Mariyo Yagi@KOBE
A Living Rope
That Connects Us All
Winter 1996
In November 1995, Mariyo Yagi, a Kobe-born artist, installed a
huge rope in the grounds of a shrine in the area of Higashi-Nada,
one of the worst hit areas of the quake. Yagi enlisted the help
of Kobe residents to make the rope out of some 10,000 used T-shirts
and other pieces of clothing. On the first anniversary of the
Great Hanshin Earthquake, she performed a ritual burning of the
rope to console the souls of those who perished in the quake.
We interviewed her just after the ritual.
Interview with Yagi
Interview 1
Time to Spontaneously Unite
Q: Everyone at the shrine, young and old, was so quiet and still.
They just stared intensely as the rope burned.
A: It was a wonderful day today. Yes, they were quiet, and that
was a good contrast with the fire. There was no wind, and the
rope and the flames formed a beautiful spiral. It seemed to transport
everyone's feelings up so high.
Q: And the high-school students looked so happy and friendly.
A: The ones I talked to weren't your usual obedient type. They
told me that today they'd seen something beyond normal reality
and that the event had given them new energy. They even bowed
and thanked me. I was very happy with their reaction.
It must have been the uniqueness of the time that brought us all
together so spontaneously. The Youth Group worked so hard. When
I was living in Mikage as a child, people worried that young people
weren't interested in keeping alive the traditional festivals.
In our case, there was a festival in which we pulled decorated
carts through the neighborhood. Real fast. But that festival was
revived about 10 years ago, and the Youth Group is seeing to it
that it continues. You have to have a feeling of union to accomplish
something like that. These kids have a strong sense of community.
That's a great source of power.
Q: "Rope" ("nawa" in Japanese) has a nice sound.
A: The other word for it is "tsuna," of course. But I prefer the
sound of nawa. In the Tsugaru region of northern Japan, "na" means
"you" and "wa" means "I."
There's a film being made these days about the Jomon Period. [8,000-3,000
BC. Jomon signifies the rope patterns found on the ceramics of
the period.] For one scene they filmed the rope piece I'd made
in a red pine forest in Aomori Prefecture. I always work with
a large group of people when I make my works. In Aomori, too,
many local people helped me. When we got the piece to stand up,
an old man came up to me and said, "You made it specifically for
this place, didn't you? It looks like a red pine." And then he
said, "It is a red pine!"
In fact, in the pine forest I'd seen trees change in color from
red to a bluish tinge. It was intriguing and I tried to work that
into my piece.
Q: I felt something of that as I watched the rope burn today.
A: Yes, but it was also different today. I didn't say anything
to my helpers except that today we'd make a fire. I don't usually
think of the significance of burning the thing. I can't visually
imagine how it will burn, either. And it went up so high in a
spiral, and it kept on burning and burning. It was like a fire
dragon. Very powerful.
Q. A person from Mikage said that it gave him the energy to continue
living there.
A. Yes, he said he'd been feeling very low and that he'd bottled
up all his hard feelings deep inside. And then today he felt that
all those feelings had been released. He said, "Now I feel good
and confident." I heard similar things from many other people
today. The collective process that goes on in making the rope
soothes people and opens them up.
It's not easy to heal mental traumas. They persist inside us,
sometimes for our whole lives long. But sometimes, too, the dark
energy is transformed into a positive energy. Perhaps my ropes
carry those positive energies.
Interview 2
Getting the Rope to Stand Up Is the Hard Part
Q: Ever since the earthquake, you've been active in Kobe trying
to make the quake experience one from which we can explore how
we might better live together with nature and the earth.
A: That's true, but I should also add that I receive a great deal
of inspiration from many people.
Q: What made you decide to do the ritual in Mikage?
A: Initially, just after the quake, I proposed a rope project
for the city of Kobe, but that never came through. Months later,
someone suggested that I do something for the community, if even
just on a smaller scale. Then I quickly decided to do something
at Yuzuruha Shrine. We came unannounced and met with the head
priest, Sawada, and he thought this was an ideal site for what
I had in mind.
I grew up in Mikage, but even then the neighborhood communities
had broken up as a result of urban development. Then for decades
I lived elsewhere and had nothing to do with the area. Then one
day after seeing an art exhibition, I was walking from Sumiyoshi
Station to Mikage Station on my way to Sannomiya, the center of
Kobe. You have to change trains a lot to get there, so I decided
to walk most of the way. I felt nostalgic, sad, about Mikage.
So I decided to do my ritual there. But I knew I'd have to wait
until the community itself was ready. I had to wait for the people's
spontaneous action.
Q: What was their initial reaction to your plan?
A: First they couldn't understand why a rope. But then they thought
that doing something on a large scale would be good for the community
and would create a feeling of oneness among everyone. "If we're
going to do anything at all, let's do it on a very big scale.
Let's make a really large rope!" they decided. And then everyone
really got into it. They'd discuss every aspect of the rope, from
the size to how to make it stand up. The Youth Group declared
that getting it to stand up would be the hard and crucial part.
I hadn't explained to anyone why it had to stand up, only that
it had to happen. Then I explained to them that we'd need to dig
a two-meter-deep hole to fix the base of the rope in. That's when
they realized how large a scale we were really talking about.
And that only made them even more dedicated to the project. When
they heard a specialist talk about some technical requirements,
they knew how hard our work would be. Actually, we didn't give
them detailed technical instructions. They'd analyze each problem
and discover the requirements and solutions themselves.
Q: Was it their spontaneous idea to burn the rope?
A: Sawada suggested it at our first meeting. Then we had to decide
when. At first we thought of late November, then New Year's Day.
Finally we chose the anniversary of the earthquake.
Q: And on November 25 and 26 you actually made the rope.
A: Yes. First we made balls out of the T-shirts and put them together.
People wondered why they were doing such a thing when day-to-day
survival was difficult enough without this on top. But on the
26th they got even more involved and determined to finish the
rope. Making it was like a collective prayer. We all worked to
make the spiral at the top. When at the end we placed the base
in the hole everyone was just amazed. All we could think was that
we had really done it.
Interview 3
Earth's Umbilical Cord Is a Part of the Universe
Q: What is art for you?
A: This may sound presumptuous, but I believe that art is not
a private or individual matter. It's about the universal. Art
acts upon each individual to awaken him or her. It shakes us up.
It enables us to see the invisible and to touch the immaterial.
This time was no exception. In making the rope here, I felt I
was being reborn in the world that is Mikage. Similarly, I'm sure
that the Mikage people who participated in the creative process
reconfirmed their roots with the area. This may help and strengthen
them in their continuing everyday painful struggle. We need to
first establish strong roots to stand on. Then the leaves and
branches will come. It becomes a source of power, a way to survive.
Q: You placed mirrors on the ground that reflected what was going
on both above and below. It gave me a strong feeling of what you
mean by "roots."
A: Yes, I wanted to show the earth below and the sky above, to
connect them. The rope became the earth's umbilical cord, which
is connected to the umbilical cord of the universe. If you can
feel this connection then you realize that everything in the universe
is alive, we human beings, the smallest insects, the camphor trees
on the shrine premises, the whole earth...
Q: So the ritual was also intended to remind us that we are born
of the earth, and we are all connected through this universal
umbilical cord?
A: Yes. The earthquake reminded us of our very close connection
to the earth, and that the planet is constantly in motion. It's
good to feel this connection.
Q: Your project was very deeply rooted in a local community, but
it also has global implications.
A: What does "local" mean? Look at the human body. It doesn't
exist without cells. Today, people do not pay much attention to
small communities. We emphasize the whole over its parts. But
the whole exists only as a result of those parts. Both are important
and must be equally woven into a single fabric, especially if
we really aim to achieve a truly global society.
Q: The project was carried out by the people of Mikage, but the
T-shirts were collected from all over Japan.
A: Yes, we mixed local and national participation quite beautifully,
I think. And that is further extended to a global network. Just
as our bodies depend on numerous nerve cells inside us, we were
able to achieve a whole-and-part synergy. There was good circulation.
Smooth and healthy.
Interview 4
Ropes Are Endless
Q: And how do you feel now that it's over?
A: It may sound strange, but I felt that things would work out
exactly as they did.
Even before the quake, I was thinking a lot about astronomy and
nature. I had a theme in mind called "A Renaissance Forest." In
retrospect, I see now that this forest was the woods of Yuzuhara
Shrine.
The earthquake made me realize once again, and of course very
concretely, that the earth is a living organism. At an art show,
I met people who'd suffered in the earthquake, people who'd been
deeply psychologically hurt and were very depressed. But I could
do nothing for them, could not heal them in any way. And so my
trauma was not able to be healed either. What would have a healing
effect on us? Maybe we should think on a small scale: love the
humble roadside plants and flowers. Then I thought it should take
the form of something that would transcend us, something that
would have a cumulative effect.
And of course, real healing would require a very long time. Then
I thought more about the meaning of making ropes. I usually spend
a long time in preparation and make the ropes slowly and steadily.
The final stages are exciting and liberating, and the rope is
actually there. It's a life-nurturing process, a flower.
Q: Thank you very much for your time today. Is there any last
message you'd like to give?
A: Coming here today and standing on this ground with so many
people, I feel like I've made a firm return to the woods of Yuzuruha.
The principal totem here for me is the big camphor tree. I've
realized that this is my root. I could stand under the tree and
feel myself reborn. This is how I feel now.
I was born of my mother and then was alone. But I've been reborn
today. I was reborn into a circle comprised of many people: the
members of the rope ritual project, the people all over the country
who shared our spirit and donated their old T-shirts, a friend
in New York who sent us a warm prayer and a message that said,
"Though from a distance, I am with you and the rope." I was standing
here today with all of these people. I feel so alive and sure
that we can all go on together.
I've made ropes in many places and I hope to continue to do so.
Ropes are endless, they have no end, really. They go on and on,
they extend into networks and connections. They connect the people
who suffered in Kobe or other disasters; they connect the people
of the past and present and future. I want to see this "life connection"
extended infinitely. It would prove to all that the earth truly
is alive.
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