Peace and Permaculture Dojo update part 3: Earthen Wall workshop

Update on the Peace and Permaculture Dojo project Part 3

日本語は【TUP道場】土壁塗りワークショップのレポート（写真と動画）


This is the third piece on the Dojo project (see below for context and previous articles)

Peace and Permaculture Dojo in Japan part 1

Peace and Permaculture Dojo Tour and Culture (April 2017)

We’ve been working on designing and redesigning (its always dynamic) the human ecology of the Dojo project and Tokyo Urban Permaculture, so the physical progress has been limited as planned. The social permaculture aspect of this project is really quite fascinating, and that is my particular interest, but I won’t get into that right now.

We are now working on the earthen walls tsuchikabe. We’re also trying to figure out where to put showers and the grey water system, and I’m super slowly working on another compost toilet.

Below is a bilingual video of our first tsuchikabe workshop facilitated by Kyle who is super awesome and thorough. My explanation on the other hand is not perfect/accurate, but I think you’ll get the gist of it. My aim is to get 60% of what I say right!


For more pictures of the workshop and process see Tokyo Urban Permaculture



Also, below that is a wonderful write up by one of the participants Max Durayappah-Harrison, who is a PhD student in anthropology studying about Japanese agriculture. Copied from Isumi Life Style Laboratory

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Since late last year there has been much activity taking place in one particular corner of Chōjamachi, Isumi.

Renovations were begun on a kominka (a traditional-style, wooden-built Japanese home), with the plan to eventually make it the center of a retreat at which peace activists can explore permaculture and other practices aimed at achieving positive change in the world.
One of the core objectives of the project is the building of community through working with and for the benefit of others.

The process of repairing and reconstructing the Permaculture and Peace Dōjo (as the kominka is known) therefore incorporates events at which members of the general public are able to participate in the renovation, learn about the project and meet others.

In early May, I was lucky enough to be a part of the earthen plaster workshop held at the Dōjo. In this post, I’d like to explain just a little about what we got up to.

The day began at 10am under brilliant sunshine with participants making their way down the tree-lined path that leads to the secluded Dōjo, entering the building and seating themselves on the newly-laid wooden floor that provides an inviting meeting and greeting place.

The coordinators of the Permaculture and Peace Dōjo project, Kai and Nao, had invited Kyle Holzhueter, a ‘straw bale builder’ and earthen plasterer, to lead the day’s activities.

Kyle began things with a short lecture on the history and intricacies of plastering in Japan. This included an account of how many of the motivations for particular design choices in Japanese building are founded in the nation’s geology (the prevalence of earthquakes necessitating ease of repair, for example) and culture.

He also introduced us to some of the properties of the material that make it practical and efficient as a resource in construction. This was brought home to me particularly clearly when he revealed that the plaster we would be using had as a primary constituent the decades-old plaster that had been stripped from the very walls that surrounded us.


Kyle, delivering his lecture

Once the mini-lecture was concluded we then set to work on the various tasks necessary to prepare for the application of earthenware plaster. These included:

•Removing loose and damaged plaster from the walls. Dusty work!
•Breaking down the old plaster and mixing it with fresh soil sourced from nearby.
•Adding water and straw to the mixture in order to bring it to the correct consistency that would allow it to bind when applied to the wall.

While all of these tasks were in themselves interesting, perhaps the most fun was had in mixing together the various ingredients of the plaster.

In order to do this on a large scale, a tarp was laid out and four walls created so that we could step inside and stamp, walk and dance it smooth.

And it is no exaggeration to say that the plaster was danced smooth, as there was an impromptu Bon Odori performance that took place, complete with music!

Breaking down soil and recycled plaster for the mix

 

The mixing station/stage (sans dancers)

It was around midday when we all broke for lunch. As is normally the case at events held at the dōjo, in order to encourage sharing and foster a sense of comradery everyone brought with them one item of food to distribute amongst the whole group – potluck style.

This resulted in a great array of foodstuffs, many of which were handmade by those that brought them. From organic onigiri to homemade bread, and pickled vegetables to fruit salad, it was a veritable feast!

Lunch also gave everyone the opportunity to chat and get to know each other a little better, as well as grill Kyle further on the art of earthen plastering. I wouldn’t say I was uneager to get back to work but it was certainly difficult to pull myself up and away from the delicious food and banter.


Healthy food and hungry workers

Once the afternoon arrived, it was time to start applying the first base-coat of plaster to the walls. Carried out either by hand or with the aid of a trowel, Kyle showed us how to work the dark, coarse, muddy mixture against the bamboo slats that lend the walls structure.

This was perhaps the most satisfying and yet difficult part of the job, as for every handful of plaster I managed to attach to the wall, another handful seemed to fall to the floor.

It appears to me at least, that it is one of those tasks that can look incredibly easy but in fact requires hours of practice in order to get the angle of your hand or the trowel just right and the pressure against the slats correct.

Nevertheless, with a little instruction we managed to complete an amount we could all be proud of.

Kyle applying the plaster to the bamboo slats of the wall

So, with mucky hands and some tired muscles, I left the Permaculture and Peace Dōjo with a greater understanding of a little of the work that goes into renovating a kominka and the satisfaction that can be had in working with others outdoors.

I’m happy that living in Isumi will give me a chance to hopefully meet many of the friends I made that day again, while also seeing the dōjo project develop and grow over the coming months.
It’s incredible learning of the resources that surround us, and how sharing time and knowledge can build something amazing.

From this… …to this!

(Max)

Original article at Isumi Life Style Laboratory

Peace and Permaculture Dojo Tour and Culture (April 2017)

Come join me on a tour of the sprouting Peace and Permaculture Dojo!

This is where we are at six months into the project (here is the first English article about the Dojo). I just got back from a three month Asia and Australia tour so my friends have been moving things along. We have had an amazing daiku (carpenter) who has been intensely building a relationship with the kominka (old Japanese house). The 100 year-old wooden house is tilted, so everything that he fixed is fixed to the angle of the tilt. WOW! The building rests on stones as a foundation, and after so many years, some of the stones have sank, and the wooden building has tilted.


What we are growing here is peace culture. Japan is rapidly shifting from a pacifist country toward a more robust aggressive military power. US pressure on Japan to increase military capacity has been increasing and the Japanese military industries have probably been lobbying pretty hard for revamping their industry. This is a historic shift since the Japanese Military Empire was A-bombed by the US Military Empire. Our hope is that, like Gandhi's ashrams, the Possibility Alliance in Missouri, Casa De Paz in California, Plum Village, and many other places to practice peace, this can be part of the global peace infrastructure during the Great Turning.

Even without that, we are facing consistent high rates of suicide, school/business bullying, sexual harassment, depression, apathy, depopulation of rural areas (ghost-towning of Japanese villages), exponential growth of national debt, an unprecedented nuclear meltdown and growing hibakusha population, super-aging society, and loss of traditional skills and wisdom to name some of the big ones. Not a very hopeful time to be born in Japan....or the world. So, we're here to change that. I mean come on, is this the best we can do after thousands of years of human evolution?!!

It's also important for us to remember and renew interest in Japanese wisdom and design. There is something quite strange about spreading permaculture in a country that has had thousands of years of practicing it. At the same time, I can get more young people excited about self-sufficient (village
-scale) ecological living if I call it permaculture than if I call it "traditional Japanese living." There are lots of other reasons for calling what we do permaculture, but I won't go into that for now. What I will say is that, we are developing a culture that is strongly influenced by the values and worldviews of the liberal West Coast (USA), and the beautiful relationship-based culture of rural Japan.

Below is a video of the traditional community dance ritual called bon odori practice session we did at the Dojo. A group from the "Bay Area of Japan" (shonan, Kanagawa prefecture) reclaimed this tradition, made original music and movements based on peace and ecology, and have been spreading it throughout Japan. The group is called imajin bonbu (Imagine Dance Group ← Imagine is from John Lennon). We just finished the floors of the Dojo, so as a celebration event, we had a bon odori practice session and the founding of a local bon odori dance group.

*the video is in Japanese but toward the middle you can watch people practice/dance. The dance is not a performance dance, so practicing and dancing is pretty much the same. Anyone can join and leave at any time, and some communities will continue dancing for days. I heard that people go into a trance.



Here are some pictures from the DOJO

 

bon odori 

 

potlucking

 

the sign was made by two girls and it says 平和 (peace)

 

 what era is this?!!

(the typhoon felled the Sugi tree)

 

the TUP cameragirls Jun Jun and Nana

Browns Field macrobiotic living center staff are in the back

We have an amazing crew of people renewing Japanese culture

VISITING / HELPING
We're still no ready to officially receive guests, but if you have time and skills that we need, and we happen to be able to respond to your email/message, then something could happen. All we have right now is a roof and floor, compost toilet is almost done, and a rocket stove. Unfortunately, we don't have enough committed people on the ground to receive guests at the moment, and nobody lives at the Dojo yet. I want to say YES to everyone but we don't have the capacity to comfortably host yet....and every once in a while things work out so its not a definite NO either. I guess its always a MAYBE.


The IDEAL characteristics of a volunteer at the moment are

• can speak basic Japanese: most of my team and the locals can only speak Japanese
• patient: our response time is slow, and we aren't always able to respond (feel free to remind us)
• self-sufficient: can take initiative and do a project, we also can't feed people yet like a WWOOF host, and it's basically like camping.
• friendly: as in likes people, because we have lots of people coming through!
• low or no expectations: the key to happiness
• can stay about a week: it takes energy and time to orient people so realistically, a week is about how much time it takes for someone to "help" us. If you can commit for months that would be amazing, and if you can commit for life.....now we're talking!

Next year (2018), we will hopefully have more structure (social and physical), and be able to host people! 

Love you all, may we all embody peace in every aspect of our lives

For most recent events and picture check out the Dojo FB page

【ARTICLE】The City Repair Project and the Village Building Convergence

This is an article I wrote with my friend Adelaide on my favorite urban permaculture/social change movement, City Repair. The article was for a crowdsourced book called Sustainable (R)evolution (click to check out this amazing project!). I also wrote articles on the Bullocks Permaculture Homestead, the ecofarm movement in Thailand, a brief overview of the natural farming movement in Japan, and on chinampas.

 

Mark Lakeman and the community of City Repair 

Ariel view of one of the Intersection Repairs

Intersection Repair during the Village Building Convergence (a must experience!)

 

Urban retrofitting during the Village Building Convergence 

Young volunteers learn from seasoned green builders to install light-straw clay insulation for an old home (aka The Planet Repair Institute)

The Planet Repair Institute from the street

The pointy tower is the Cat Palace

The iconic Mermaid Bench

This is one of the many cob benches made on private property for the public (faces the street not the house)

＊This is the closest to our final draft, and the pictures are different from the book

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The City Repair Project and the Village Building Convergence

By Kai Sawyer

Established: 1996

Land (Location/Site Details/Facilities): Various intersections, residential and commercial sites, and open spaces throughout Portland, Oregon. 

People (Residents/Participants): City Repair projects are accomplished by a mostly volunteer staff and thousands of volunteer citizen activists.

Water (Source, Systems)

Shelter (Housing Model, Building Techniques): City Repair emphasizes low-cost, low-tech and ecologically sustainable building techniques such as: cob, straw-bale, light straw clay, and timber-frame. Several living roofs have been installed.  Whimsical and artistic structures are also encouraged such as a mermaid cob bench, the chicken and cat palace, and a beehive shaped newspaper dispenser. Building structures is an important opportunity for skill-building, and volunteers help build as they learn green building techniques.

Objective (Aim/Focus/Purpose): “City Repair is an organized group action that educates and inspires communities and individuals to creatively transform the places where they live. City Repair facilitates artistic and ecologically-oriented placemaking through projects that honor the interconnection of human communities and the natural world.” From the City Repair website.

Food (Sources, Systems): City Repair initiatives have reclaimed paved spaces for gardens (“Depave”) and installed urban food forests. They have sprouted gardens and food forests throughout Portland, from sidewalks to schools. Some residents have aquaculture systems and are raising bees, chickens, and rabbits in their backyards.

Energy (Sources, Systems)

Education (Programs Offered, Systems ): City Repair hosts various community workshops throughout the year. Once a year, they organise the Village Buildling Convergence (VBC) where free workshops are held in conjuction with neighborhood improvement projects throughout Portland for 10 days. Concurrently with the VBC, the Village Building Design Course is offered which explores placemaking indepth and trains future placemakers.

 

Governance (Decision Making): Creative community-centered consensus often involving residents around specific intersections.  Most projects are decentralized and organized by site-based groups of people. The Board of Directors, composed of committed CR volunteers meet regularly run the City Repair non-profit. Projects such as Shift to Bike, Depave, and the Village Building Convergence are supported by CR until they become autonomous organizations.

City Repair

City Repair (CR) is a community-led urban regeneration movement rooted in “placemaking” that first spread throughout neighborhoods of Portland, Oregon, and is now moving beyond. From transforming street intersections into public gathering places to planting urban food forests for public grazing, the diversity and scope of the CR movement is extraordinary. Through a collaborative mix of permaculture, green building, art, and celebration, a growing number of empowered citizens are reclaiming urban space to create public place. CR defines placemaking as “a multi-layered process within which citizens foster active, engaged relationships to the spaces which they inhabit, the landscapes of their lives, and shape those spaces in a way which creates a sense of communal stewardship and lived connection.”

To contextualize the need to “repair” American cities, CR co-founder Mark Lakeman explains that while most European and Latin American cities are built around plazas, and small villages around central squares, the US was constructed following the Roman grid and thus few towns and cities in the US have central meeting places.  A practical advantage inherent in the Roman grid, the design imposed on places conquered by colonial powers starting with the Romans, is that people can be more easily externally controlled because there is no place for them to come together and create the power of community.

CR emerged from the idea that “localization - of culture, of economy, of decision-making - is a necessary foundation of sustainability. By reclaiming urban spaces to create community-oriented places, community members plant the seeds for greater neighborhood communication, empowering our communities and nurture our local culture.” (City Repair[MS1] ). The movement sprouted in a backyard tea house made from recycled material and piled with cushions that hosted weekly potlucks and festivities. Mark recalls, “it was just a place for neighbors to sit down and say hello and interact.” The gatherings grew to several hundred people before the city condemned the illegal structure. This government intervention helped catalyze the first CR action known as “Intersection Repair,” where a community transforms an urban street intersection into a public square.

Failing to gain the City Hall’s understanding and permission, residents decided to reclaim an intersection by getting together to paint a beautiful mandala and build little structures on each of the corners. Children inspired the beehive-shaped cob dispenser for the local newspaper (The Bee) and a kid’s clubhouse[MS2] , where toys can be exchanged, built from drift wood. Residents also built a 24-hour tea station, a community bulletin board, a little library, a stage, and a family-sized cob bench. Lakeman explains, “what we were doing was we were seeding a garden of the village, we were regrowing the village heart, with all of the functions and amenities that you’ll find.”

When city officials realized the benefits of Intersection Repair, such as beautifying the city, slowing down traffic, reducing crime, and building community through increased neighborhood interaction, all without spending any tax money, “the City Council legalized this whole process for all 96 neighbourhoods of the City of Portland. Several dozen intersection repair and other placemaking projects have have since been accomplished, some in other states.  These projects include installing gardens and cob benches in schools and the construction of the Portland’s first straw-bale dwelling at Dignity Village, a community of formerly homeless people. Many of these projects are accomplished during the Village Building Convergence (VBC) that began in 2000.

Village Building Convergence by Adelaide Nalley

Billed by CR as "an annual ten-day placemaking festival that combines crowdsourced activism, creative community development, hands-on education and celebration", the (VBC) is where most of CR's endeavors come together.  

During VBC days, individual communities work to physically manifest their collective visions.  These projects are unique to the communities, based on their needs, culture, taste, and collective identity, and have included such things as: neighborhood composting centers, a naturally refurbished public pottery studio, corner free boxes, outdoor classrooms and food forests at local schools, a tool lending library, and a neighborhood playhouse for children.  

While projects are designed by the community, in an effort to empower each community in their work, City Repair offers pre-VBC facilitation, planning, fund-raising, and technical support.  During the VBC, skilled volunteers lead the construction and both visiting and community volunteers come out to help turn the idea into reality.  In exchange for their time, volunteers learn new skills, receive locally donated food, build relationships, and have fun.  

There are also a number of free and low-cost workshops for participants to attend throughout the VBC.  In the evenings, participants from all of the different sites come together to celebrate their accomplishments, listen to guest lecturers, eat a locally produced meal, dance to live music, and develop an even more extensive community.  In this way, the VBC is creating a number of small villages within the city of Portland and then supporting their interconnection with one another.  

A number of out-of-town visitors come to the VBC each year and have the opportunity to not only participate in all of the neighborhood efforts, but also to stay with local host families.  Many visitors have been so inspired by the annual event that they have brought it back to their own communities.  Versions of the VBC can now be found in places like Asheville, NC, Seattle, WA, Brookfield, VT and Ottawa, CA.  Throughout the years, the VBC has been recognized for creating community, promoting sustainability, and increasing neighborhood safety, and as a result gained strong support from city officials.    

URBAN PERMACULTURE INSPIRATIONS! part 1

a few inspirations from around the world.

more to come from Tokyo this year!



URBAN ART X NATURE



MOSS GRAFFITI



UPCYCLE GARDEN





MOBILE GARDEN



VERTICAL GARDENS



ROOFTOP FOREST GARDEN



ROOFTOP OASIS



GUERRILLA GARDENING



SEED BOMBS!



TOKYO GUERRILLA AQUAPONICS



GUERRILLA DAIKON RADISH

under the asphalt and concrete is life waiting to spring back into action!

when we stop paving it over, Tokyo will return to forest....or a field of daikon.

Japanese Urban Permaculture Guidebook is published!!!!

本が遂にできました〜！！！

東京アーバンパーマカルチャーのブログに

今から詳細を書く予定。

FINALLY

Tokyo Urban Permaculture's first book is out!!!

!WoW!

This experiment in permaculture designing an urban permaculture book was an amazing success. The design challenge was how to make a Japanese urban permaculture book without actually writing it! And how to design a situation where people would share their gifts freely, and receive joy from it. This book was a way to put my experiences from permaculture, nonviolent communication, and gift economics to practice. I don't fully understand how it all happened but now there is an amazing book, crowd-sourced, crowd-funded, and exceptionally beautiful. A glorified zine!

Over 20 professional editors, writers, and illustrators were involved in this project, many who gifted their work, and about 380 people funded this project. It is a 400 person book project. And, while the book is self-published, my friends at MM books are leveraging their social capital to place our books at sympathetic (empathetic?) stores! Not only that, we are asking the stores to buy the books from us, meaning before its on the shelves, we've already sold them! I don't even know who is involved and doing what anymore. Its a project that keeps giving. And isn't that the world we want to live in? To plant seeds and harvest abundance? Thats the world I want to live in.

I hope this will revolutionize the Japanese permaculture movement, and transform the urban cultural landscape. The party continues....

PS If you want to learn about my ideas on gift economy and giftivism click here

PPS I'm doing an impromptu book release party in the Bay Area at the beginning of February 2015. I'm bringing about 15 copies.

(R)evolution

 Picture from my first book publishing party at a straw-bale temple

that will be one of the many examples for Japanese urban permaculture.

Here are some samples from the book.

*there are a total of 184 pages.....Wow!

Illustration by fellow Bullocks intern Paul Kearsley from Terra Phoenix Design

Below is what I wrote on 11/11/2014 in the midst of the crowd-funding campaign for my/our book. It gives some context about what this was all about. 

Hi all,
this is one of my most exciting projects that I have embarked on. A crowd-sourced, crowd-funded, gift economy style urban permaculture book. The main goal was to create a book through permaculture design about urban permaculture and cultural change. As co-existence revolutionary (my title in Japanese), I'm really trying to find ways to inspire people to live compassionately and creatively so that we can care for all beings. I want to present it attractively, I want it to be oozing with FUN, and I want people to know that its happening!!!

The chapters are EDIBLE, DIY, EDGE, GIFT, STOP. These are the hot topics of my work and what I see in the sphere of global activism. From guerrilla seed planting to burning man to meditation flash mobs. All the fun but deeply meaningful sprouts of hope that I see all over the world. I want to share it far and wide, and I'm starting with Japanese in urban contexts. Its such an untapped resource!

If you want to support me to make this book happen, we are currently trying to raise 2,000,000 yen, roughly $20,000, to self-publish. We reached our first goal of 1,500,000 yen a couple of weeks ago (woohoo!), but realized that the total cost is closer to 2,000,000 yen (thats why it says we are beyond 100% of our goal). Just a week left to go!!!

The crowd-funding site unfortunately has no easy way for non-Japanese contributions so if you want to support me, please send me a donation via paypal. If you would like to contribute to the  and receive a book, please send me $35+ and your address! I'll send it by mid-Febuary.

TOKYO URBAN PERMACULTURE BOOK PROJECT

-over 30 people involved, most are professional gifting their time and skills
-includes all the solutions that I'm spreading, permaculture, mindfulness, Nonviolent Communication, gift economy, and political activism
-conversations with leading activists in each of those fields in Japan
-we will self-publish with the support of crowd-funders to make this a people's project and keep the gifts flowing. 

Book Intro 

(the actual book is in Japanese)

This book is an invitation to change the world that we live in. It was not created to merely be a consumable product, but designed as a tool to inspire compassionate action.  I want you to join me, and the millions of people around the world, who are dedicating their lives to practicing compassion for all beings. Our goal is to co-create a future where all people and all life matters—a world that is ecologically sustainable, socially just, and spiritually fulfilling.  I want each reader to know that you are invited on this exciting adventure, and that your diverse gifts are essential for this movement of love to flourish. And, we’re going to have fun!

The following pages are a collection of “seeds” with an enormous amount of potential to grow. In order to unleash that potential, the seeds need to planted, the sprouts to be watered, and the fruits to be celebrated. It’s all experimental and if things don’t go exactly as expected, let’s harvest the learning! This process of cultivating our consciousness is at the heart of our (r)evolution.  

CROWDFUNDING FOR MY 
URBAN PERMACULTURE BOOK

official site for the crowd funding in Japanese
https://motion-gallery.net/projects/TUPcrowdfunding


*click above to see sample pages

GIFTS for support (aka perks)
500 yen : electronic updates

3000 yen : + The Book

5000 yen : + a special message thanks card

10,000 yen : + select seed pack and invitation to the publishing party (Jan 2015)!

30,000 yen : + your name in the book as honorary supporters

50,000 yen : + personal 1h workshop / consultation via Skype (permaculture, NVC, gift economy)

150,000 yen : + full workshop or presentation (*venue and transportation costs must be provided)
  and 5 recommended book set

300,000 yen : + Tomohiko Murakami's limited edition designer book case