I love Japan!

By Makoto Tochigi, Senior staff writer
05 January 2009
Nikkei Weekly

So says author Alex Kerr in explaining why it pains him to watch Japan journey into the future

Alex Kerr, a 56-year-old writer and researcher of East Asian art and culture, is in love with a Japan that pains him to watch disappear. Also an activist, he has long championed preservation of the country's natural heritage and has even backed up his words with actions - and his own money.

Along the way he has been sounding the alarm that modern society is destroying the cultural and natural heritage upon which it stands. In recent years, he has noticed similar voices as well as a quietly emerging momentum toward preserving the country's cultural heritage and scenic beauty.

Transformation

Kerr first came to Japan in 1964 when his father, a U.S. Navy lawyer, was transferred to Yokohama. Kerr said he remembers plenty of beautiful naturescapes, tidy rows of traditional wooden houses and warm relationships among neighbors as Japan began its high-growth period. As the years wore on, though, Kerr noticed that architecture and cityscapes were undergoing dramatic changes.

"There is something wrong with (modern) Japan's way of development that disregards the beauty and richness of its nature and culture, invaluable pieces of heritage preserved for centuries," Kerr said recently. He bemoans modern society for rushing headlong into the destruction of the country's past for the sake of progress, rather than embracing those reminders of years gone by and developing them as tourism resources.

While noting that city governments and local associations in the U.S. and European countries actively commit to preserving their old urban districts, Kerr implied that Japan's development projects relentlessly transform not only infrastructure but even the everyday lifestyles of Japanese. The only sites that progress' steamroller bypasses, he said, are historically noteworthy shrines and temples.

The result is that today's Japan is made up of cities, suburbs and towns with little character. The beauty of rows of traditional Japanese houses has disappeared into nostalgia. In their place is a whole lot of ugly. "Concrete buildings and tangles of power cables overhead," Kerr said.

Unfortunately, not even Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, has escaped this fate. A sense of crisis over how Kyoto had lost much of its luster has prompted Kerr to preserve and restore old machiya town houses there. Over the past four years he has been involved in refurbishing eight traditional merchant houses in the proud city and converting them into inns and premises for Japanese art classes and cultural programs.

"Machiya houses are very beautiful because they used to be living and working places for Kyoto people," Kerr said.

He said the old houses are now attracting not only foreign visitors who want to experience how people used to live in Kyoto but also domestic guests - about 70% of whom are young women. The machiya are also attracting an increasing number of repeat customers.

House of the Flute

Kerr's involvement in restoring traditional wooden homes dates back to the early 1970s, when he interrupted his studies at Yale University in the U.S. to be an exchange student at Tokyo's Keio University. During his one-year stay in Japan, he used to hitchhike around the country and once happened upon a ravine in the Shikoku region dotted with villages made up of traditional wooden homes.

One of the wooden structures - a 300-year-old traditional thatched-roof farmhouse in the Iya, a remote region of Tokushima Prefecture - immediately reminded him of a childhood dream.

"Here is my castle," he thought to himself upon taking in the abandoned house, its hearth-inlaid wooden floor, its beams and rafters smoked black from centuries of fires burning in the hearth.

Almost immediately he was determined to buy the place.

After obtaining approval from the villagers, Kerr purchased the old structure with money borrowed from one of his father's friends. The house had been left empty for more than 17 years and was unlivable, so Kerr rethatched the roof and spent more than a decade restoring it and making it habitable.

He eventually named the cottage Chiiori, or House of the Flute, and, with the cooperation of the villagers and municipality, turned it into a tourist destination. Those who stay in Chiiori experience traditional village life and organic farming in a panoramic valley.

Chiiori, dedicated to reinvigorating the Iya region, is now only one of many similar projects that have taken root throughout the country as Kerr and like-minded preservationists continue to spread their gospel.

Ojika, a town on an island of the same name off the coast of Nagasaki Prefecture, has named Kerr its tourism ambassador. As such, Kerr is offering the townspeople advice on refurbishing 10 old houses so visitors can stay in them or so they can be used as other kinds of tourism facilities.

"The Ojika town office and nonprofit organizations are working hard to revitalize the region," Kerr said. "The people are acting on their own initiative, and this is the most important aspect when communities want to make themselves better."

Flicker of hope

The number of foreign tourists to Japan surpassed 8 million in 2007. In January 2008, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism appointed Kerr as its Yokoso! Japan, Visit Japan Campaign ambassador. The ministry hopes Kerr will help to increase the number of inbound tourists, but Kerr also intends to use the post to encourage a new kind of tourism in Japan.

"If a lot of foreign visitors - who generally have little patience with low-quality tourist spots, particularly half-inspiring places without aesthetic beauty - come to Japan," Kerr said, "they would have an immensely valuable impact on the country's tourism" efforts.

His reasoning is that any feedback inbound tourists give is likely to awaken service providers to the importance of things like scenic beauty and the serving of local dishes made with fresh fish and vegetables.

He pointed out that Japan has a great number of unused tourism resources, including a cluster of islands dotting the Seto Inland Sea that have a cadre of fans among Western travelers.

Regarding modern Japan's destruction of its cultural heritage - a theme Kerr has dwelled on in his books "Lost Japan," originally written in Japanese as "Utsukushiki Nihon no Zanzo," and "Dogs and Demons" - he said the rampage "has yet to be stopped."

Even so, he recognizes some changes taking place.

"Japan is now at a major crossroads in its cultural development," he said. "On the other hand, traditional performing arts such as rakugo, or comedic storytelling, and Kabuki are making new efforts to find a broader audience among young people." He also noted that talented young players of Tsugaru shamisen, a genre of music native to the three-stringed Japanese lute, are also coming into the spotlight.

There is a glimmer of hope, Kerr said, that has begun to flicker in the cultural and tourism sectors. On this glimmer, Kerr has place some heavy expectations. "It is my dream to see that light shine brightly and vigorously enough to eventually help us revive the beauty and richness of Japan's nature and cultural traditions, for which I have a wholehearted love."

Makoto Tochigi

(The Nikkei Weekly 12/29/2008 Edition)