Earth Day in Kyoto Opening Event

Speakers

• Mai Kobayashi (Assistant Professor, Kyoto University Graduate School of Economics)

  

  After graduating from college in the US, worked on environmental education and agroecology projects in California and Nicaragua. Received her MA (2010) and PhD (2016) from Kyoto University Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies. Mai worked as a project researcher for the Lifeworlds of Sustainable Food Consumption and Production: Agrifood System in Transition (FEAST) Project at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN) before moving to her current post. Her areas of interest include exploring the possibilities of small scale agriculture and agroecological food systems transitions in both Japan and in Bhutan.

• Tami Watanabe (Tsukuda Noen)

  

  Village Trust Tsukuda Farm Corp.
  Born in Kyoto in 1982, Watanabe graduated from Doshisha University in 2009 with a master's degree in policy. In 2006 she moved to Ohara with her husband, and established Tsukuda Farm. From 2009, she was also employed for three years at "Satono-Eki Ohara", where she was primarily in charge of orgaizing agricultural experiences. Tuskuda Farm obtained JAS organic certification in 2009.
  Following the birth of her first child, Watanabe resigned from "Satono-Eki Ohara", and began working exclusively at Tsukuda Farm from 2012. In addition to working in the fields, she also manufactures processed products throughout the year, as well as managing and operating the website. After incorporation in 2017, she has also taken charge of the corporate department. Tsukuda Farm currently has 11 employees, and has so far supported 10 trainees in their efforts to become independent farmers.
  From 2024 Watanabe plans to open a new location in Ohara Koideishi-machi, based out of a renovated old Japanese-style house. The new location will serve as a multi-functional facility which offers shipping operations, processed goods production, a farmers market, and hands-on experiences. In all, Watanabe plans to develop activities through the new location that will contribute to the expansion of organic farming in the future.

• Koichi Yamada (YAMADA FARM)

  

  Established in 1830.
  WIth particular attentioned payed to both the water and earth used, over 60 species of plansts both native to Kyoto are sown on the farm. Such species include Momoyama Daikon, Horikawa Gobo, Kujo Onions, and Kyoto native brewers rice Imai.
  In accordance with requests from Kyoto chefs, over 200 types of vegetables are cultivated year-round.
  Drawing from nature and the culture of the ancient capital, we strive to deliver traditional and safe vegetables.

• Group Capoeira Angola Nzinga Kyoto "Berimbau Orquestra"

  

  Berimbau Orquestra, a Capoeira Angola Group based in Kyoto, will be preforming this year.
  A co-ed group of varying ages based in Kyoto city, they are a Capoeira Angola that primarily come from the Northeastern part of Brazil, Bahia, and who keep Afro Brazilian culture alive.
  On this occassion, they will preform a prayer for our viewing, utilzing a traditional bow and arrow like instrument, the Berimbau, to create a rythym.

Speakers

• Davi Kopenawa (Yanomami Leader & Shaman, President of Hutukara)

  

  Davi Kopenawa (b. ca. 1956, Mõra mahi araopë community, Marakana region) is a shaman and the main spokesperson for the Brazilian Yanomami, advocating for their rights and territory. His mother died from a measles epidemic brought to his community by American New Tribes missionaries, who also gave him his Christian name Davi. Kopenawa (whose chosen Yanomami name derives from the kopena wasp) left the Yanomami territory to work for non-Indigenous people in his youth. At the age of 15, he started to work for the Brazilian National Foundation for the Indian (Funai), a federal agency for Indigenous people, as a guide and translator. In the 1970s, he moved back to his community. Since the 1980s, Kopenawa has been traveling the world to advocate for the legal recognition of his territory and the protection of his people. He is one of the most important Indigenous leaders in Latin America. His words gained a new international audience with the publication of the seminal The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman (co-authored with anthropologist Bruce Albert, Belknap Press, 2013), for which he developed these drawings. His words and quotes from the book appear throughout this exhibition.