Welcome to Ichi Oku House
I first started hearing about K-san about twelve years ago when my parents met her by chance in the Boston area where they all live. Though she was born in California, she returned to Japan with her family before the war. By 1945 she was attending high school here in Hamada where my grandfather, Shuji Yamasaki, was her art teacher. My mom, just a little girl at the time, would not have known her, but nearly seventy years later the two of them have transformed this unbelievable coincidence into a friendship. The two of them have lived in America now for many decades, and so they cherish the opportunity to speak to each other in Japanese. They often find themselves chatting about the Japan they remember. My mother has always enjoyed collecting stories from the past and K-san has plenty to tell.
Many of the stories are about the three months K-san spent as a teenager in her mother’s family home in the mountains outside of Hamada during the war. She vividly recalls the sound of nuts dropping on the roof from the giant tree in the backyard, the feel of the wood in the entryway that was her responsibility to polish, and the taste of the sweet potatoes they steamed for snacks.
The house has stood empty for decades and now no one in her family knows what to do with it. It is in an inconvenient location, far from any major city, with outdated plumbing. Although they check in on it regularly, nature has already begun the process of reclaiming it. When K-san learned that I wanted to use an akiya for an art project, she thought it might be interesting for me to see this beloved house from her past as a reference. When I went to see it, I thought it was beautiful, but I was intimidated by its scale. At the time I was already beginning negotiations on a different house.
I was ultimately scared off by the estimated cost of repairs of that other house. Going back to my list of over twenty options, I felt lost. However, as I described the houses I had seen to other people, I realized that I was speaking most energetically about K-san's house. The improbability that a random connection on the opposite side of the globe could lead to me understanding more about the personal process of passing history to future generations seemed thematically perfect for my project. My mother kept relaying stories about the house to me from K-san and in June I got to talk with her in person when I was back in the states.
The stories captured me. Although it hadn’t initially been K-san’s intention for me to use the house, I asked her family if they would consider letting me use it for a few years. They graciously agreed. I am loving learning about her family’s history, particularly the relationships linking Japan and America. There are many similarities, but also differences, between those of my own family. I also love that I am providing my mother and K-san with new fodder for conversations, as I am the most current link between them and the memories of their youth thousands of miles away in Japan. Andy and I have already been hard at work cutting back the vegetation, sweeping away the dust, and surprising the geckos that had taken up residence there. Unlike my own family home here in Japan, which at times feels like it is actively fighting me, this house feels as though it is breathing a sigh of relief and is looking forward to sharing itself with all of you.
Welcome to Ichi Oku House.
