. He also works with local people and volunteers from other places to maintain Fujino's forests using methods that "cannot be done by company operations or public works".

As an instructor at the "Wild Nature School"[Creating Edible Forests], he helps prepare for the planting of "trees that provide food", with a macro perspective that sees the mountain as a single ecosystem, and a micro perspective that sees the soil mycelium and the ecosystem around it.

Mr Hirai also has a job as a 'string puppeteer', a traditional art form that at first glance seems far removed from forestry.

Interview →

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[Edible Forest Creation] Instructor / Doctor in Botany

池竹​ 則夫

Norio Iketake

He studied plant ecology as an undergraduate and worked as an environmental engineer in environmental assessment for a construction consultancy for about 20 years before going into business for himself. He now works freelance and makes his living surveying plants and birds.

He lives in a traditional four-storey house in former Fujino-machi, Midori-ku, Sagamihara, and is currently exploring the possibility of using the plants around him in everyday life (food, fuel, medicine, etc.).

At the 'Wild Music School' she teaches workshops mainly on fieldwork, with a focus on 'edible forest creation'. 

Coordinator / Holistic Social Entrepreneur

大中 咲子

Sakiko Oonaka

Graduated from Kyoto University, Faculty of Law, Department of Political Science. After working for Recruit Co., Ltd, she became a holistic social entrepreneur. She is currently involved in bodywork that reconnects people to themselves and the world through their physical senses, food that connects them to the earth, community building based on agriculture, and the creation of collective houses where people can help each other in raising children and in old age.

In the Wild Music School she works mainly as a facilitator and coordinator, guiding participants and cooking the natural food served at the workshops.

*Holistic: The theory that the whole, the basic organism of reality, has an existential value greater than the sum of its parts. At the same time, the idea that an individual does not exist in isolation, but is connected to everything in its environment.

Ban's partner / former wild dog

ARANCK

Arna

Arna always watches over the activities of her representative, Ban. She originally embodied the wildness of the mountains of the Sanyo region. Does not like to be approached. Loves to eat. If she is approached by Aana, it is because she is urging him to eat.

ARANCK means 'star' in the Native American Algonquin language.