Drill１「１分間で彫刻家になる方法」

Drill２「１分間で画家になる方法」

Drill３「植木鉢のココロざし」

Lecture「見ても見ても飽きない絵をどう描くか？」

02/05　雪の中での化石づくり（三良坂灰塚小）

02/05　自分の看板を作ってみよう！（仁賀小）

01/14　ペンキで描く大きな絵（吉舎小）

12/05　段ボールでキャラクターづくり（総領小）

12/04　ガムテープで彫刻づくり（吉舎小）

09/01　ひまわりプロジェクト（安田再建地そば護岸）

07/14　見えないものを見えるようにすること２（総領中）

06/23　見えないものを見えるようにする表現（総領中）

03/16　『芸術の悩み』相談室

03/16　化石コレクション（安田小）

02/23　町づくりを考える（総領小）

02/23　芸術の深さを巡って（吉舎町中央公民館）

01/27　雪の石膏型どり（安田小）

01/26　１分で建築家になる方法

10/28　美術館とコレクション

10/28　マーク＆地図づくり（安田小）

10/27　空き地の教科書をつくる（吉舎中）

09/29　かたちの作り方＆スライド上映

07/28　○○には××が良く似合う（三良坂町リバティホール）

06/24　アリの目で周りを見てみると（灰塚小）

06/23　１分で画家になる方法（吉舎中央公民館）

05/25　１分で彫刻家になる方法（総領町リストアステーション）

05/25　スケールの問題（総領小）

12/06　コンピューターとビデオを使ったシールづくり

08/29　様々な素材を使った夏休みの工作教室

07/26　アースワーク作品についての講演（総領町役場）

07/23　ガムテープで実物大の彫刻作品をつくる演習

Hajibashi, constructed as part of an ancillary work of the Haizuka dam, is the longest bridge in the dam area. Its purpose is to let the prefectural highway pass over the reservoir in the upstream of the secondary dam which is to be built in the Tabusagawa River for water control within the area. However, the construction of a reservoir in the Tabusagawa River involved the risk of turning the stream flowing into the river from the surrounding valleys (Otani) into wastewater.

 The construction of the bridge itself could no longer be reconsidered. Thus, the problem was how to transform the environmental role and meaning of the bridge by reassembling solely the functional linkages (and shapes) of its facilities such as the bridge rail, pavement and surrounding park. In addition, how to restore the organic linkage with the dissected living area also became an issue for the project. Needless to say, the basic concept is the recovery and reutilization of the streams of Otani (e.g., provide solace to the bridge passers and use it as the irrigation water for afforestation) which had formally been used as daily life water in the local community, supplying an important water source connected closely to the lives of people. Moreover, the stream took precedence in giving the new bridge its distinct characteristic. 

○ The plan: river running above river = new aqueduct

Hajibashi is an angled bridge with an inclination pitch of 3% from downstream to upstream, and a 6m difference of elevation from the opposite bank. A tower with a height (7.5m) just over this difference of elevation was constructed in the park on the downstream side, and the water irrigated from the streams of Otani was gathered there. The gathered water crosses the bridge from the tower to the opposite bank, rising up a slope of 190m through a pipe set within the bridge rail. Then it turns around and comes back to the downstream park through the balustrade pipe (water shoot) set alongside the pavement, and is released into the Tabusagawa River (Nakatsukunibuchi) through the retarding gutter. The water running inside the balustrade produces various sounds through a device set within the pipe, and can also be used for irrigating the plants. It cools off the passersby in the scorching heat and provides bounty for the nature. The objects that produce the secret sounds from the balustrade (Ototoi = sound water shoot) were set by the ingenuity of the local people.

 The flow of water passes through three parks in the shape of an animal ear while rising up the bridge and coming back. These parks are named "Rabbit's ear," "Raccoon dog's ear," and "Otter's ear," and benches are placed in each of them for listening to the sound and breath of nature.

As a result of this long process, their proposal was finally accepted in 2004, and became realized as the Nakatsukuni Park in 2007.The flow of Tabusagawa River, which was made to run straight for water control reasons in the Meiji era, was restored in its original curving form as an underflow. 'Wandos' and Streams where fireflies inhabit were built throughout the park, with consideration to make the place a rich inhabitation environment for all creatures.

The landform of the area is composed by superposition of hills or planes of moderate elevation between 1 to 5 meters (8.5 meters at maximum) of height, each differing in its direction of inclination. Various plateaus of different inclination angle dart in and out of sight like leaves falling on top of each other as one walks around, each time modifying the view and changing the continuity of the scenery.

Twenty kinds of maple trees, sixteen kinds of acorns and fifteen kinds of fruit tree, along with fields of rapeseed and herbs color the park. The lagoon make a perfect fishing spot not only for anglers but also for wild birds (many wild and migrating birds have already visited the park, making it a paradise of birds). In this park the activities of people (likewise to other creatures) are also incorporated as one part of the larger cycle of nature. It is in between such fold or relief woven by nature that the gross field of Tabusa, the lost rice paddy which all citizens wished for, were to be finally resurrected. 

The name of Nakatsukuni park derives itself from the old tale that the towhead ("nakatsukuni") of the river became the center from which the country was born ("nakatsukuni"), the origin of fertility (In English, this can be translated as Middle-earth, the name of the land which formed the setting of J.R.R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings). To make the towhead of Tabusagawa River which runs through the Chugoku mountain area and where rice grows as abundantly as grass the starting point for environment creation, is the hope and pride conveyed in this name.

1, Background

In 1965, a plan was announced to build a flood-control dam in the rural mountain district of Hiroshima prefecture. Due to frequent flooding, the Gonokawa River, also known as the Rough River, required a flood-control dam. The area planned for the dam construction was a valley region of four square-miles (4144 hectares), crossing over the three towns of Mirasaka, Kisa and Soryo, located in the southern part of the Chugoku mountain area, about 40 miles northeast of Hiroshima city.

The requisitioned land for the dam lake (half of which was to be reserved as flood-control, normally remaining above the water line) was a vast region mainly used for agriculture. Villages were scattered around this area, and the construction of the dam would drastically change not only the natural environment but also the rich local culture which had formed in relation to the abundant natural resources. Thus, a strong opposition movement against the construction of the dam naturally arose from the local citizens.

However, in addition to the great flood disaster of Gonokawa River of 1972, the continuous battering of the local economy and its declining population made the dam construction unavoidable by the mid-1980s. The dam was finally accepted under the condition that it would disclose its construction process on a yearly basis and hold discussions to take proposals from citizens into consideration, thus reaching mutual agreement. In 1993 a working group (called the Haizuka Earthworks Projects) was formed, consisting of local citizens and a number of artists and architects such as Kenjiro Okazaki, as an organization to create proposals to minimize the damage to the natural environment and local culture caused by the dam construction. 

Forming a part of a high water channel, The Plateaus on the Bosom of Time is located at the southern end of the Haizuka dam area, in the boundary residing to Yasuda life reconstruction site. This location is where the course of the River Jouge flowing from Yasuda no sato, curves in a right angle towards the Chiwa valley. As is demonstrated from the fact that a mountain castle was built in the rear mountains, this place is also a key region in topographic terms.

The actual site was a vacant land left between a residential area, a nursery school and a new cemetery that had been moved from the dam area. In other words, this empty lot was located in the key junction to organically connect these new facilities built without any mutual relationship.

Due to such important function of this vacant land as the key junction between the local community and the natural environment, workshops with children were held a number of times in a four years span. The final proposal to come out from these workshops was a water park built by near-natural construction method. Dedicated to the new settlement which had lost the former village square where Bon-Odori and festivals that used to bring the community together for a long time were held, the park is contrived to also function as an open-air stage when viewed from the opposite bank, with two wood deck stages having an inner garden and an artificial hill that can be used as stage sets, and the valleys alongside the gentle meandering River Jouge and the mountain ridges in the background.

 In legal terms, this construction is not a park but a bank protection work. It is a common practice in riparian works to draw a line for the river area, letting the concrete shore protection stipulate the water flow directly. However, a bold plan to demolish the borderline and drag the bay into the location was proposed. After continuous discussion, the proposal was accepted and consequently a park which could be seen as a revolving stage was built - the whole site resembling an isolated ship or an island floating in the valley. Thus, a sympathetic theater which binds the surrounding natural environment with the life of the people (and various senses) was born.