Nobiru

Nobiru 野蒜 lies on the southwest edge of Higashimatsushima 東松島市, in the Tōhoku Region, North-East of Japan. The estimated population of Higashimatsushima around 40,000 in 2017.

Matsushima 松島 in Miyagi Prefecture is known as one of the Three Great Sights of Japan; a nationally designated place of scenic beauty. Nobiru became popular tourist attraction because of the arresting coast and landscape.

The population of Nobiru of pre-tsunami was 5000 inhabitants, post-tsunami was halved, with 500 deaths and 2000 relocated, primarily to Sendai 仙台, second largest city north of Tokyo. Currently around 3500.

The map shows the areas (in grey) which was once submerged in water, large parts of residential area (in red) were heavily affected and majority of settlements were demolished.

The city was able to quickly begin reconstruction, with tsunami prevention strategies played a very important part in the new development. Ever since the tsunami, the landscape has changed radically: the mountain has been cut out to make way for the hillside development, tall sea walls are built along the coastline (shown in red), pine trees have been re-planted near the beach and houses are slowly rebuilt in the town area.

According to the government plan and new planning rules, the area is clearly divided into fragments with their distinct characters: woodlands, hillside development, old towns, farmland and industrial area. The masterplan suggests a lack of consideration and integration with the old towns of Tona and Nobiru. The future of the land surrounding the Canal is left unsure.

The Equestrian Centre

For my first year master project, I have based my project in Nobiru and tried to proposed a scheme which focused on stitch back the fragmented towns and reconnect people to nature. After the tsunami, there were programmes for the families and kids to work with horses and create places of interest in the forest, such as Tree Dragon, the aim was to encourage social innovation through making and interacting with nature.

The design intention is to revive the equestrian culture in Nobiru and Miyato Island and to use horses as a medium to reconnect the fragmented city. By reusing and adapting the remaining road network, the aim is to integrate the equine infrastructure into the area.

In addition to the infrastructure, my main focus was on the equestrian centre. It is a place for locals and visitors to learn horse riding and offers accommodation for working horses and staff as well. It is believed that horses have therapeutic quality in healing mental illness and social issues. More importantly, gradually rebuilding people’s relationship with nature and obliterate their fear

Reunion

I was staying in Ishinomaki and took half an hour train to Nobiru. As I got off the train I heard my name from a distance, it was Sugawara san waved at me with joy. Who is he? I met Sugawara san 3 years ago when I was doing site visit in Nobiru. On a late afternoon, my friend and I just finished our site visit walking back to the station, we walked past Sugawara san’s house in the old town and he invited us to his house for a cup of hot tea and Japanese mochi sweet cake. On the tsunami day, he was helping to evacuate all the locals to higher ground and saved many lives. Unfortunately, he was unable to save his family, he lost his wife and son, and his house was washed away. He told us after the tsunami he has been actively organised and participated in regeneration events and was a representative to attend government meetings. This is how I met him. I was very excited to see him again, he thanked me for remembering Nobiru.

When I arrived to Nobiru station, I didn’t recognise any surrounding at all. Apart from the station itself has not changed, the hillside development has been completed with established roads, new houses, public square and community buildings. 3 years ago they were still preparing for the land for the reconstructions.

Mountain Leveling

I personally find the mountain leveling process is an astonishing project on its own. In May 2012 the government announced the reconstruction improvement plan and only after half a year project was approved and construction work began. The mountains were carved and a conveyor belt was used to send the soil from the higher ground to lower ground. The soil was mainly used to create seawall on the south part of Nobiru. The new JR train line was relocated to higher ground which was opened in 2015.

Nobiru Community Centre

Through the covered walkway, we entered into the Nobiru Community Centre. We took off our shoes and changed into slippers at the genkan area (the japanese foyer area). The wooden smell from the structure and finishes are still very fresh and new. Adjacent to the entrance there was a double-height space with photos and news along the walls showing the up-to-date reconstruction process. Sugawara san showed us around the building, the community centre provides a tea room for traditional Japanese Tea ceremony, a cooking room, a hall space for meetings and presentations, a play area for small children and an office area. He explained if any natural disaster hits again, this place will become one of the main refugee points for the residents.

School in the Forest

One of the highlights of the trip was to be able to visit the Shiritsu Miyanomorishogekko (Forest Elementary School). It was about 8 mins walk from the station. It opened 2 years ago, about 120 students with 6 grades, around 20 pupils per year. The forest and treehouse I mentioned before are part of the school, an extension playground for the kids, they often have outdoor classes and activities in the woods.

We entered from the staff quarter, the teachers were very accommodating and very happy for us to walk around the school. At the main entrance, I saw a photo of Japanese Prime Minister Abe visited before and this school design was featured in the front cover for a well-known Japanese architectural magazine Shinkenchiku.

This school is unlike any other schools I have came across with. The majority of Asian schools I have seen they are typically 4-6 storey tall prefabricated linear concrete frame structure with an open space in front of the school. This school is, as you can see, a timber frame structure with large glazing and plenty of rooflights. It feels airy, warm and spacious.

The school provides a classroom for each year, library, multi-purpose room, science lab, art room etc. and an indoor gym hall. All the year group classrooms are in an open plan space with only sliding glazed panels as partitions. They all have views towards the mountain and doors to the outside. On every entrance there is a wash basin with shoes racks.

When we entered into the gym hall a group of children just finished their swimming lesson. As part of the school curriculum, it is important for children to learn swimming as part of the survival skill. The intention to build next to the forest is to allow children to form a close relationship with nature at a very young age. Under the incredible timber structure, the children were extremely happy and active, chasing each other around. Three of the ‘brave’ children approached us, wanted photos to be taken and were very curious about our visit.I was quite touched when I saw them. Three years ago when I came to Nobiru majority of people I saw on the streets were elderly and rarely see any young faces. Also, I think many of the children were born near the time when the tsunami hit. I felt that they must have been through a lot at such a young age. Seeing them with big smiles on their faces, running around with so much energy and having such a beautiful place to learn and grow, I think it is amazing to witness.

KIBOTCHA(キボッチャ)

We were about to drive to the seaside and we went past the former elementary school,

I was very curious because it looked completely different to my previous visit - the school playground used to be the temporary post office, community centre and the fire station. The school building itself was abandoned. We stopped by and went inside. Actually, preserving and repurposing a public building which has been destroyed by the tsunami was a very controversial topic. It depends on the area and the scenario itself, usually it would receive a lot of mixed opinions.

For example, the well-known Disaster Prevention Measures Government Office in Minami Sanriku-machi which I visited 3 years ago. The water reach above the building by two metres and there were more than 45 casualties in the government office, it has taken them 4 years to decide whether to keep or dismantle the structure. For another similar case, Okawa Elementary School in Ishinomaki, the teachers decided to stay at school despite the tsunami warning, 74 out of 78 children were washed away and 11 staff were sacrificed. Many of the parents and local people demanded to demolish the school because it’s too painful for them to see the remains of the building. However, for both the government and school buildings the local councils have now decided to be preserved as memorial monuments as a physical reminder for the tsunami for all of us and the future generations. Many visitors still come and pray even until now.

For the Nobiru Elementary School, because all the teachers and students were manage to escape to the higher ground there was no causality, the majority of local residents supported to preserve the structure by all means. 2 years ago, they have repurposed the former school into Kibotcha, a multi-purpose building with an aim to become a place to for children to play and learn about disaster prevention.

There is an exhibition area about the tsunami, a scenario based play area for children to learn how to react to natural disaster through play, a learning zone for adults which I found very interesting. Vending machines can be seen every streets and corners in Japan. This newly invented machine allows you to get free drinks when emergence occurs. If electricity fails, there is a handle inside the orange box to convert rotational motion into electricity to power the vending machine, also there are cables inside for people to charge their phones. Sanitary is also one of the biggest problems when natural disaster hits, these diagrams demonstrate step-by-step how you can create temporary toilets with the existing drainage system.

Surprisingly, they have converted two floors to become an onsen (the japanese style public bath)and cheap accommodations for visitors. On the ground floor, there is also a shop to sell local food and craft products and a restaurant.

This is the old Nobiru Station. It feels to me that the tsunami event is merged into the design of the towns but also the way people live. However on the other hand, those reminders are important, not only not forget the love one, but as a reminder that if any tsunamis happen again, people would know what to do during the event and reduce the number casualties and damage.

This place used to stand more than 200 houses, it has became a piece of land that no one knows what to do with. They are planting pine trees further north but they are going to take 60 years before they are fully grown. We walked through the low lying shrubs and he showed me where his house used to be, it is marked by a few rocks, at that time we were in silent and heartbroken.

A key part of the reconstruction of Nobiru the government is rebuilding the sea defences, 10m high and 30m wide. Dramatic changes to views either side of the wall has created a detachment between the town and the sea. It used to be full of tourists swimming, sunbathing, surfing and fishing. Last time we talked to a woman she described the beach as lonely and now separate from the town. Same as last time, I only saw a few people drove to the seafront, surfing and fishing.

Gave him some British shortbread as a present, he seems to really like it.