If we look back for a year until today, the word that best defines the situation in many rural areas of Japan is despairand is given by a birth crisis and aging of the population that affects several layers of social fabric. That is why they are betting unpublished in bring immigrantsor there are villages where, literally, there are More dolls than neighborsor they are even offering thousands of euros for attracting youth. Drift has led to School closureand now they have found an unpublished solution to the centers.
The sunset of classrooms. I told it in an extensive BBC report And we have gone counting months ago, Japan faces a silent but deep transformation: every year, about 450 rural schools close their doors, victims of the demographic aging and of the exodus Youth to the big cities. What were previously training and community life centers become empty structures that reflect the depopulation of entire regions.
Miyoshi, a remote municipality of the Shikoku IslandIt is a paradigmatic example. Its population has decreased dramatically since 1955, going from almost 78,000 inhabitants to just 20,000with more than 40% of its residents exceeding 65 years. In this context, the closure of the Deai Elementary School in 2005 seemed only one more fact in the chronicle of the rural decline.
An designer and an idea. And here an unprecedented name and initiative arise. It was in 2014 when the Designer Shuko Uemoto He visited Miyoshi with his little son. What began as a getaway became a revelation: pure air and the natural environment caused an immediate improvement in the health of their son, who suffered asthma.
That personal impact, added to the overwhelming silence and the beauty of the landscape, inspired a vision into a vision: transform an abandoned school into a Rest spacehealth and community. As soon as he discovered the Deai building, surrounded by trees and crossed by the rumor of a river, he knew that he had found the perfect place for his project.
From the classroom to the accommodation. So HARE TO KE BORNa rural accommodation that takes its name from an ancient Japanese dichotomy: Hare, the holidays and extraordinary days, and Ke, the daily life. The concept invites recover balance Between them, in contrast to a modernity that has saturated the everyday of constant stimuli.
The rooms occupy old carefully restored classrooms, spaces where blackboards, desks, laboratory bottles and murals painted by former students are still preserved. The design does not erase the memory of the place, but it welcomes and enhances it, offering visitors an intimate and deeply rooted sensory experience.
Miyoshi
Sleep like never. The hotel has specialized in what call “Sleep Trips”experiences focused on improving sleep quality. From a brief questionnaire, guests receive personalized medicinal infusions, accompanied by aromatherapy, spring water baths, and sessions in cedar sauna overlooking the forest.
Everything is designed to “reconnect the five senses” with a slower, more natural vital rhythm. In a country where light and sound pollution is omnipresent, the absolute silence and the total darkness of Miyoshi are, for many, A revelation. Sleep well, even just one night, transforms the entire trip, says Uemoto to the British environment.
“Other” tourism. But HARE TO KE It is much more than a hotel. Its impact has been so deep that former students and even the former director have returned to visit the building, now revitalized. Local elders gather in the old sports field for Play Gateballwhile guests observe from the classrooms turned into common rooms.
In addition, the hotel organizes kitchen workshops with local products, monthly fairs and cultural activities such as classes of Awa Odorithe traditional dance of Tokushima. All this not only strengthens the link between visitors and residents, but helps to support the traditions that, without intervention, could be extinguished.
Ancestral legacy. The experience in Miyoshi goes beyond rest: it is part of a cultural and historical landscape that resists over time. Guests can participate in the Mount Tsurugi Festivalwhich includes a Ritual procession over 900 years old. Or can travel the Iya Valley and cross their iconic liana bridges, or taste dinners made with cultivated cereals In inclined terraces up to 40 degrees.
Everything seems thought to integrate the visitor into a way of life that has been transmitted for generations, and that now finds a continuity through tourism (respectful).
Replicated model. From the opening of Hare to Ke, at least 13 more schools In Miyoshi they have been converted into coffees, offices or new accommodations. A revitalization model, promoted by the local administration, which has returned economic activity, community self -esteem and visibility to a region condemned to oblivion.
So much, the challenge is huge: Japan loses about 900,000 inhabitants a year, and it is estimated that More than 40% of his municipalities could cease to exist in the coming decades. Under that scenario, the Miyoshi case It shows that it is possible to fight against oblivion, not with great megaprojects, but with sustainable proposals and deeply rooted in memory.
Image | HARE TO KE, 京浜にけ
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