My way of thinking changed when I saw everything collapsing

Makiko Masuda, who has been active as a sculptor since 1982, established the Donguri Bank Kobe after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. This bank is a system where children deposit acorns instead of money, and if they amass a certain amount of acorns, they receive a seedling in exchange. It allows children to learn about afforestation while having fun.

When I saw things in front of me falling down, I began to think that instead of things that have shape, I want to create things that do not have shape. I felt the strength of the force of nature, and I also had the realization of becoming a parent, which was something I’d never experienced before, and these facts changed my values.

Photo: The bank passbook of Donguri Bank Kobe, which looks just like a real bank passbook


The child in my womb saved me

The house in Suma Ward where she lived at the time of the earthquake had completely collapsed, but Masuda miraculously came out with only a few scratches. At the time, Masuda was two-months pregnant.

On that day, I was reading into the early hours on the first floor, and a large quake came just as I left the room. When I looked at my house after it became light enough, I was filled with a sense of dread. Everyone said to me, “the child in you must have saved you.”

After the disaster, she moved to Kakogawa City and Miki City in Hyogo Prefecture, and finally returned to Kobe a year and a half after the earthquake. At the time, she was continuing her creative activities while teaching at a junior high school in Kobe City and a vocational school in Osaka.

My belly was becoming larger every day, and just going to work was a real effort. But it was wonderful how it became common to interact with our neighbors, which is something we hardly did before.

Encounter with Donguri Bank

In March 1995, she encountered Donguri Bank. This was a system that was born in Kagawa Prefecture with the aim of building forests in a manner that residents of the prefecture can participate in.

I saw it being introduced on TV, and I thought, “This is it!” Immediately after the earthquake, I saw sights where only the trees around the houses remained standing. In the spring, while the city still had much debris, there were new buds growing. And yet, the trees were cut down as part of the recovery effort, and that pained me.

Masuda immediately went to an elementary school near her workplace in Higashinada Ward, and talked about this project. However, the damage in this area was extreme, with tents for shelter still filling the school grounds, so they did not have the capacity to be involved in such a project at the time. She thought further, and contacted the staff in Kagawa Prefecture, who were very cooperative and said they would offer their support.
Photo: Reception at Donguri Bank Kobe, exchanging collected acorns with seedlings


Activities to build a forest in the city, begun by an amateur

In May 1995, she gained the support of the Donguri Volunteer Network in Kagawa Prefecture, and with their assistance, established the volunteer group, Donguri Net Kobe.

Masuda started her activities, despite having no experience of volunteering, and having no knowledge about acorns. She was worried if anyone would participate in her project, but many acorns were sent in from various places around the country.

What’s more, when she created a system called the Donguri Supporters to provide financial support for the activities, she received support from many people outside of Hyogo Prefecture.

Photo: One of the appeals of acorns is that unexpectedly, there are a large variety of different types.

She also met her most valuable partner.

Osamu Nakanishi, the Vice President of Donguri Net Kobe, is doing research on plant ecology. He is so well informed about acorns that he can discern the type of acorn just by looking at the leaf or the shape of the acorn cup. We hit it off as soon as we met, and I became the one to start things by proposing fun plans, and he became the acorn professor who specializes on plants. I think this is a great partnership.

Photo: Class on the environment with the acorn professor, Osamu Nakanishi


Together with the people that were meant to come together

With acorns, it doesn’t mean that you can use everything as seeds. You have to first choose the ones that can be used as seeds, separate them by whether they are deciduous or evergreen trees and by its various types, and then begin growing them.

As I was trying to go about with the activities, at a loss as to even finding out how to grow them, there were many projects that I was able to actualize from having met many different people of various ages and occupations. Our final goal is to create a forest in the city of Kobe. It is also important to help form a bond between various individuals, and I asked people to try to increase greenery in their own home gardens.

Eventually, people said that they wanted to grow trees other than from acorns. Masuda came up with a framework called Plant Master that grows and provides different seedlings. When she made the call out on a radio program, many people who wished to participate contacted her.

Nursery owners said they would provide us with seedlings that could not be sold on the market. And almost 100% of seedlings other than acorns were grown with care and transported all the way to Kobe by Toshiharu Kamezaki in Gifu Prefecture.

Photo: Numerous seedlings gathered by the cooperation of Plant Masters


Let them have fun, and then have them suddenly realize, there is more greenery!

After about 2 years since starting the Donguri Bank Kobe project, she began to broaden her activities to focus next on nurturing greenery.

We made Mount Oraga, on the Western end of the Rokko Mountain Range, as the site for our activities, and held events such as the Donguri Picnic. We created a cycle of “picking up acorns, having fun, growing them, and planting them,” and started increasing trees on a mountain that didn’t have many greens. This activity continued for seven and a half years, and now, the mountain is flourishing with trees.

Also, in order to keep the collected acorns from going to waste, they used the acorns that couldn’t be used as seeds for games and at events, such as making spinning tops out of them, or making acorn rice. The reason why their events drew attention and attracted many participants was surely because their activities were easy to understand and also fun. Masuda says the activities themselves are a lot of fun.

The objective is to increase greenery, so after a day of playing with acorns, we place importance on being sure that at least one acorn is planted by the participants, either at the event location or at their home. It’s really moving to see a sprout emerging from an acorn, and I want everyone to see it.

Photo: An acorn that has just sprouted, which there are not many opportunities to see

It made me really happy when a child who participated many times said, “This is the mountain that I brought up!” If they think they are actually growing it, then I think we can change their awareness of nature. The ideal way to do things is to let them have fun, and then have them suddenly realize that there is more nature around them!

Photo: Donguri Observation Tour at Mount Futatabi in Chuo Ward of Kobe City


The woods of Minato no Mori, grown with everyone together

Minato no Mori Park opened in 2010 in Chuo Ward of Kobe City as a recovery project after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. Saplings amassed by the Donguri Bank Kobe are growing here as well.

Four years before the opening of the park, I explained our objective to the people who came to the Gathering to Remember the 1.17 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, and distributed acorns. In March 2008, we held a tree planting session for the first time, and an unbelievable number of people came out to plant the saplings that they had nurtured in their own gardens.

Photo: Many people brought saplings to the Midori no Mori Park, which still did not have any plants. This was a commemorative day in which efforts towards creating forests started.

This is how acorn trees and saplings donated by the Plant Masters were planted at the Minato no Mori Park.

When the park first opened, the trees were still small and didn’t look like a forest, but now, the trees produce acorn seeds, and have grown so much that the trees need to be thinned. The good point about Donguri Bank Kobe is that instead of having a forest that is already there, we work together to grow and create a forest.

Photo: Minato no Mori Park, with the trees having grown large and looking truly like a forest


A critical decision, made after 20 years of activities

Donguri Bank Kobe terminated its activities in 2015, and from now on, they are planning on growing even more forests, with the Minato no Mori Park as its focal site.

I thought that this was a good time, now that our activities have continued for 20 years, and our trees are growing in various places. If we make Minato no Mori Park as the focal site for our activities, we can continue to protect our theme of creating forests in the city of Kobe.

We are thinking of new events to keep us from becoming just another greening project, now that we no longer have Donguri Bank as our crowning name. I am thinking about this very positively, believing that we will be able to broaden our activities even more freely, such as observing other varieties of trees or making something.

Photo: A heartwarming, handmade informational paper that provides information on activities conducted by Donguri Net Kobe


Wishing to inform children about the warmth of trees

Recently, there are an increasing number of high-rise condominiums in Kobe. Masuda worries that they will become unable to see the mountains from the port.

There aren’t many cities that are so close to nature, so I think this is a treasure of Kobe. In particular, the people of Higashinada Ward and Nada Ward live close to Mount Rokko, so they may have more opportunities to think about the city and its greenery and nature as a matter of course within their daily lives.

Through the tree-planting activities that we have conducted so far, I wished to plant trees in the hearts of the children. It would make me happy if it becomes matter-of-fact that people and forests live in harmony, and if people remember, even just a little bit, that in their childhood, they planted acorns and played with acorns.

(Photographed by Natsumi Morimoto, interviewed and written by Kaoru Nikaido and Aya Yamamori)