MIZUTANI Yumiko

The Blue & Green Art Project (BGAP), launched in 2020, is unique in that it addresses regional environmental issues through the interconnected perspectives of sea and land. Over the past few years, BGAP has held symposiums and exhibitions to encourage discussions on environmental challenges while presenting solutions through art and culture. The 2024 exhibition focused on kimono upcycling and included works by environmental artist Mago Nagasaka. A key objective of BGAP 2024 was to explore Nagasaka’s concept of "Sustainable Capitalism," which aims to create a harmonious cycle among the environment, culture, and economy. This paper examines the theme of "Regional Revitalization and International Exchange through Clothing Design," primarily discussing the activities of BGAP 2024 in the realm of clothing design. Chapter I provides an overview of the research, while Chapter II traces the evolution of clothing design activities from BGAP’ s predecessor, the Agri-Art Festival, to its current endeavors, analyzing them through the lenses of regional revitalization and international exchange. BGAP has long facilitated international workshops that utilize Yamaguchi’s local resources. This year, an online workshop was held in collaboration with the University of Hawaii Maui College, focusing on kimono upcycling with participants from both Japan and Hawaii. Chapter III highlights the clothing pieces featured in the exhibition, including Mago Nagasaka’s art and their underlying concepts. The works of Yusaku Harada, utilizing factory waste, and Erina Kashihara, incorporating marine debris, were also featured. The process of kimono upcycling in this exhibition, framed as an international exchange activity, proved to be significant, offering insights into perspectives in both the creative phase and the exhibition and appreciation phase. In summary, BGAP continues to utilize clothing design as an art and cultural initiative aimed at regional revitalization and addressing local issues. Looking ahead, the project aims to expand these efforts, even on a modest scale, with the aspiration of contributing to the local economy through sustainable practices.

This paper presents a field study in which the author conducted interviews with Japanese Americans affiliated with the Honolulu Yamaguchi Kenjinkai in Hawaii about their families’ stories. The author participated in the 2021 Aloha Project, a collaboration between Suo-Oshima Town, Suo-Oshima High School, and Yamaguchi Prefectural University, to design a set of Aloha shirts. During the foundational research for this project, the author visited the Japanese Hawaiian Emigration Museum operated by Suo-Oshima Town, developing a strong interest in the relationship between Suo-Oshima and Hawaii, particularly the history and current state of emigration. After retiring and becoming a professor emeritus, the author began researching Japanese immigration in 2023. The research began in September 2023 with a visit to Los Angeles, home to the Japanese American National Museum, to investigate Nikkei communities across the United States. Interviews were conducted with members of the Nanka Yamaguchi Kenjinkai. In mid-June 2024, the author traveled to Honolulu to interview members of the Honolulu Yamaguchi Kenjinkai about their family stories. At the same time, research was conducted at the Hawaii Japanese Cultural Center to better understand previously documented historical events. With these insights, the author decided to describe the individual family narratives collected through interviews. The study revealed the existence of historically significant Japanese immigrant communities in areas like Moiliili and McCully, which are comparable to Little Tokyo in Los Angeles. These areas, being older, hold a key place in the history of Japanese immigration as centers of work, education, and daily life for Japanese Americans. Through interviews about the lives of immigrants and their ancestors, the study provides opportunities to reconstruct the history of immigration, life in Hawaii, and changes in values over time. This has underscored the importance of continuing this research. Additionally, interviews were conducted with residents of Suo-Oshima who have relatives who emigrated. The author plans to further investigate how Suo-Oshima’s history of immigration has influenced the awareness and lifestyles of its residents.

The Blue & Green Art Project initiated its activities in 2020 with the goal of fostering regional sustainability through the connection of sea and land. This time, we introduced the perspective of wellbeing. The theme for this year's project was "Well-being by Sea and Land: Happiness is Found in Handicrafts". This thesis focuses on ‘Sustainable Handicraft Tradition and Design in Yamaguchi’, examining the mental, physical, and social wellbeing that handicrafts bring to people. It explores the dilemma between conventional handicrafts and design, delving into the study of wellbeing. Simultaneously, it archives presented in the exhibition ‘Happiness is Found in Handicrafts’ and explores new expressions of handicrafts. Concerning the tradition and transmission of handicrafts, the workshop was revealed as both a place of encounter and a valuable tool for discovering the inheritors.

This article is a field note from fieldwork conducted in September 2023 on Sansei and new Issei of Japanese descent belonging to the Nanka Yamaguchi Kenjinkai. It serves as a field study of Yamaguchi Prefecture and Japanese immigrants. A is a Sansei of Japanese descent and born in the mainland United States. B was born in Japan when his father, a returned Japanese American, went back to Japan. C is a Peruvian Nikkei Sansei who immigrated to the United States after studying abroad. Before the interview, we visited the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo, an area known as a Japanese neighborhood, with a volunteer daent guide, who was a Japanese immigrant. Having common information about their experiences here, we conducted unstructured direct interviews. They discussed their ancestors' immigration, the war, the concentration camps, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team（an all-Japanese regiment）, and their personal lives. This paper attempts to highlight the immigrant reality of the Nanka Yamaguchi Kenjinkai on a personal level by comparing historical facts with personal family stories.

This research was initiated by the Planning and Design Laboratory of Yamaguchi Prefectural University in 2011 as part of a project to revitalize a mountainous area in the Tokuji region of Yamaguchi City The Tokuji area is blessed with rich nature (forests), and the culture of papermaking has been passed down from generation to generation in the upper reaches of the pure "Saba River. Focusing on this precious regional resource, the company created clothing using knit art works that fuse plant material with natural knit materials, and presented them at fashion shows and exhibitions with the message of "Return to Nature," thereby exploring new possibilities for Tokuji handmade paper In 2021, the compilation of this series of exhibitions was held at the Suo Kokubunji Temple in Hofu City, downstream from the Saba River, where the Knit Art Exhibition was held This report describes the process and the results of the creation of cultural exchange between Yamaguchi City and Hofu City through an exhibition whose method is Installation, that fuses the regional resources between the two cities.

This paper focuses on the Blue & Green Art Project, which has been implemented from 2020 to the present, in relation to the Agri-Art Festival, which was the premise of the project, and its activities on regional revitalization and development.The project focuses on symposiums and exhibitions of artworks, which are activities about regional revitalization and development by connecting the sea and land, while committing to the SDGs. In particular, the report discusses the works in the exhibition "A Journey of Fashion through the Sea," which was inspired by the symposium held in March 2022. For sustainable design, we will focus on the traditional Japanese clothing and dyeing and weaving techniques. The project focused on traditional Japanese clothing and dyeing techniques such as sakiori, tsuzure, saki-knitting, patchwork, and herb-dyeing for sustainable design. The project also included the upcycling of masks provided by the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare before they were discarded, as well as oyster pipes and other flotsam collected from beach cleanups. The project also upcycled masks provided by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare before they were discarded and oyster pipes that had washed ashore from beach cleanups. A sakiori weaving workshop was also held to help visitors feel the environmental issues of the sea and land as their own problems. The event was short-lived, but we hope that future activities will be more active and it was effective in raising awareness among the visitors as well as the organizers as a foundation for future activities.

Suo-Oshima Town, Yamaguchi Prefectural University, and Suo-Oshima High School signed an agreement of comprehensive cooperation on April 28, 2021. Professor Mizutani was asked to be the representative researcher to begin the “Suo-Oshima High School Aloha Project 2021.” With this project as the starting point, a joint collaboration was carried out on the promotion of Hawaiian culture through design in Suo-Oshima Town. This paper will investigate the Hawaiian culture promotion plan with particular focus on aloha shirts. In addition, as a practical study of design, it will verify the results of the workshops on making Hawaiian shirts, the fashion show, and the design exchanges which took place online. Finally, future challenges were identified for the purpose of contributing to the branding of Suo-Oshima Town through Hawaiian culture promotion.