会社案内
Kasahara Village.
The Satoyama village that stretches along the Kasahara River and its scenic V-shaped valley is the birthplace of the famous Yame tea.
The tea house, which is located uphill from Reigenji Temple (the birthplace of Yamecha tea), was on the verge of demolition prior to its rescuse by Jiro.
Over the years since he acquired the property, he has transformed it into vibrant community based project.
I was originally born and raised in another rural area called Tachiarai town in the same Fukuoka Prefecture, and moved around Japan and all over the world until I finally settled here in Yame City.
After graduating from high school, I did not want to burden my parents with the financial cost of providing me with a university education. Furthermore, I did not have the grades to go to public university. Since I was physically strong, I decided the best course of action was to join the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) where I served for 6 years all over Japan. In those days, the Self-Defense Forces was considered to be a remedial job for people matching my profile.
(The below photo taken when I was in a place called “Sergeant Education Corps” in Sasebo, upper left is me as a young man.)
I had originally intended to work at this job for a lifetime (as is common in Japan), however midway through my career I decided I wanted to pursue something different, so I resigned of my own accord.
After that, I did what I had always dreamed of doing: I set out on a wandering life overseas.
For five long years, I wandered around the world, meeting many people, experiencing culture shock and learning new customs and values.
During that period I spent time backpacking, crossed continents as a hitchhiker, rode a bicycle around Europe, worked on a farm as a volunteer, taught Japanese, lived in a slum, went sightseeing to the Northern Lights, worked for a dog sled company and spent 12 days in a temple in northern India.
My curiosity was endless and although I found myself in sticky situations at times, I managed to realise many of my dreams and longings.
Thanks to these experiences, I made many connections around the world and throughout Japan, and I had the opportunity to experience many different cultures, ways of thinking and values.
Now, unlike in the past, I have more confidence in myself and I am filled with a tremendous sense of fulfillment in my life.
After spending a lot of time thinking about my life and happiness, I have decided to live a simpler existence.
I have come to realize that I do not need a lot of material possessions to live a happy and joyful life!
I want to live like a human being in the true sense of the word!
I want to live a healthy life, enjoying connecting with others, appreciating the sun, being kind to the environment, being kind to myself, and having as much freedom as possible, independent of labor and money.
I concluded that a life in the Japanese countryside offered the best chance of achieving this lifestyle.
Nowadays, this way of thinking is called minimalism, a concept which is steadily on the increase.
I have always had a strong yearning to go abroad, and for a while I was working toward emigrating overseas,
However, after I got to know the outside world, I was reminded of how wonderful Japan is, and since then I have wanted to live in the Japanese countryside to lead a healthy life both physically and mentally.
A place where beautiful Japanese landscapes and culture remain, a place close to nature, and a place where people can feel connected to each other.
I wanted to live in such a place and appreciate what is there.
In most cases, after deciding to move to the countryside, the next step is to begin researching different locations, and start looking for a house. In my case however, there was no need to do that, thankfully.
I was able to find a place to live easily because my grandparents' Sakamoto residence in Kurogi town, Yame City, which I had been familiar with since childhood, had been vacant for a long time.
When I returned to Japan and visited that town for the first time in a many years, I fell in love with its beauty and decided to start living in my grandparents` former home in the spring of 2015 when I was 29 years old.
I am forever grateful to my grandparents for giving me such a wonderful opportunity.
Yame City, located in the southern part of Fukuoka Prefecture, is a very attractive place famous for its traditional crafts, white walled townscape, and Yame tea.
Kuroki Town is a beautiful small town surrounded by mountains with a rural landscape that seems to fit the famous folk song “Furusato” (hometown).
However, one big challenge I faced was that I didn't know anyone in the area, except for a far distant relative.
There was also the challenge of quitting a long journey, the challenge of reverse culture shock upon returning to Japan, and the challenge of exploring a new area.
But I knew from my past experiences that taking on challenges has irreplaceable value, and I was not anxious about making this decision.
Regardless of the outcome, the value and excitement of gaining a new experience was worth it for me.
To tell the truth, however, my family was opposed to the idea and even ridiculed me at first (this often happens and is typical for Japanese families).
Following various family dramas, I left my grandparents` former home and relocated to my current home.
Initially, the house was not in very good condition, however I learned from my wanderings that simply having a roof over your head to shelter you from the wind and rain, and having enough to eat are the only ingredients needed to live a happy life.
After moving to the area, I set about cleaning the Sakamoto residence for a while and just kept on cleaning!
I had no experience of living in Japan apart from my time with the Self-Defense Forces, and I had never worked for a Japanese company before either. Nonetheless, I was excited about the challenge and I was confident that I would be able to live happily here at least.
At first, rather than looking for a job, I actively participated in local volunteer activities. In this way, I gradually made connections with more and more people, and I was often called upon when people needed help. This ensured I was able to survive for at least a while.
I was in my twenties at the time, and at a time when few people were talking about minimalist lifestyles and rural migration, I found I was hardly understood.
After some time, I began inviting travelers I came into contact with on social media to Yame and letting them stay with me.
In addition to that, many friends I had met during my travels around Japan and other parts of the world naturally came to visit me. Whenever Japanese friends come to Kyushu, they usually come to my place, and when foreign acquaintances come to Japan, they usually stay with me also.
Then, they introduce their friends to me and bring them to me in the same way, and so on,
It definitely became a bizarre space for the locals of the area!
Life here at the tea farm might seem very simple to the average person, but for me, it is immensely enjoyable, full of smiles and wonderful encounters with the people I meet every day.
The house, which was rundown and abandoned, has been revitalized in no time at all.
In August 2016 alone, I think maybe 100 people came to the house!
I wonder, would our ancestors be pleased?
(Sometimes when all the cycling travelers get together, it's a mess like in the below photo.)
For some reason, I have naturally made more and more quirky friends among Yame too.
More than anything, meeting different people and showing them around Yame is what I enjoy most.
Thanks to all the help the visitors gave me, the area around my house has been cleaned up considerably over the years.
So, I was finally living a peaceful life. However, that peaceful life didn't last long as I slowly became more and more involved with the local community.
Kuroki Town is a beautiful town surrounded by mountains. That being said, there are serious problems in the mountainous areas such as population loss and farmers who have no heirs. I learned about these realities as well.
What I realized that I could do to help people was to increase the number of visitors and let them know how wonderful Yame City is.
The year after I moved to Yame, I took on the challenge of planning and guiding a Yame tea tour in the Kasahara area, the birthplace of Yame tea.
It was an unprecedented event to have about 40 people come to Kasahara at one time, but thanks to the support of so many people, it was a great success.
The farmers were pleased, the local people were pleased, the guests were pleased, and most of all, I was pleased! I fell in love with this town even more.
I also connected with the green tea cooperative by chance. My involvement there allowed me to bring young, free-spirited people from outside, who were happy and willing to help local farmers who were short-staffed.
The volunteers are provided with short-term work and can simultaneously enjoy the Satoyama lifestyle. For the farmers, it was a great help to have these helpers come during busy times of the year.
I was told that this was the first time they had taken on outsiders from some unknown place as laborers, but it was a great success.
it was because of this connection with the local community that one day I learned of the existence of a magnificent vacant house deep in the mountains.
It was the largest house at the top of the village, about 500 meters above sea level, in a community called Yashiki, which is quite high up in the Kasahara area.
It is surrounded by tea fields in all directions, with magnificent terraced rice fields in the background, so magnificent that it could have been selected as one of the 100 best terraced rice fields, with spring water flowing from everywhere and a waterfall with natural water nearby, it is truly a paradise, a dreamlike house.
The house had been vacant for about 10 years, and all the daughters who were born and raised there had married into different families, and their children and grandchildren had gone away and did not plan to come back. The owners of the house were planning to demolish it so as not to cause trouble for the generations to come.
Mr. Ohashi, a heavyweight in the community, wanted to do something about this.
It would be a waste to destroy such a magnificent house. Can't we put it to use in some way?
He had been looking for the next generation of young people to make use of this house for a long time, but it was so far away from modern comfortable civilization, deep in the mountains, that he could not find anyone who would live there and make use of it. That is why he approached me.
“All right, you're good! You can take the house!", he told me.
If I refused his offer, the beautiful house would be torn down by the end of 2016 ...
Such a beautiful house to be torn down ...
It would be a waste ... 'But I already have a house that I inherited from my grandmother ...`
Besides, how can I live in a place so far away from the comforts of modern civilization, and what could I do to make a decent living?
It was a very kind offer, but I couldn't give an immediate answer. I spent three days weighing up my options.
It was a huge consideration.
Having seen so many poor and homeless people in many countries throughout the world, and knowing that there are so many empty houses in Japan, the idea that the house would be demolished was shocking to me.
Looking back, I was very torn about what to do, but ultimately I found the courage to make a decision ...
I will take this house!
I had the idea and together with the cooperation of the Community Development Cooperation Volunteers, the community project took root. The vacant house renovation project was started!
In short, my idea was to attract people to Kasahara.
I have visited 65 countries and many places in Japan, however Kasahara is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places I have been. The location of the house itself is second to none.
What I like about Kasahara is not only its scenery and natural environment, but also its local character. Severe flooding five years ago caused significant damage in the area however the community came together and overcame these challenges.
In addition, organisations such as Shikinasaikan and Sanson Juku have a long track record of attracting people from outside the community, which has also helped bring locals into contact with outsiders.
Since moving to Yame things have gone in a direction that I could never have imagined.
During my wandering days, I used to dream, as travelers often do, that one day, when I finished my adventure, I would like to find a place I liked where I could build a guesthouse or space where people could gather."
Looking back now, I realise that all my experiences travelling the world were connected to my coming here.
The first month-long renovation project began with local carpenters at the helm.
Thanks to the huge efforts of the local development cooperative at the time, we received a subsidy from the city to renovate the vacant house, and after that, we started to publicize the project on social networking sites,
Many people, both locals and those who came from outside, cooperated with each other in the renovation work.
What really impressed me here was that I myself am not a DIYer, I can hardly use machines, and I have no sense of design.
However, thanks to the wisdom and cooperation of the people who came together with their different connections and special skills, a far more wonderful place was created than I had initially imagined.
For the first time, I was able to witness the greatness of the power that can be created by people connecting with each other.
The previous owner entrusted this house to us saying 'for the young ones to come'.
We also received support from many people who gave us unwanted furniture, bedding, appliances, and decorations, saying, “Use it"!
This is one artwork that was completed with the thoughts and support of many people.
(After the completion of the project, we greeted the local people and exchanged cups saying that we will move here.)
We would like to thank those who have supported us, and above all, we would like to remember those who lived in Kasahara for many years, and who have left this place to us.
I will try my best to protect and grow this place "Sky Tea House（天空の茶屋敷）" from now on. Thank you very much for your cooperation.
This is a villa and playground on the mountain for everyone who comes here.
The original Japanese landscape in the wilderness, and the wonderful people who live there.”
Other than that, there is nothing special about this place.
Please come and visit us, and enjoy the luxury of doing nothing in a place where there is nothing to do!
Let's have a cup of tea together (including the old man and the old woman next door)!
Jiro Sakamoto, 2017 March
*Update
Sky Tea House originally started as a community-building traveler's inn and has now transitioned to a family-run homestay-style inn.
And Since the opening of Sky Tea House, it has been covered by numerous media outlets, and in January 2022
Jiro Sakamoto's story was published by a local publisher.
『2000日の海外放浪の果てに辿り着いたのは山奥の集落の一番上だった』
（'After 2,000 days of wandering abroad, he arrived at the top of a village deep in the mountains.）
If you are interested in the rest of this story and the details of his wandering journey overseas, please read the book.
Amazon, Rakuten, and e-books are also available. It is also available at Sky Tea House.
(currently only Japanese version, English version is under preparation )
