The Elements of Joy

In times of disconnection and devastation, how do the elements of earth heal? In recent decades, ecological crises have raised the consciousness of existential threat in Japan, caused by soaring summer temperatures, rising pollen allergies, increasing severity of typhoons, and the enduring effects of the March 2011 triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear fallout. In response, many environmental advocates have sought refuge in non-modernized methods for connecting directly with nature, both from Japan’s Indigenous and Buddhist traditions, as well as from ancestrally aligned traditions borrowed from Japan’s neighbors such as Okinawa and Hawaiʻi. In practices such as Buddhist-inspired models of natural farming (Japan), localized forms of marine and coastal care in coral gardening (Okinawa), and Indigenous projects for restoring native forests (Hawaiʻi), people turn to the elements of earth to heal selves, communities, and broken ecological relations. How do people understand the current transitions of earth not only through a scientific model of climate monitoring but through a directly embodied experience of earthly elements? 

 

*Part of the European Research Council project AnthropoloJOY