How to Live — In Practice is our five-day research workshop exploring how art, ecology, craft, and everyday practices can offer new ways of thinking about how we live.

Japan’s relationship with the natural world has shaped its culture for centuries. This can be seen in its crafts, cuisine, agricultural traditions, and everyday practices, where nature is understood not simply as a resource, but as something living, interconnected, and worthy of care. These traditions offer valuable perspectives at a time when questions of sustainability, community, and human–environment relationships have become increasingly urgent.

The program takes place in Fujino, a rural satoyama community known for its long-standing culture of sustainability, creativity, and alternative living. Here, traditional knowledge, ecological practices, local economies, agriculture, craft, and contemporary experimentation coexist and continue to evolve.

Rather than treating nature as a backdrop, the workshop approaches land as a teacher, collaborator, and site of inquiry. Through direct engagement with local artists, farmers, craftspeople, chefs, educators, and community leaders, participants investigate how knowledge is embodied and transmitted through practice.

Workshops, site visits, conversations, and shared meals become methods of research. Craft, food, cultivation, and collective living serve as entry points for exploring broader questions: How do we relate to the environments that sustain us? What forms of community can support more regenerative futures? What might alternative ways of living look like in practice?

Over five days, Fujino becomes a temporary learning ecosystem—a space for experimentation, reflection, and exchange where ideas are tested through direct engagement with land, material, food, and community.

Fujino is located approximately one hour from central Tokyo and is easily accessible by train.

Fall 2026 workshop registration opens now. Sign up for our newsletter to receive updates.