Interview with Hiroshi Sakanoue, Representative Director of Takahashi River Basin School
Takahashi River Basin School brings together communities across the Takahashi River Basin and offers activities to learn about the region.
We spoke with Takahashi River Basin School Representative Director Hiroshi Sakanoue about how the school came to be, what makes it distinctive, and his hopes for the future.
The origins: a vision for cooperation across the Takahashi River Basin inspired by the Rhine Basin
What led to the founding of Takahashi River Basin School?
Sakanoue (honorific omitted)
It goes back to 1954.
In 1937, businessman Soichiro Ohara, who would later become chairman of the Ohara Museum of Art and president of Kurashiki Spinning (Kurabo) and Kurashiki Silk Textile (Kurare), went on his honeymoon.
He traveled mainly around Europe, and was reportedly impressed by how the communities along Germany’s Rhine River each maintained their own distinctive character while cooperating with one another around the river.
Inspired by this, Ohara envisioned his hometown’s Takahashi River as the Rhine and advocated for municipalities across the Takahashi River Basin to work together.
This led to the founding of the “Takahashi River Basin Federation” in 1954.
Municipalities in Okayama Prefecture’s Takahashi River Basin joined the organization, which promotes cooperation based on the Takahashi River across municipal boundaries.
The municipalities participating have changed as a result of municipal mergers, but the Takahashi River Basin Federation still exists today.
Image courtesy of the Takahashi River Basin Federation
Are the Takahashi River Basin Federation and Takahashi River Basin School different?
Sakanoue
The Takahashi River Basin Federation and Takahashi River Basin School are separate organizations.
Takahashi River Basin School was founded in 2015.
A few years earlier, Japan’s population had passed its peak, and the national government began considering ways to address the concentration of people in Tokyo and promote decentralization.
In response, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications took the lead in launching the “Core City Area Initiative” in 2015.
The Takahashi River Basin was among the first areas in Japan to be certified under the Core City Area Initiative.
This was because the Takahashi River Basin had already been cooperating since 1954.
As part of the Core City Area Initiative, Takahashi River Basin School was established to bring together private organizations in the basin that were engaged in “community education.”
In fact, cooperation in community education had been underway since 2003.
Takahashi River Basin School grew out of those activities.
Bitchu Province is a rare region where the province’s boundaries almost match the Takahashi River Basin
Rivers of all sizes flow throughout Japan. What factors have helped these kinds of initiatives advance in the Takahashi River Basin in particular?
Sakanoue
It may have something to do with the relationship between Bitchu Province and the Takahashi River.
The boundaries of Bitchu Province and the Takahashi River Basin almost coincide.
Of course, if you look closely, parts of Bitchu Province lie in other river basins, and the Takahashi River Basin extends into Bingo Province.
But I understand that it is very rare in Japan for a province to be formed largely within the basin of a major river.
The lower reaches of the Asahi and Yoshii Rivers are in Bizen Province, while their upper reaches are in Mimasaka Province.
In Bingo Province, the south is in the Ashida River Basin, while the north is in the Gono River Basin.
In the past, rivers also served as transportation routes for waterborne traffic.
In Bitchu, most of the province lay within the basin of the same river, so the Takahashi River’s water transport meant that the entire province formed one cohesive cultural sphere.
On the other hand, during the Edo period, the Takahashi River Basin contained a great many territories, including domains, hatamoto holdings, and shogunal lands.
During the Edo period, communities with different backgrounds were loosely connected across the Takahashi River Basin.
This was different from Bizen Province, which was almost entirely under the rule of the Okayama Domain.
These geographical and historical factors may have made cooperation across the Takahashi River Basin more likely.
Experiential learning about the region using all five senses
What does the learning involve in practice?
Sakanoue
Although it’s called a school, it doesn’t mean sitting at desks and listening to a teacher like you would in elementary, middle, or high school.
We often describe it as “learning with all five senses,” and our learning is centered on hands-on experiences.
Takahashi River Basin School has five learning themes: “Enjoy nature and discover diversity,” “Feel the seasons and savor what’s in season,” “Learn from our predecessors and apprentices from master craftspeople,” “Create work that shapes the future,” and “Learn about the local environment and pass it on to the next generation.”
For example, after learning about the characteristics of a food culture passed down in the region, participants try the food themselves; they interview local people, write articles, and turn them into a book; or they learn about art and design while working together and having fun…
Nature, history, culture, and industry in the basin all serve as materials for “community education.”
That means the subjects and ways of learning are limitless.
Helping people feel they want to return to the Takahashi River Basin, even after moving away
I understand that Representative Director Sakanoue has been involved in running the school since its launch. What does Takahashi River Basin School mean to you?
Sakanoue
I hope that people who live in the Takahashi River Basin will come to love the region through learning.
For people who grew up in families that moved frequently for work, their family home moves whenever their parents are transferred.
So they may not know whether they’ll return to the Takahashi River Basin as adults.
I want people to feel that even if they leave the region after living in the Takahashi River Basin, they would like to return someday.
That’s why I hope people will learn about the region and come to love it through Takahashi River Basin School.
Did you also love your hometown, Director Sakanoue?
Sakanoue
No. I wanted to leave my hometown, and I did live away from it for a while.
But my thinking began to change when I heard about cooperation across the Takahashi River Basin.
If you look at just one municipality, its resources and networks are inevitably limited.
But if you look at the Takahashi River Basin as a whole, geographically it stretches from the Chugoku Mountains to the Seto Inland Sea and the Mizushima Industrial Complex, encompassing forests, rural communities, rivers, the sea, and cities.
Historically, too, it spans from ancient Kibi Province to medieval Niimi-no-sho, early modern Takahashi, and modern and contemporary Kurashiki.
Its industries also span the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors, and I think that creates connections and opens up new possibilities.
I believe it can become a region where people can live comfortably and take on all kinds of challenges, with connections close enough to meet in person and relationships where people know one another.
The area could be Okayama Prefecture, the Chugoku region, or the Seto Inland Sea coast, but the Takahashi River Basin shares a common culture, and the distances are just right—not too far.
One senior colleague describes it as “connections among people who drink the same water.”
I want to help make this a region where, when middle and high school students or university students leave the area for a while, or when people from the Tokyo metropolitan area or elsewhere want to take on a new challenge, they can think, “There are connections through the Takahashi River Basin.”
Eager to meet the fascinating people throughout the Takahashi River Basin
What are your hopes and goals for the future, and what would you like to try?
Sakanoue
I only became Representative Director a few months ago, in June 2020, but the first thing I want to do is share information.
We’ve shared information before, but each effort focused on its own activities.
From now on, I’d like to share information about Takahashi River Basin School as a whole.
I want to put more effort into it, trying different approaches and methods.
First, we need to let more people know that Takahashi River Basin School is doing interesting work.
I also want to meet many people throughout the Takahashi River Basin.
There are still so many people doing fascinating things across the basin.
Since we call it a “basin,” I want to meet as many of them as I can.
And I think it would be good to share and make visible this work in some way.
That said, I am also concerned about COVID-19.
So, going forward, we would like to actively incorporate online exchange and sharing information over the internet.
We want to develop initiatives that make use of both the comfortable distance that allows us to visit in person and the benefits of digital communication.
Third, I hope we can do things that cannot be done through school education and complement it.
For example, schools are basically places where students connect with people their own age, right?
Even when they meet people of different ages, the difference is usually only a few years.
The only adults they meet are usually their teachers.
But as soon as they enter society, they encounter people of all ages and from all kinds of backgrounds.
I think it is difficult to adapt when you are suddenly thrown into an environment so different from your student days.
By contrast, people of many generations and with a range of experiences take part in the Takahashi River Basin School.
So I would like it to be a place where students can gain experience interacting with all kinds of people by taking part in the Takahashi River Basin School while they are still students.
If they have experience interacting with many people and generations from their student days, won't they be able to make a smooth transition into society?
I hope we can complement school education in this way.
From the Writer
It is said that the way local areas function will change in the future, with concepts such as “regional revitalization,” “decentralization,” and “local sovereignty.”
However, perhaps this cannot be achieved unless the people who live in each place feel affection for it.
To that end, it is important to learn about the region where you live.
The Takahashi River Basin was designated as a Regional Core City Area at an early stage.
The Takahashi River Basin School uses the local area's nature and culture as learning materials. Rather than simply studying them, participants learn through hands-on experiences and take part in activities that help them grow fond of the region.
Isn't it a very interesting idea to grow fond of the region while having fun, and to find that you have come to know about it without even realizing it?
Why not learn while having fun and playing, exploring the history and rich culture of the Takahashi River Basin?
Takahashi River Basin School General Incorporated Association: Information
| Organization Name | Takahashi River Basin School General Incorporated Association |
|---|---|
| Industry | Nonprofit organization |
| Representative | Hiroshi Sakanoue (Representative Director) |
| Year Established | 2015 (Heisei 27) |
| Address | Office: 2-13-3 Chuo, Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture (inside Sumiyoshicho no Ie Bunbuku) |
| Contact | 086-527-6248 |
| Website | Takahashi River Basin School |
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