Our Planet

Text：Aya Endo

If I were to compare our work to mount climbing, the three months after the new year were just like gradually climbing towards the peak, or our first ever graduation ceremony. While we go up the steep steep hill, running out of our breath, we smile sweetly to see the beautiful wildflowers on our way. The three months after the new year were filled with such special moments at Yamanoko -and I am sure it is the same for many other nurseries, too. 

Meanwhile, the impact of COVID-19 were growing fast from mid February, and even though things were not looking good, we nevertheless kept climbing up. In the late March, we hardly heard their footsteps coming closer when a fast stream had swallowed us up all at once -that is how it felt like during then. We pigeonholed all of what we had continued to do in the last two and a half years ever since we opened, tried in vain to see everything through the lenses of COVID-19 to sort what we can and cannot do. As much as I was desperate back then, my strong desire to protect every life that belongs here at Yamanoko was welling inside of me.

However -I am not yet able to see in a bird’s-eye view and express well in words about the days from March to June. Yes I have been thinking about many many things, I feel as if important matters are fermenting little by little as a result, and still I am not able to scoop them up and express in words. 

Instead, please let me introduce a picture book.
Asa ni nattanode mado wo akemasuyo(The Morning Has Come, Open The Window)” by Ryoji Arai.
In the book, the morning comes in the mountains, by the ocean, in the cities, and in each scene, there is a beautiful daily morning landscape out there as the bedroom window is opened. A book filled with simplicity and power.
Along with such landscapes, lines as below are repeatedly written.

“The morning has come, open the window”
“The mountains are there, the trees are here. That is why I like it here.”

This picture book was made right after Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, inspired from a photograph from a window of the bullet train, taken when the author was on his way to make a visit to the affected areas. Back when I worked as an editor, I was blessed with an opportunity to interview him for a magazine MOE, published in March 2012.

In the interview, Mr. Arai explained as follows;
“Once I arrived at the affected area, I could not speak a word. To lose peace in daily life means to lose words. I was stunned by this state of reality, and was depressed for a while. I really can’t do lots -but I guess waking up in the morning and opening the window would be simple enough that even I can do. So I made this book, to acknowledge the importance of having peace in our daily life once again.”

And I, in 2012, conclude this interview article with Mr. Arai as follows;
“And so the picture book was born -the story is not a sort with a twist however, what a beautiful book it turned out as, depicting beautiful moments of the morning in every way filled with rainbow lights. Landscapes with divine morning light, and a profile staring into it. What Arai san intended to depict was inner hope that springs in a person, joy of life, and power to open up the future. Through his windows called picture books, he shows us something most precious for us humans 100 years ago, and 100 years ahead. ”

If I, in 2020, were ever to make an amendment to the above, below is what I would say;
“Through his windows called picture books, he shows us something most precious for us who live in the present, on the earth, 100 years ago, and 100 years ahead. ”

After the past three months, the sensitivity that we all live on the earth while we coexist with other living things have resurfaced inside of me more. 

–

1st of June -I will never be able to forget the scenes of the morning. Children and parents we could not see for months due to self restraint came to the center one after another. I was rejoiced to be able to have all of them back again.I will continue to strive to create such beautiful landscape at Yamanoko -a landscape that lets all children and parents feel with certainty,
“That is why I like it here”.

The Morning Has Come, Open The Window(Asaninattanode Mado Wo Akemasuyo)”
Ryoji Arai
Published by Kaiseisha