The History of One Island

Not long time ago, an island of Naoshima in the Seto Inland Sea was a place from where locals were massively getting away. Many years of copper mining and processing destroyed on it and other islands of Kagawa prefecture virtually all vegetation. People here had no work: the largest employer Mitsubishi because of processes automation dramatically reduced the number of employees. In 1950s and 1960s, out of 8,000 people, only 3,000 remained to live on the island. Logically in one of the most progressive countries in the world, barely anyone wanted to live surrounded by nondescript rice fields and modest fishing houses with amenities in courtyards. On a certain point it seemed to local residents that the island of Naoshima simply does not have a future.

In the 1980s, the head of the Fukutake Publishing, Tetsuhiko Fukutake, and Mayor of Naoshima, Chikatsugu Miyake, discussed with each other a possibility of creating an international kids camp in a southern part of the island. This idea, which was supposed to give Naoshima a possibility to develop, was destined to come true, but not immediately. Dreams of the father were made into life by his son, Soichiro Fukutake. 

After the sudden death of Tetsuhiko Fukutake, he needed to move from Tokyo to Okayama, where headquarters of their company were located. Step by step he began to come regularly to the island of Naoshima, in order to continue his father’s work on building an international kids’ camp. This project, according to Soichiro Fukutake, changed his life dramatically. He started to be interested in culture and history of islands in the Seto Inland Sea. He liked their natural landscapes, preserved traditional spirit of Japan and friendly, simple, open inhabitants.

Text by Elizabeth Klepanova

 

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