DIY SPIRIT
Japanese charcoal artist and organic farmer leads a fulfilling country life.
In a mountainous farming village near Oze National Park, a popular marshland frequented by hikers in eastern Japan, an artist who crafts accessories and ornaments out of charcoal is using the spirit of DIY to lead a full country life. Michiko Setoyama, 39, a former accessory store manager in Tokyo’s busy Shibuya shopping district, gave up her stressful city life 15 years ago to pursue farming, charcoal burning and artisanal accessory crafting in the village of Katashina in Gunma Prefecture, a three-hour drive north of the capital. Overcoming difficulties such as living in a house without running water, or parenting without relatives’ support in a village with an ageing population of 4,500, her motto is to “create whatever is necessary” and “forge a path while keeping an easygoing outlook”. “I came up with the idea to make charcoal accessories after seeing a man who put a piece of charcoal in his pocket as a charm,” recalled Setoyama, who took up her craft a decade ago after looking for something to do in winter, the traditional downtime for agriculture. She also runs a ski equipment rental business in the cold months. Charcoal has various properties such as water purification and odour elimination in addition to its traditional use as fuel for heating and cooking. Setoyama cultivates about 40 chemical-free crops of various types — including beans, leafy vegetables, tomatoes and rice — with her husband Hiromitsu, 51, on rented fields covering 7,500 square metres. When she has some free time, she helps Kenichi Sudo, 60, her “master” and a second-generation charcoal burner in the village. Sudo cuts logs of oak, cedar and other woods with a chainsaw, putting the pieces in a charcoal-burning hut and letting the process play out over 10 days before cutting the product into charcoal briquettes ready for shipping. “I was interested in using the small charcoal pieces left over from the production process and found that after they are soaked in ‘wood vinegar’, charcoal dust doesn’t stick to the fingers” — a necessity if the charcoal is to be used to make accessories, Setoyama said. Wood vinegar, or pyroligneous acid, is a dark liquid produced by the destructive distillation of wood. She occasionally holds charcoal accessory workshops at her home, originally a cattle barn renovated by the couple, and during events in the village, Tokyo and elsewhere. In Tokyo, Setoyama demonstrated how to make charcoal accessories and ornaments at two events late last year. As part of the preparations, she had gathered pinecones, twigs and grasses in the forests near her home to be used in crafts. Participants crafted their own items using charcoal pieces, beading and natural materials. For ornaments, they hot-glued decorative pieces to the top of charcoal stubs. “It was easy and [the ornament] looks lovely. I will use it at home to replace a plant that has recently withered,” said Minae Tsukui, a 22-year-old Gunma native who joined a workshop in Tokyo. For Setoyama, promoting the craft is a part of her effort to sustain the charcoal business, which has been declining as its use for winter heating is no longer widespread. Sudo’s main customers are restaurants using charcoal grills. Setoyama says her ultimate goal is to work in the forestry industry “to take care of increasingly untended mountains and promote the creation of a sustainable farming community”. Hiromitsu, a Tokyo native, notes that monkeys, boars and other mountain-dwelling animals often eat crops in the fields because their staples such as nuts have been becoming scarcer due to weather shifts possibly linked to climate change. There is also a shortage of hunters, he said. “Such a problem boils down to the lost tradition of people taking care of the mountains. In the past, they thinned forests and burned firewood or charcoal produced as a result, making the mountainous environment sustainable,” Setoyama said. The native of Yokohama ventured into rural life when she was 24 after she felt pressure to achieve sales targets as an accessory shop manager and became uncomfortable with the cycle of “mass production and consumption” in the business. “At that time, I didn’t pay much attention to what I ate and my eczema symptoms got worse. When I looked in the mirror, I didn’t look good and I thought I wouldn’t make a good mother if I have a child in the future,” said Setoyama, who now has a 5-yearold daughter. Through an online search, she landed a part-time job at a resort inn in Katashina and worked there for three months during which her skin condition cleared up. She then worked for a tofu shop as she was alarmed by Japan’s heavy reliance on soybean imports. In the village, she cultivated beans with elderly local farmers and was gradually drawn into their lifestyle. “They invited me to their houses every day and I came to appreciate their simple style of living,” she said. The Setoyamas now grow soybeans themselves, making miso paste which they sell directly to clients and also at events. The farmer blogs about her life in the countryside and writes columns in a magazine on the wisdom of Kaoru Sudo, 92, the mother of the charcoal burner Kenichi and Setoyama’s “miso-making master”. “I’d like to erase the negative image of farm life so that people, especially children, can become familiar with traditional country living,” Setoyama said. “On weekends, villagers here drive to a major shopping centre in the prefecture, but I’d like to convince them that mass consumption isn’t the way to go. Our community has everything.”
“I’d like to erase the negative image of farm life so that people, especially children, can become familiar with traditional country living” MICHIKO SETOYAMA