Translator: Hiroe Nakada Reviewer: Mai Iida
Hello everyone, nice to meet you all.
I would like to share with you today,
my own definition of the revitalization of localities.
I was born in Daisen city of Akita prefecture
and I am currently 25 years old.
Does everyone know where Akita is located?
Akita is in the north of Japan,
650 kilometers away from Tokyo.
I grew up in Akita and lived there until high school.
Lured by the big city,
I spent my college years and my first year out of college
in Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture.
Because I was an innocent girl from the rural countryside,
the big city was full of surprises.
The 5 years in the big city was a pivotal time in my life.
When I took a step back and looked at the world around me,
I saw trains full of people
and people hurrying across the famous Shibuya crossing,
and I thought to myself,
"Why are there so many people in large cities?"
This is what trains in Akira look like.
It is evident how Akita is a calm and easygoing place.
That is why it was so difficult for me to imagine a place so crowded with people.
As I saw the people walking by I thought,
"Where are these people heading to?"
"What drives these people to continue in their directions?"
All of these thoughts led me to ask,
in which direction I myself am heading to.
I found myself just following those around me
and doing whatever they were.
I realized that I was replaceable.
That is when I began to envision my future.
If I were to have children,
I want to raise them in my hometown of Akita.
But when was I going to return to Akita?
My beloved family still lived there and were waiting for me to return.
It's now or never, I thought,
and moved back to Akita in March 2012
although I had no plans of getting married.
So what comes to your head when you think of Akita?
Here are some facts about the prefecture.
First, Akita has smart children.
Akita ranks at the top
of the National Assessment of Academic Ability.
We are also the prefecture in which people sleep the most.
That's probably because we get drowsy
from drinking too much of our famous sake.
We have the most number of people with the surnames Sato and Ito,
and the most hairdressers in Japan.
Interesting, right?
You may also already know from the news,
but Akita is where population is declining the most in all of Japan.
Another negative fact is, we have the highest number of suicides.
The only thing we come in last is the number of children.
By now, you've probably noticed
that Akita faces a number of challenges,
such as an aging and rapidly declining population.
In addition to these facts, I also noticed from my own experience,
the difficulty of accessing new information,
and the obvious lack of people in Akita.
I also felt that Akita is weak at delivering its individuality to others.
Of course, it also has its strengths.
We are home to the most number
of Important Intangible Cultural Property in Japan.
We have a flourishing traditional culture.
We also cannot forget the warm-hearted people of Akita.
Akita people can actually be a little too kind,
to the point where they are nosy.
I also want to mention that because of its weaknesses,
such as the lack of people or ability to capture people's attention,
it has so much potential.
Now, I'd like to introduce some of our unique culture.
First, the Akita Kanto Festival, which is held every summer in Akita city.
And this delicious-looking "kiritampo." Now is actually the best season for it.
We also have hot springs that help raise Akita beauties like me.
In my birthplace of Daisen city,
a nationally famous fireworks festival is held every summer.
Our Bon festival dance is a registered Important Cultural Property.
Finally, the "Akita-beauties."
These are only a small part of Akita's attractions.
There is so much more I could add to the list.
As I learned more and more about Akita,
I wanted to share these fascinations of Akita with more people,
not just in Japan but also the rest of the world.
What's more,
I wanted people to actually experience these things themselves.
Experiencing Akita first-hand would be the best way
for people to understand its fascinations.
I decided that I would create a structure
to attract people to visit my home of Akita.
In order to attract people to come to an area,
there must be an incentive, trigger, interest,
and something bursting with originality.
Those were the conditions I needed to fulfill.
The first necessary step
was for me to become an encyclopedia of Akita.
I often went to the library and studied about the region,
or just asked people on the streets about Akita,
although that made a number of people suspicious.
This process introduced me to a side of Akita
I had never known before.
That is when I finally came across a word that caught my attention.
"Kawabata Geisha."
"Kawabata Geisha" is a geisha culture
that flourished approximately 60 years ago
in the Kawabata quarter of Akita.
During its golden age around the 1930s,
there were around 200 geishas.
Kawabata is an area that still exists,
and this is what it looks like today.
Looks quite bare, right?
It is hard to believe
that a geisha culture thrived in the same area.
Another word that caught my attention
was Akita-beauties.
This is because after leaving Akita,
people would ask me, "Where are you from?"
I would respond, "Akita."
In response, I was often told, "You are such an Akita-beauty!"
It's obvious why I was so interested in the word.
At the same time, I would also be asked,
“Where can we meet them?”
"Do they really exist?"
"Akita-beauty" is a very vague concept and word.
So I decided to integrate Akita's historical culture of Kawabata-geisha,
the legacy of this culture,
and Akita's unique resource of Akita-beauties,
into a modern and new business.
By linking these factors,
I wanted to build a foundation
that would physically bring people to Akita.
This leads to the creation of "Akita Maiko,"
the dispatching business of Akita beauties.
We do not just aim to advance the traditional culture of geisha soirees.
We consider it an integral part of Akita tourism,
aspiring to share the excitement and appreciation of Akita with the world,
by painting the beauty of Akita with our own colors and radiance.
These girls did not join my business to limit themselves as simply Maiko,
but they want to deliver a fascinating Akita
through their own words and actions.
Their mission is to become delegates of Akita.
On top of that,
there are 3 fundamental rules I always ask my Maiko to follow.
First, be commanding but with dignity.
As a proud Akita Maiko, explore your inner beauty
as well as the beauty of your appearance, conscience, and intellect.
Dignity and modesty will earn you prestige and respect.
Second, treasure every encounter.
Each encounter is a chance for you to show your hospitality.
Use that to show others the essence and beauty of Akita,
and present the highest quality of hospitality.
Third, be kind, be conscientious.
Always think before you act.
Sense the other person's feelings and personality,
and make yourself the reason for them to want to come to Akita.
All of these hold the conviction
of believing in oneself and having inner fortitude.
With this business as a starting point,
we want to transform Akita's traditions, culture, and industry
into a service that fits the needs of society today,
without losing the historical legacies.
We also want to carry on the traditional culture
and attract more visitors from the outside,
for Akita's future flourishing.
To be honest, starting this business has not been an easy journey.
Many people, perhaps those in the audience too,
associate Maiko culture with Kyoto.
I have been told on several occasions,
"Well, Kyoto Maiko are better."
In reality though,
when people actually see Akita Maiko, they are so fascinated
and compliment on how beautiful and charming they are.
We now work with the public relations sector
of Akita's public administration offices.
But as I mentioned before,
my ultimate goal is to create a structure to bring more people to Akita.
This Akita Maiko business is only one way of realizing my wish.
I hope to expand the field of the business
to Akita's traditional culture, cuisine, fermentation culture, and agriculture.
I only started my company this April,
and the Akita Maiko just had their first show in August,
but this is what I have discovered so far from this business.
Revitalizing localities, especially sparsely populated areas,
is not achieved through creating something new,
but through recycling a forgotten aspect unique to the region,
and also close to the local people's hearts.
It is about focusing on something that only exists in that region,
in my case Akita,
and polishing that one factor.
I believe that Akita is not the only place in Japan
that has an irreplaceable factor or resource.
What I want you to take away from my talk today
is that people are moved by the thought behind actions.
Recycling the ideas around you and their legacies,
lead to the revival of a culture or a place.
Revival sounds difficult,
but it is about transforming something
into what you, as a person of the present, would want to see in this world.
Especially because we live in such a diversely cultured world,
we should honor and take pride in the traditional cultures
cultivated by our ancestors,
while transforming it into what fits the needs of today.
This is my philosophy of revitalizing localities.
I believe that this will lead us
to an undiscovered future of Tohoku
and the flourishing of Akita.
Our journey has just begun.
Together, I want to continue discovering the ideas that surround us,
and share with the world, the essence that lies at the core of this country.
I have no doubt that this will help us construct our undiscovered future.
Thank you.