Imagine the lush, fresh green smell of the countryside in the early morning . The gentle peace of nature surrounding you; the only sound being birds and insects going about their day. Gathering wood to light a morning fire for boiling water. Just sitting and sipping tea marvelling at nature around you. Each day marked by the steady cycles of growing and making food. A slow life. A simple life. And time. Time to just be, follow the rhythms of the day, to reflect, to create.
In his book The Abundance of Less (a revised edition of A Different Kind of Luxury) Andy Couturier takes us to rural Japan to meet several people who have abandoned mainstream fast-paced Japanese life to live a simple rural existence. They are immersed in the beauty of nature, friendship, food and most of all the luxury of time. This personal transformation has enabled them to lead rich and fulfilling lives.
Each chapter tells the story of a different person, how they came to abandon mainstream life and explores the values of simplicity, creativity and slow living they now live by.
This book asks us to absorb their words and think carefully how we may want to create more time for ourselves and lead a simpler more sustainable life. Their journeys show us how we too can live a more meaningful, richer life by living simply and discovering what really matters.
There is a famous line from an essay by Tao Yuanming 倚南窗以寄傲, 审容膝之易安 (Leaning on the southern window, I surrender my pride to nature and in this room scarely big enough to contain my knees, I am easily contented).
San Ozumi is an anarchist potter with an underground bunker which doubles as a tea house. He grew up in poverty and was used to a simple existence, albeit in slum conditions. One day he got on his motorbike and started driving around looking for a new place to live. He saw a building far off the road that looked beautiful. When he approached there was an old man who said ‘Ah, you have come, I have been waiting for you. You have come because you are going to live in this house.’ And, remarkably, that is how Ozumi came to live in his rural home. A humble yet renowned potter he lives simply with his wife (skilled in the art of Japanese tea cermony) and their daughters. He is an ardent campaigner against nuclear energy.
‘For me, what cannot be tolerated are the things that threaten the kiseki (miracle) of life…That’s why before I go to bed at night (even though my kids tell me to pipe down) I say aloud how grateful I am for this unlikely, gorgeous day’.
Osamu Nakamura is a woodblock craftsman who traveled to Nepal to learn his art. He lives in the mountains of Shikoku in the shade of dark green bamboo and cedar. Everything he does is because he enjoys living this simple way, from grinding his own wheat to growing tea.
It was because I saw the Sherpa’s way of living and had lived it myself, that when I came to this valley here in Japan and first saw this house, I knew I could live in the same way right here’
Nakamura’s art is intimate with his life and his life’s journey. He describes how the energy he puts into his work remains stored in the object and feeds one’s spirit every time it is looked at.
‘A craftperson’s job is half meditation, half creation. It takes creativity to design whatever you are working on, but it takes meditation to do it right. Making things with one’s own hands cultivates a certain generosity and openness of the heart. It nourishes the state of mind in the craftsperson themselves, which is intimately connected with an entire way of life.’
He describes his life as ordinary yet abundant with a sense of plenty. When the author returns some years later to visit Nakamura, he has moved to an even smaller simpler dwelling; what was an old cow shed. So sparse it is elegant. Nakamura said he wishes it was smaller. His parting words are that the way of life one chooses is important. Live a life where you are aware of nature and can perceive it closely and find a way to express creatively what you have perceived. ‘It’s a kind of practice, like a Buddhist practice.’
Atsuko Watanabe is the person who introduce Couturier to many of the others. She talks about how planting rice by hand makes her feel happy and at peace. The youngest of four siblings she has trodden a different path. Even as a child she wanted a life with enough time to contemplate and let her mind roam free. She connected with nature early on and after travelling to Afghanistan, India and Nepal she settled back in Japan. She realised that no matter where she travelled everyone has to eat, work and sleep but also that it could be a wonderful, beautiful thing. And she set about making her life just that.
“The office worker in Japan is always being used by somebody. They have no freedom at all. And if you are being used by someone, you have very little freedom of heart. That’s the saddest thing for the office worker; being told what to do. And because he’s always in a hurry, there’s no energy left to think. In Japan, they just don’t grant you time. And if you are selling your time, no matter how much money you get, you can’t ever buy back that time. I knew from when I was eleven or twelve years old that I didn’t want to live that kind of life.” Atsuko Watanabe
This is just a glimpse at some of the (extra) ordinary people in this book whose lives and words are a call to us.
Akiya 空あき家や
Of course, after reading this book I then went off into a day dream of living in rural Japan and living a simple life.
There are more than 8 million abandoned houses in Japan. In Japanese, 空あき家や (akiya) are houses that are abandoned or unoccupied. This is due partly to Japan’s aging population, a preference for new homes and a large migration of people from rural locations to cities.
Many of these abandoned properties are in dying villages and towns, have high property taxes or come with restrictions such as age limits, or if rural the requirement to farm. And of course many require significant improvement. While a foreigner can buy one of these homes, there are these restrictions to keep in mind. For example, some contracts to purchase an akiya require the buyer to live in the house permanently. You must make sure this clause is not in your contract because it could go against restrictions on your current visa.
You can read a fairly up to date article about Akiya here
For me this is only a daydream. But visiting rural Japan is more of a reality.
Living in harmony with your values
Of course, there is no need to travel to Japan to fulfil the simple life and live out the values of people captured in the book. Those values can be applied to our lives wherever we are:
Live simply and sustainably
Be in touch with nature
Slow down
Make more time not more money
Explore your creative life
The message of this book is: how can we create abundance not by what we acquire but from within ourselves? We can ask ourselves, what are we doing that already supports and nurtures this? How can we encourage this and not be pulled away by external forces? How can we live a simpler, deeper, richer and more fulfilled life? How can you come into harmony with our deeper personal values?
I will leave you with these questions. Until next time.
We get too busy. It’s a fact. Part of the reason is the nature of our grasping minds. But some of the blame surely can be attributed to the way society rushes our days…All over the world people suffer from the unhealthy nature of this system we’re in. Some of it’s distortions of humanity, however, have become so woven into our way of life we may not even notice them, like a loud machine in the background that we only become aware of after it is turned off….
Find out more about the book The Abundance of Less and also find out more about Andy Couturier’s writing school.
Post script. I had a lovely message from Andy Couturier. ‘ I appreciate how much you captured of the book Angie, and thanks for letting me know. I’m glad the book is deepening for you. Sorry to be brief, I’m deep in the countryside… teaching writing.
Be well, and thanks again
Andy
Great article.
We may have some common ground, check out my Substack on Japanese Budo, budojourneyman.substack.com