Gō-Institute: A Research Center to Learn, Convey, and Create Local Culture
Japan's Population
Japan: where the declining birth silently speeds up the disappearance of local culture. At this very moment, a culture that was slowly shaped by its land’s characteristics and an ancient, fluid network of communities, is on the verge of fading out completely.
Our Land Okugawa
Located at the foot of the Iide mountain range, Okugawa-gō is an area consisting of 21 villages that still preserve the original landscape of ancient Japan. Although only 20 years ago the township was populated by 1400 people, today we can count just 700 inhabitants of which more than 60% are seniors.
The Issue
If we do nothing to change this trend, there is no doubt that the life memories of the people of Okugawa-gō will soon be forgotten. And that’s why we founded Gō-Institute. A research center that takes a culture that has been developing organically since the Jomon period, and aims not only at preserving it, but also at handing it down.
Our Goal
In that way, future generations will receive what we could define as Okugawa-gō’s DNA, reviving it and updating it for themselves and those that will follow them.
Art, design, tourism, social business: we will use all to learn about the region’s inherent knowledge, broadcast it to the public, and convey it to future generations through many different perspectives.
Come experience Japan’s “natural face” through
the age-old wisdom of our ancestors
We invite you to experience a Okugawa’s beauty
Group Tour
Explore Okugawa through your senses
Each season in Okugawa has its different ways to explore, we invite you to explore as part of a group tour through your senses Touch (Tesawari), Taste (Ajiwai), Hearing (Hibiki), Sight (Miharashii) and Smeill (Kaori) of the wisdom from beauty nature that Okugawa has for you.
Wisdom from beauty in Okugawa
Connect with nature as Japanese at villages do from ages
Also you can have the opportunity of learning from nature and its wisdom though actual experience how locals live in their houses and village and how their interaction with nature hasn’t really change from the past to now days.
Tezawari - Kaori Subject: Connecting with our ancestors
Connect with your ancestors as the locals do in Okugawa from ancient times. In this subject, you will have the chance to experience how Okugawa’s villagers make incense from local tree’s leaves, and how the continue to use it as a tool to stay always connected to their ancestors.
Ajiwai - Kaori - Subject: Sweet sake poetry wisdom
At the village some people see Sweet Sake as a poetry that supports living with a faint sweet taste. It is because fermented food is rich in nutrition, which is also called drinking intravenous drip, drinking serum.
Ajiwai - Tezawari Subject: Wisdom of life from winter
Frozen radish making is a traditional preserved food made by hanging boiled radish outdoors in winter and drying it. Daikon freezes at night, melts in the day, repeating drying, proceeding drying, it is a natural freeze-dried recipe.
Tezawari - Nagame Subject: Snow Playing Kanjiki
Kanjiki Japanese snowshoes are made to be worn under the shoes so one can move easily in the snow without sinking. You can walk even on untreated snow by spreading your weight. Recently, we see plastic and western versions of the item, but originally it was very usual to see handmade ones, constructed out of wakanaki, making branches and vines of trees.
Tezawari - Nagame Subject: Snow Playing Sled
Go back to childhood experiencing how locals play with Suri (Sled) in the snow. As in other parts of the world, sleds were a very common way of transportation in snow countries. Long time ago, harvests were transported around the mountains using sledding.
Hibiki - Tezawari Subject: Mobile Store
When the music that heralds its arrival reverberates throughout the village, the residents come out of their houses one after the other and start shopping. The vehicle is called Idōhanbaisha, a mobile the Fukushimaya store uses to keep its customers stocked on days of heavy snowfall. It covers the entire span of the Okugawa area over a week.
Okugawa Subjects Videos
Tesawari, Kaori, Ajiwai, Nagame, Hibiki subject videos
Watch the subject Tezawari - Kaori - Subject
Touch - SmellContacting with your ancestors
Watch the subject Hibiki - Tezawari - Subject
Listen - TouchMobile Snow Store experience
Watch the subject Tezawari - Nagame - Subject
Touch - LandscapePlaying in the snow with slad and traditional snow shoes
Wisdom from beauty in Okugawa
Nature itself brings with her wisdom to the people in Okugawa
Explore the Wisdom from beauty in Okugawa
1000 Years of Wisdom
Feel the spiritual climate of an authentic Japanese village with thousands of years of continuous history.
Symbiotic Lifestyle
Contemplate the symbiotic lifestyle that is only possible when nature and culture develop in harmony with each other.
Sense of Wonder
Enjoy everyday life in a state of wonder fueled by the complex details and stories that Okugawa’s traditional farmhouses have accumulated by being lived in continuously over hundreds of years.
Our Team
These are the people that made possible your wonderful experience in Okugawa
Yoshihiro Yabe
Director
Yusuke Sasaki
Project Manager
Masato Araumi
Program Coordinator
Reviews
“My headline of these trip is Magical maybe, falling stars, crispy brightness of today. Maybe “Magical Sky in the night time and day time, with the brightness and the stars”. Yeah, two words “Magical Sky”
“Okugawa was like “Traveling time and the space” would be the title cuz the Idea I have of Japan is that everyone is always on a rush, so it is completely different is like another place. I would like to come back here once in a while and take full days off here just relax”
“I could relax a lot. Recently I haven’t been closer to the nature, so this time I could enjoy a lot nature, and get in touch with amazing warm people. It was so much fun, I really got relaxed emotionally and physically”
“It was very nice to taste the flavours of Okugawa’ natural ingredients. Its nature was just beautiful and reminded in my head like that, its mountains, its air, the water of its rivers, I could relax a lot here”
“Simplicity is just amazing. It was really fun and I enjoyed the time here, in one phrase I would say that people of Okugawa are really warm, it’s a special place”
Contact Us
Feel free to contact us anytime!
Mail us
hello@go-institute.jp