Shiiba Village
Kazuhide Omae

“It is all or nothing. I want to set out to be the best in Japan if I do it at all.” The person who carry out this word is Kazuhide Omae, a first-class architect and a master carpenter, commonly called “Tom Sawyer of Shiiba”. He clears a vast mountain forest by himself with creativity and playful spirit beyond the boundaries of common sense and creates a “Tom Sawyer Forest” that drives not only children's adventurous but also adults'.

I continue to produce “The best in Japan” for the children in the village

It takes 40 minutes to climb a winding mountain path along the Mimikawa River from the center of the village. The path continues to an old private house with an open atmosphere that overlooking the superb mountains scenery. There is no exterior wall, a swing hangs from a thick beam, and a bamboo-made slide hangs down to the garden on the roof. It's exciting in a space full of playful spirit beyond the boundaries of the common sense.
Upon graduating from junior high school, he left the village and began training carpenters in Shintomi-cho, the center of Miyazaki Prefecture. After improving his skill as a first-class architect through sales and field supervision, he returned to Shiiba village with his family when he was 42.
“I had always thought that I'm happy to grew up in Shiiba even while I was outside of the village. Since I wanted to raise my daughters, then-3-yearold and 4-year-old, in this village, I returned here after persuaded my wife in about two years. Now my daughters and my wife say that they are happy and glad that they came back here and grew up in Shiiba. It’s a great success.”
Kazuhide showed us a sketch. There are many ideas to be realized, such as an observation deck, tree houses, walking course, and zip-line. Based on the sketch, he has cut trees and bamboo from the forest around the old private house to create a walking path, creating a place for forest play such as tree houses, zipline, and others. Now, twelve years have passed since the creation of forest started, the dreams depicted on the sketch have been shaped one by one, and the “Tom Sawyer Forest” created by Kazuhide became a base for the play of Shiiba visited by people inside and outside the village. Why does he do so far? There are thoughts for the children of the village.
“It is a wasteful because children these days leave the village in ignorance of the goodness of Shiiba. Just as I grew up playing in the mountains, I hope that children today also enjoy playing in the mountains and experience the goodness of Shiiba.”
A total of five tree houses 13 to 28m high symbolize this forest. The tree house 28m high is the tallest in Japan. “It will be the best in the world if extended another 2m, but it's useless to hurry so much, so I think I'll slowly raise it after about 3 years.”, he says relaxingly.
This height seems to be dangerous at first glance, but he has a thought that “I want to create a place where children can think and act on their own rather than keeping children away from dangerous things.” If coming here, adults will be driven by the adventurous spirit that they have forgotten and will naturally return to childhood. The tree house creation by Kazuhide depends on his feeling. “I experiment with anything. Calculations are utterly unreliable,” he says with a big laugh. A sense of nature seems to be ingrained in the body of Kazuhide who has been playing in the mountains since his childhood. There is no draft and he creates improvised while looking at the state of the tree.
In addition, he suggests to elementary school in the neighborhood so that children can have an experience making a tree house, and makes a tree house together with children as part of the class, or communicates the importance of playing with nature through the training of elementary school teachers. Kazuhide's activities are not limited to the creation of forest.
“From now on, I want to challenge the creation of a village where young people can be attracted to Shiiba. There is no choice but to upgrade this endlessly for that. In other words, we must keep increasing the best in Japan. The children who left the village look at our activities, feel that “we can do something new if in this village,” and return to the village. I want to realize that.”

Interviewed in October, 2019
Writer : Atsumi Nakazato / Photographer : Hiroyuki Tamura