[7 Years After the Disaster] By the Time Children Who Graduated from “MORIUMIUS,” Born from an Abandoned School in Ishinomaki, Become Adults

■A Certain Type of Coverage That Decreases Year by Year
Hello. This is O from the Public Relations Group.

First, please take a look at this graph.
This graph shows the number of TV coverage instances of “a certain topic” from 2016 to the present (※).
※As of March 8, 2017 (Thursday), when this blog was written
“A certain topic” refers to the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred on March 11, 2011 (Friday).

While the monthly coverage count on TV media in March two years ago exceeded 600 instances,
in March last year it was less than 400.
Although I only have data from 2016 onward,
it is easy to imagine that the number of coverage instances has been decreasing year by year since 2011.

Seven years since the disaster—
To see with my own eyes the current state of Tohoku that cannot be understood through media coverage alone,
I headed to Ishinomaki City in Miyagi Prefecture.

■An Abandoned School Becomes “A Learning Place to Experience Sustainable Society”
I arrived at a facility called “MORIUMIUS” located in Ogatsu Town, Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture.

MORIUMIUS is a comprehensive experiential facility “for children” where they can learn about the cycles of nature through interaction with people engaged in primary industries such as agriculture and fisheries,
and acquire the ability to live sustainably.

The original structure of MORIUMIUS was the former Kuwahama Elementary School in Ogatsu Town. After closing in 2001,
it appears to have fallen into disrepair without human care for some time, but after the Great East Japan Earthquake, members of the public interest incorporated association “sweet treat 311” (now: Public Interest Incorporated Association MORIUMIUS) who visited to support the disaster area
happened upon this school building and acquired it.

Then, through the efforts of over 5,000 volunteers, companies, organizations, and local residents from 2012 onward,
it was revived as “MORIUMIUS” in July 2015.
http://moriumius.jp/

Additionally, in January last year, a collaborative accommodation facility for adults,
“MORIUMIUS annex,” also opened.
Business professionals from different industries can stay and train together,
and it is also utilized as a place for nurturing next-generation leaders.
http://moriumius.jp/annex/

※For details about our company’s involvement with MORIUMIUS, please see this blog.
https://blog.ssu.co.jp/2015/07/30/2300/

■”What We Received from the Sea Simply Returned to the Sea”
Upon arrival, Gentaro Yui, who was deeply involved in the establishment of MORIUMIUS himself
and now serves as the facility’s field director, greeted me.
(This Mr. Yui was also involved in the creation of KidZania Tokyo.)

During the day, I experienced cutting logs for shiitake mushroom cultivation, preparing homemade miso,
and maintaining the mountain that serves as a learning place for children.
The miso preparation work started at 4 AM with boiling soybeans…
An experience you can’t have in the city (laughs).

In the evening, all program participants ate together
while enjoying seafood caught in Ogatsu! Given the season, the oysters and salmon were exceptionally delicious!

Then, after finishing the meal, Mr. Yui began speaking in a quiet tone.

“After the disaster occurred, there was a period when fishermen who had lost their homes and boats were despondent. At that time, a grandmother who had lived in Ogatsu for over 90 years said something like this:
‘Homes and boats, if you trace them back, were bought with blessings received from the sea. Even if homes and boats were swept away by the tsunami, it simply means that what we received from the sea just returned to the sea.'”

■By the Time Children Who Learned from the “Forest” and “Sea” Become Adults
With the 90-year-old grandmother’s words, the fishermen stood up toward recovery.

I believe that everyone I encountered in Ishinomaki has had the experience of “overcoming / trying to overcome” something.
Accepting and embracing a reality beyond one’s control, and then moving forward toward tomorrow again. It becomes lighter when put into words, but I felt a certain “strength” in the gentle faces of the people of Ishinomaki.

Towns like Ogatsu in Ishinomaki City, where aging is progressing and which could be called marginal villages,
will likely increase throughout the country in the future. Ogatsu, which has woven life from limited resources,
is, so to speak, a microcosm of Japan and may be the image of “Japan’s future.”
MORIUMIUS, which embodies the meaning “Forest, Sea, Tomorrow, and Us.”
I look forward to the new “tomorrow” that the children who graduate from here will likely create
when they become adults in 20 or 30 years.

Tomorrow is March 11.
I intend to quietly remember what happened seven years ago.