Our Planet

Text : Chihiro Taniguchi

It was 31st March, one year and five months since the date we opened Yamanoko Childcare Center -we had our first ever graduation ceremony.
Our graduation ceremony project began back in december, three months before. What is graduation ceremony exactly? What is the purpose? What message do we all want to convey? These were some of our many discussion topics.

So what is a graduation ceremony? It can have many meanings, but it sure must be one and only day in life for graduates, their family and all the other children to commemorate and celebrate. What kind of day would be suitable? We started off with looking up the examples and cases in other childcare centers that have special characteristics, and discovered how they all share something similar; they all somehow seem to be a compilation of important elements each center cherishes and nurtures in their daily scenes of childcare, such as exploring the mountains, singing and gymnastics. Based on such findings, we started to think; what could be the Yamanoko-like graduation ceremony? What have we nurtured together with children in the past one and five months? After a series of discussions, we came to our conclusion: food.

As Akebi, we have been growing and harvesting the vegetables, processing, and cooking as major part of daily activities. The team reached a mutual acknowledgement that it is “food” that we have always had strong connection with, and so we decided that the graduation theme of this year to be “food”. We then thought about how we can collaborate food with celebration, and came up with the idea of having celebratory meal with class. How wonderfully festive and original it would be, we thought,  if we all get together and prepare our own dinner to celebrate graduation of the two! The project proceeded.

We decided that we will have chirashi sushi (a traditional Japanese celebratory meal literally meaning “scattered” sushi) and miso soup on the day, and we will prepare and cook little by little every day. The day before the graduation day, we invited the local certified professional in Shonai who passes on about local fish and food culture to cut up the whole masu salmon in front of class, and then we cooked the cut up pieces and decorated them onto the sushi. As the preparation proceeded, it seemed as though both the graduates-to-be and other children were gradually taking in the fact that it is going to be a farewell soon. We also made miso soup just like how we always do as daily class activities -but using the special broth this time; we used all the bones of masu salmon.

Decoration was also DIY style.  Warabi drew/painted pictures for the album, and children from Kogomi prepared a special tablecloth for celebration dinner, dyed with onion skin. Akebi prepared a special curtain and garland dyed with madder root and washi (traditional Japanese paper), and decorated the dinner with wildflower and herbs.
Handing graduation certificate wasn’t our idea this year; instead, we created a handmade graduation gift. We made a crown with kudzu vine brought back from one of the outdoor activity days (Day-At-The-Forest), decorated it with wild leaves and flowers, and handed to the graduates on the day.

So the first ever graduation ceremony at Yamanoko Childcare Center ended up as a compilation of our accomplishments during this one year and five months -but there are no plans yet for this year. We believe that the style of celebration we will like to have will all depend on the stories to be woven throughout this year by the next graduates to be. That, we say it is the style of exploration method in our childcare, eventually leading to nurturing “a person that lives in the present”. The stories of the new pre-graduates have only just begun -how will they live each day, what stories will they weave, and what kind of graduation ceremony will it be? We are yet to find out.