Recently, I heard about Usato fuku ( fuku means clothes in Japanese for men and women, dresses). Then, I noticed to see my friends wearing Usato design clothing. It is a beautiful and natural material. The Usato fuku begins by planting cotton, hemp, and then harvesting, then wave to fabric, and finally clothing. All processes are made by hand. I started interested in Usato fuku. Then I heard Mr Takizawa is flying from Japan to New Zealand and talked about his ongoing sustainable lifestyle cooperate community project in Japan as a part of the Usatto fuku sales exhibition in Ponsonby. My sixth sense told me you better go and listen.
I was so glad I did it! My personal reflection on his speech resonated with my own current interests.
Following lists are my highlight of his message as an ECE teacher;
- one in eight children chooses not to go to school. Most stay in their room
- at the 3.11 Earthquake, he was in the Shibuya area with his 3-month-old baby son. Public transports were all shut down in central Tokyo. He managed to walk down to his friend’s house with pushing the pushchair. The incident pushes his inner switch. One natural disaster makes no value for money. What do we need for living as humans? clothing, eating, and house. Then, he decided to move to the countryside and make his own food for himself. Growing own food by himself was the first time in his life. That was the starting point for his sustainable community. Now he is moving on next vision to connect people, places and work together.
- What you have done is returning to you. 自分が蒔いた種は自分に戻ってくる
- Life is balanced. How do we live NOW?
- Relationships with people, and connecting people generate power.
- Following, and being part of big things is still dominant in Japanese culture. Mr Takizawa always felt uncomfortable in such kinds of Japanese society from childhood. Making places for those children is one of his future plans.
While my teaching practice, I sense how important building positive relationship with children, colleague and family. Positive relationship is core and center for success of Education.
Mr Takizawa said, being fun, to be open, and to be connected.
In addition, he mentioned Waitaha ( South Island Iwi) is related to ancient Japanese ( Jyomon people) from his neighbour author Yoshitomi Asakawa published his book that talks about the link between New Zealand and Japan. This topic certainly motivated Mr Takizawa to visit New Zealand with his family.
Now I am wondering how and where this “En” will take me in the future.
