Hope for Tomorrow
I would like to offer my deepest condolences to those who lost their loved ones in the enormous earthquake and tsunami that devastated the eastern part of Japan on March 11, 2011. My thoughts are also with the survivors and people in the surrounding areas still suffering innumerable troubles including power shortages and the threat of radioactive substances caused by the nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima.
The Queensland Chamber of Commerce and Industry sent me a message with ten words to characterize and show admiration for the behavior of Japanese people in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami, such as "calm," "competent," "gentle," "orderly," "compassionate," "self-sacrificing," and so on. We ourselves were also moved by and sympathized with the victims and the workers helping them in the unforeseen disaster, prompted to rediscover true kindness and strength that we had almost forgotten. We Japanese have a long history of accepting nature and living together. I heard one of the victims say, "Since I have lived with the ocean I cannot hate it even though I lost everything because of the tsunami." Although it has been more than a month since the earthquake devastated Japan, the biggest crisis the nation has faced since the World War II, our country is still unable to envision how it can recover.
It was more than two decades ago that Benesse began to conduct art activities on Naoshima Island. Ever since then, we have strived to develop a modern-day paradise of art unseen in urban areas by taking advantage of the natural setting, culture and history of the islands of Seto Inland Sea that are suffering a decrease in population, and by combining architecture and contemporary art. Last year, the Setouchi International Art Festival 2010 drew more than 930,000 visitors from many countries and was mentioned honorably by a major French art magazine as "the Naoshima method." We are very happy to hear that 90% of the visitors said they would like to come back again. Young Japanese people who grew up during or after the rapid economical growth period may have intuitively felt something of an essential nature through their experience of a place where the virgin landscape of Japan and art are in harmony, and through their communication with simple-hearted and kind islanders.
Many of the people who came to visit the art festival and participate in "Koebitai," a volunteer workers group for the festival, were from currently affected prefectures such as Miyagi and Fukushima, and they helped greatly in leading the event to be such a great success. With heartfelt hopes for a rapid recovery for these regions, Benesse Holdings and Naoshima Fukutake Art Museum Foundation has sent them money and rice harvested in Naoshima through the Naoshima Rice Growing Project. Furthermore, making full use of the "Koebitai" network, the Art Festival Committee will help to provide evacuees with vacant houses in the Setouchi islands and send volunteers to the areas in need.
We will continue to do our best in assisting with relief and aid efforts and communicating "what true wealth is" to the world through our art activities in Naoshima. As we wish for the soonest possible recovery from suffering, we hope that more people come to the islands, where the landscape and the spirit that the world praised remains, and where one can retrieve what tends to get lost amid the modernization and urbanization of our society.
