Sixth activity report / November 26–28, 2018

Disaster Recovery Support in Miyagi Prefecture

Our sixth activity took place in the Ogatsu district of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture. Fifteen group employees participated in activities to enhance the Ogatsu Rose Factory Garden alongside a locally active NPO called Ogatsu Hana Monogatari (“Ogatsu Flower Story”) via a nonprofit/nongovernmental organization called NICE. Participants also took a tour of group company Citizen Manufacturing's Tohoku Kitakami Factory.
More information on the activities is available on the Kahoku Shimpo Online News website.

Rose Factory Garden

Rose Factory Garden got its start in August 2011 when Rie Tokumizu, current head of Ogatsu Hana Monogatari, began planting flowers in remembrance of her family on the site of her former family home in Ogatsu, which had been buried in rubble in the tsunami that claimed their lives. The site began developing into a full-fledged garden when she later met a group from the Faculty of Horticulture at Chiba University, who had supported greening efforts in disaster-stricken areas. The project, which started as a way to pay respects to her deceased family, led to interactions that ended up forming a new community. The garden brought meaning to members' lives while providing opportunities for healthy activity.
Participants engaged in a variety of activities, including preparing the garden's olive seedlings for the winter, leveling the soil to improve drainage, and replanting lavender and other plants. Moving the olive seedlings into a greenhouse was labor-intensive, but the group managed to finish the job while taking breaks when necessary. Participants also had a chance to hear directly from Ms. Tokumizu herself, which gave them new insights into the way things were before and after the Great East Japan Earthquake as well as the current and future state of recovery efforts in the area.

Ogatsu Hana Monogatari

The city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture suffered severe damage in the tsunami triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake. A population census conducted six months after the disaster indicates that the population here fell by 6,511 people—more than any other municipality affected by the earthquake. There are still many disaster victims living in temporary housing still today.
The Ogatsu Hana Monogatari Project is the name for the activities that Ms. Tokumizu and her supporters did to open Rose Factory Garden on the site of her home that was destroyed by the Great East Japan Earthquake tsunami. Flowers are being planted in the hopes that garden will still be flourishing ten or twenty years from now, serving as a place where neighboring residents can gather and interact with one another.
The project also aims to restore the local area and provide a place for the local community while carrying out post-disaster greening activities, providing disaster preparedness education, growing herbs, test-growing fruit trees suited to the Ogatsu area, and more. They've especially been putting effort into growing olives, which they've named Hokugen (or “northern limit”) olives.

Finishing up the activities

Recovery is no easy task in an area that is suffering from severe depopulation. It requires everyone to have a shared passion that transcends generations and brings them together. Not to mention that people won't continue the effort unless the activities are fun and bring them joy. We also realized the importance of creating a structure that allowed people to continue moving forward without pushing themselves too hard or getting exhausted.
Rose Factory Garden is steadily being completed one step at a time with the goal of having it finished in five years. Reaching this goal will require outside support, however.