｜Length : 49min ｜Year : 2022 ｜

"What should be cherished? What should be passed on?" After the Fukushima nuclear accident, Matsumura Naoto stayed put in his hometown of Tomioka to look after abandoned animals. A decade later, Matsumura is now battling to revive a rice field in a decontaminated wasteland. As once-treasured farmland is lost to various new forms of development, Matsumura's solitary struggle to carve out a different path to the community's future casts the theme of post-disaster reconstruction in a new light.

｜Length : 54min ｜Year : 2022 ｜

This stage is set on an island called Shikoku. There was once a municipal aquarium in a small town on this island. It was built 87 years ago, and it was the very first aquarium in Shikoku. After that municipal aquarium closed, the townspeople wished to revive it once more and that’s how the Naga High Aquarium was born. It’s an aquarium inside a school. Ehime Prefecture Nagahama High School. They have the nation’s only Aquarium club, and there are 2,000 sea creatures of 150 kinds inside the school building.

The club members feed the fish every day, cleans the tanks, and give their all to care for them. Those sea creatures can be seen at the public viewing every third Saturday of the month, and many people visit the school on that day. A popular event during the public viewing is “Tommy’s Yellowtail Show”. High school students became yellowtail trainers, and they trained yellowtails to create what may be the world’s first yellowtail show. The show puts a smile on everyone’s faces. It creates a moment of happiness.

We began recording footage at Naga High Aquarium ever since the public viewing started in 1999. Among them is a segment covering six years of the yellowtail show, starting when the founder “Tommy” first entered the school. In 2018, western Japan suffered from a disaster caused by torrential rainfall. The school closed, and many fish died. In addition to that, Nagahama High School is not a preparatory school, and it’s not very easy to access, so they have to deal with declining student admissions. The school may have to close for good if there are not enough new students coming in. The club members shoulder the dreams of the townspeople and older students who left the club in their care, as they overcome crises and work hard every day. Together with all the sea creatures.

｜Length : 25min ｜Year : 2022 ｜

Starting about ten years ago, Shiho Sakamoto took on the title of “Wagashi Creator.” She runs no shops, publishes no recipes, and works mainly from her home kitchen to create Japanese wagashi sweets. Yet, she continues to create unique, breathtaking works. Her motifs include a butterfly perched on a flower, a single raindrop, the moonlight, crashing waves, footprints in snow. She draws upon a variety of everyday images and occurrences for inspiration. Her portfolio of over 400 creations has captivated women who exclaim that her wagashi are “too pretty to eat.”
Sakamoto’s career path is as unconventional as her confections. She got a job at an IT firm after college but was forced to take a leave of absence after falling ill from overwork. Just when she was rethinking her life, a dream she saw of wagashi served as a sign for her to pursue her true calling. Ever since, she has forged her own path as a mostly self-taught Wagashi Creator with no formal training at any notable wagashi shops.
This program follows Sakamoto’s project with a major wagashi maker and another with a small shop in the countryside to witness the birth of new wagashi, and in doing so, we discover a surprising treasure of hers. Although wagashi has been taking a back seat to Western confections recently, and the distinction is often blurred, Sakamoto insists on differentiating wagashi from its Western counterparts. Just what is the “Japanese spirit” that lies within these tiny treats? We search for the answer in Sakamoto’s creative process during a time when summer fades into autumn.

｜Length : 25min ｜Year : 2022 ｜

For the opening ceremony of the Emperor’s Cup football game, calligrapher Bisen Aoyagi put on a calligraphy performance for tens of thousands of people on New Year’s Day 2020. This was not her first time performing with a large brush to paint on a giant folding screen; she has carried out this performance to great acclaim in over ten countries. Aoyagi’s calligraphy, which captivates people around the world, is marked by its dynamic power. Her writing dances across the paper as if it has taken on a life of its own. She says a truly great work has an alluring empty space and letters that rise from the paper.
When Aoyagi is not performing, she practices tirelessly in her studio. Our cameras capture her diligent work that goes on behind the scenes of her flashy performances. Although her life revolves around calligraphy, Aoyagi immerses herself in nature once a year to enjoy some fishing or surfing. This respite can sometimes lead to surprising new ideas.
The calligrapher is currently absorbed in preparing for her fifth exhibit. She exclaims it will be something people have never seen before and puts forth a revolutionary idea of expressing three-dimensional objects through calligraphy. In order to make this happen, she visits a small factory and uses a forming press to cut out metal sheets in the shape of her writing. Come witness this up-and-coming artist’s challenge of transforming 2D into 3D.

｜Length : 52min ｜Year : 2022 ｜

“Kizunae” are drawings that depict people who have passed away in scenes from their future as if they were still living. Thirty-seven-year-old artist Jun Omura from Aichi Prefecture is a former caricaturist who now creates such kizunae artwork. This documentary follows Mr. Omura for two years as he meets with his clients, who are surviving family members of the deceased, and draws kizunae for them. The artwork introduced includes “a young boy whose dreams were realized,” “a sister who grew up to carry a baby,” “a wedding that never took place,” and even one of “Jun Omura’s family.”

Mr. Omura must overcome the daily anxiety that comes with bridging the gap between the “remnants” of the deceased and the “ideal image” requested by his clients. We have documented the kizunae art that he creates and the states of mind of the surviving families.