The energy of natural materials that changed children

── It has a great meaning to touch and feel with your body.
I realized this even more strongly through the craft workshop for children in Tohoku, which is being promoted in collaboration with the MOA Museum of Art and the Japan Craft Association as part of the reconstruction assistance.
When children actually move their hands and start to make something, their eyes are brighter. During such art workshops, it is not uncommon for teachers to be surprised at how quiet children begin speaking up by asking questions, and those who are said to be restless are very concentrated. I feel that this is the energy that can be obtained by touching natural materials, and the act of making things by moving their hands makes their mind flexible.
If you praise the ideas of a child, who does something completely different from the sample or draws a picture freely on the object, their facial expression will shine even more and their creativity will expand more and more. Children, who have gained confidence by learning about the joy of manufacturing that frees their minds, will experience positive changes in their daily lives.

── That is exactly what is desired in the field of education— “cultivating the power to live.”
Everyone loves what they have worked on and made with great effort, and they want to take good care of it. If children know that they can do things like this, their interest in other things will expand and deepen.
Also, when they touch various materials, they can feel many differences on their skin, such as durable ones and delicate ones. I think that will eventually change not only things but also the way we treat people. They will learn that both things and people have their own strengths and personalities, but they are not comparable to which one is better, and each has its own strengths. And when one makes the most of them, they both shine the most.
This will not be felt or grasped from mass-produced mechanical products. Therefore, I especially want children to feel something at least once in a lifetime through manufacturing by touching natural materials. The child who feels something will also be able to think. Of course, it is the same for adults.
I would like to further promote the provision of such a place in cooperation with the MOA Museum of Art.