hemp charcoal powder
special interview

Seeds are sown from the end of March, cultivated from July to August, and harvested in early September. However, unlike ordinary farmers, they cannot harvest and sell it as is. Once harvested, we work to extract the fibers all year round. This is the main work of hemp farmers, and the epidermis that is extracted is called "semen hemp." The semen is often collected at shrines.

Most of the people are interested in hemp, but there are also people who come because of the shrines and rituals, and there are also people who come because it's an independent research project for kindergarteners and elementary school students. I'm really grateful that a wide range of people can come. They come from all over the country, from Hokkaido to Okinawa, and before the coronavirus, they came from Taiwan, Australia, and various other places.

In my case, I have always loved making things, so instead of taking over the hemp farming business, I went out and worked in the modeling industry. I had a lot of fun designing things myself, but I was making things without really understanding the materials, and although the catalogs said that they were not harmful to the body, they actually weren't. While I was making and transporting the food myself, there were times when I felt a little sick. From that experience, I was thinking that I wanted to make things from these materials, and it just so happened that my parents were a hemp farmer. That's when I decided I wanted to try making things from seeds, so I started farming.

I agree. There are about 10 hemp farmers in this area of Tochigi. There are many other issues besides Tochigi.
However, there are actually no full-time farmers, and there are some things that cannot be avoided, such as typhoons, so most people do things like green onions and hemp, or soba and hemp, so we are the only hemp farmers. It becomes.

The same goes for opportunities to travel far away for workshops, but the more I do it, the more I realize that it's a fiber that has a close relationship with Japanese people, and I can't seem to run out of it. ,Really. Do you really want to leave something like that behind? The more I move, the more I discover its charm, and the more I touch it, the more I discover that hemp is suitable for me.

People may be surprised when they hear the word hemp, but if you talk about it carefully, everyone goes to shrines and holds ceremonial occasions, and hemp is used in those events, so it can be said that hemp is used as a medium after all. If you just look at the news reports, you'll get a strong negative image, but I really want people to know that this is what Japanese people and hemp are all about. I would like to spread and increase the foundation of hemp farming, as I wonder what the original Shinto ritual is.

Well, I think it's quite a lot. There are many children wherever I go, and there are many who come because of this, and there are also many children who come and experience the harvest and learn the reality of the work, saying it's such intense work.

In the past, it was possible to experience harvesting, but now you can't experience harvesting, and people who go into the fields are required to have their assistant's licenses removed. Therefore, I think that this area will probably change as the law is revised.

People may be surprised when they hear the word hemp, but if you talk about it carefully, everyone goes to shrines and holds ceremonial occasions, and hemp is used in those events, so it can be said that hemp is used as a medium after all. If you just look at the news reports, you'll get a strong negative image, but I really want people to know that this is what Japanese people and hemp are all about. I would like to spread and increase the foundation of hemp farming, as I wonder what the original Shinto ritual is.

Regardless of generation.
Lately, more and more young people have been coming to my workshop, and although there have been difficult times like the coronavirus, I think their values and ways of thinking are changing.