While teaching English at a high school, I met students who were struggling with personal difficulties or finding it hard to feel at home at school. I felt that, before academic learning, we should begin by caring for ourselves and rediscovering the joy of being alive.
Working with the librarian and Japanese language teachers, I created a readers’ theatre performance with the students. We stepped beyond the roles of teacher and learner to create one work together. In the process, I saw students discover what they loved and regain their own unique radiance.
This experience inspired a deep desire to create, through art—creative activity—a world where all lives shine together. That wish grew into the participatory creative performance “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter”. Since the Ise performance, co-created with artists from many disciplines and 710 people, we have continued sharing the messages “You are the protagonist” and “Art for All”.
A personal reflection: as I began creating this website
As a little girl, I used to laugh out loud and lose myself in play. Somewhere along the way, those carefree smiles became fewer.
In high school, I no longer understood why I was studying. When I listened to Billy Joel’s “Honesty”, I couldn’t stop crying.
The mismatch between my words, feelings and actions felt dishonest to me, and it hurt.
I think that is why I have kept learning and doing this work: I wanted to connect words, heart and body, and live in harmony as a whole person! I have kept learning from all kinds of things, and as those experiences blended together, ここからだ was born. Now, nearly thirty years since I first encountered eurythmy, I am still a work in progress, still being shaped by so many encounters, and still changing.
Believing that even my unfinished self can grow and change together with others, I began gathering my work into this website. I hope that, through our connections with one another, we can keep walking toward something brighter, starting here, now.
To every being I have met: “Thank you.”
And to every being I have yet to meet: “This is me, just as I am. I look forward to meeting you!”
