Kuni: A Japanese Vision and Practice for Urban-Rural Reconnection

by Tsuyoshi Sekihara, Richard McCarthy, Kathleen Finlay (Foreword by)

Overview

Kuni is the story of an extraordinary experiment in citizen-led regeneration, and the lessons it holds for reviving rural and deindustrialized lands and communities around the globe, Kuni reimagines the Japanese word for "the nation" to mean a new sense of purpose and belonging in politically and geographically isolated places. A kuni is a community that achieves a balance between belonging and freedom. It can be created anywhere-even within a hamlet on the verge of extinction-and involves taking a holistic approach to helping fragile places thrive by reviving fading traditions, delivering social services, and forging new social contracts with those gripped by the stress of city life. More than a book of theories about how we might deconstruct modern industrial life, Kuni builds upon two decades of practice in rural Japan. It explores how to help people left behind in a globalized economy, sharing ideas deeply relevant to struggling communities outside of Japan, from Wilmington, Ohio, and their loss of a major shipping employer to Petal, Mississippi, and their loss of agricultural infrastructure. With spare and beautiful prose and useful principles for reviving rural places, Kuni addresses our longing for a hopeful revolution of community and everyday life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623177317
Publisher:	North Atlantic Books
Publication date:	10/18/2022
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.53(w) x 8.49(h) x 0.46(d)

About the Author

TSUYOSHI SEKIHARA is founder of the Kamiechigo Yamazato Fan Club, a community development organization focused on the holistic revival of Japan’s rural areas. Under Sekihara’s leadership, Kamiechigo became a program model for Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. In 2019, he traveled to New York City to feature in three days of symposia at the Japan Society. For 25+ years, RICHARD MCCARTHY has played both hyper local and global roles in growing community through food. His innovations include: a workers’ cooperative with public housing residents; the nation’s first farmers market health incentive pilots; and an international research fellowship to measure the human, social, and financial capital in community markets. McCarthy’s work has become increasingly global through partnerships with the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development, Project for Public Spaces, and Slow Food. He is a frequent public speaker, author, and organizer of conferences, symposia, and festivals.

Table of Contents

Foreword Kathleen Finlay xi

Acknowledgments xiv

Kuni Manifesto xvi

Pictures and Products of Nakanomata xx

1 An Outsider Encounters Kuni 1

2 Kuni Is Community 25

3 The Day It Started 27

4 It Began with a Forest 37

5 Rural Crisis 45

6 Appropriate Size 65

7 The Road to Kuni Begins with Potato Digging 75

8 An Industry with Limitations 85

9 The Future of Kuni 95

10 Confessions of a Place Polygamist 105

Notes 135

Index 141

About the Authors 145

Editorial Reviews

Reading Kuni makes me want to dive into rural Japan. Heartbreaking in many ways, this book reminds me that leaders emerge when and where you least expect it.”
—ALICE WATERS, founder of Chez Panisse restaurant, activist, and author

“Mr. Tsuyoshi Sekihara is not a scholar. But in a different era, he would have been.... If society understands the value of his work, it will be a sign that it has become a little better.”
—KUMI SEIKE, professor at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

“We need more kuni—healing and bridging between people divided by geography. From Japan to the Americas, forgotten rural communities desperately need new paths to forge a future.”
—RICARDO SALVADOR, senior scientist and director of the Food and Environment Program at the
Union of Concerned Scientists

“What are the universal values common to all humanity? In a kuni—a place full of vitality and where humans have pride and free will—individuals continually engage in courageous practice and never cease to question their work. In Tsuyoshi Sekihara’s new theory of kuni, we find signs of light that will help us survive in this difficult time.”
—TAKAO AOKI, board chair of KODO Group/ Kitamaesen Co., Ltd.

“This is a much-needed and hugely attractive idea—or set of ideas—for overcoming the rural/urban divide, which sadly does exist and usually breeds a lack of understanding that goes both ways.”
—DEBORAH MADISON, cookbook author and chef

“I am immensely proud of Kuni. This book is the outcome of a multi-year US-Japan rural exchange program and is a testament to how exchange programs can positively impact international dialogue and understanding and help innovative leaders see their work in new, illuminating, and fresh ways. Kudos to Richard McCarthy and Tsuyoshi Sekihara, who generously wrote this book so that others working on the rural-urban divide can benefit from their expertise and experience.”
—AMBASSADOR MOTOATSU SAKURAI, president emeritus of Japan Society, Inc.

“This remarkable East meets West manifesto for the best of an enlightened globalization may bring us all back to where we should be: home. Sekihara and McCarthy urge us to return home, to defend fragile rural places that our criminal food system plunders. Best read over rice dishes.”
—CARLO PETRINI, founder of Slow Food

“In Kuni, we witness how valuable community-level exchanges between the United States and Japan can be to facilitate sharing of lessons learned and best practices on common challenges facing our two countries. As two innovative leaders of their respective societies, McCarthy and Sekihara not only help shed light on a key issue of concern shared by the United States and Japan, but also encourage us all that important ideas and experiences are being shared between the two countries to strengthen urban-rural ties and help rural communities thrive. Their collaboration is an exceptional manifestation of sub-national exchanges that form a strong foundation for an enduring US-Japan relationship, and will also be a significant resource for rural revitalization efforts in communities around the world.”
—KAZUYO KATO, executive director of Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE/USA)

“Richard McCarthy is one the most playful and ground-breaking thought leaders in the Americas.”
—GARY NABHAN, ethnobotanist and author

From the Publisher