About Fujino
Fujino is a satoyama village located in the vicinity of Mount Takao in the northern edge of Kanagawa prefecture, just over an hour away from the center of Tokyo. It has been at the forefront of progressive ecological and societal movements for the past 30 years. The town introduced permaculture ideas to Japan and the country’s first Permaculture Center was established here in 1996. Since 2006, Fujino is home to the oldest Waldorf school in Asia (initially opened in Tokyo in 1988) and in 2009 Fujino became the first Japanese town to join the Transition Movement*.
Within the context of the movement, Fujino operates its alternative local currency based on mutual aid (with 600 active households), it supplies renewable, off-grid electricity, operates volunteer-based forestry service rewilding local forests and organizes a farmers’ cooperative, amongst many other initiatives.
Together with it’s exploration of alternative community structures, art has also been an inseparable part of Fujino’s identity. During WWII a group of artists, including painters Tsuguharu Foujita and Genichiro Inokuma, relocated to Fujino where, enchanted by the region’s beauty, they envisioned a creation of an artists’ enclave once the war was over. Even though their ambitious plans - an art school, artists’ studios, and modernist architecture - were never fully realized, they put Fujino on the map for future generations of artists in search of a tranquil place to work and to experiment with alternative methods of living.
In the 1980s, a series of cultural exchanges brought artists from the West to Fujino, leading to the launch of the Fujino Art Village Project in 1988 (https://fujino-artmessage.com/). This initiative established Fujino as a center for artistic and cultural collaboration.
During the 1990s, Fujino further solidified its reputation by hosting an artist residency in collaboration with the Austrian government, fostering international exchange and creativity.
Today, Fujino is home to public art installations, artist studios, and workshops, nestled among its scenic hills yet accessible and welcoming to all. The town continues to embody its ecological, artistic, and communal ideals, serving as a model for creative and sustainable living.
* Launched in the UK in 2006 by a permaculture proponent Rob Hopkins, Transition Movement aims to achieve transition from our reliance on fossil fuels to a “socio-economic system that is sustainable on the premise of symbiosis with nature.
