12 31 Tenzan Bunko Museum houses books donated to the village of Kawauchi by poet Shinpei Kusano, along with those he collected from the likes of Yasunari Kawabata and other writerly friends. It holds some 5,000 titles. 2 The museum’s open floor plan cleverly makes structural columns appear as thおough they are part of the surrounding woods.3 The sunken irori hearth is a typical feature of old country homes.4 Café & Gallery Shufusha. The wood-en tables and chairs were made by owner Fuka Shiga’s father, a potter. 5 While running Shufusha, Shiga also works at Tenzan Bunko. 6 The gummy garnishing this melon float at Shufusha is a nod to the frogs of Hebusu Pond that first brought “Frog Poet” Kusano to the village. 7 Shufusha means “house of the autumn wind.”Tenzan Bunko MuseumAdjacent to this facility built by Kawauchi residents to hold the books donated by Shinpei Kusano is another that archives his papers. Each July, a Tenzan Festival is held to remember the poet and his ties to this place.4 56 7Café & Gallery ShufushaThis warm and welcoming old-style house is a popular weekend gather-ing place for residents and visitors.Village LifeThe poet Shinpei Kusano was born in 1903 in what is now the city of Iwaki. His prolific writings included so many poems about frogs that he was known as the Frog Poet. Kusano’s connection with the village of Kawauchi began when he wrote of his wish to see a certain kind of tree frog in the wild. Upon reading this in the paper, a local priest invited him to visit, as the frogs he sought could be found at the village’s Hebusu Pond.Kusano did visit and, after years of exchange with Kawauchi, was named an honorary citizen. When he donated 3,000 books from his personal collection to the village, residents asked Katsumi Yamamoto, a leading authority on traditional Japanese architecture, to design an elegant structure to house them. Construction of what would become the Tenzan Bunko Museum began in 1966. Nestled in a wooded area surrounded by gentle hills and rice paddies, the building served as Kusano’s residence on his frequent visits. Tenzan Bunko is notable for its attractive merging of traditional and modern styles. It has a thatched roof, a large sunken irori hearth, and sliding doors that open to a sweeping view of the trees. Exquisite furnishings complement the stylish design. Upstairs, there are low-slung shoji windows and a view across to a pond that Kusano named “Pond of the Thirteenth Lunar Night.” Kusano penned many of his poems in this building. In an atmosphere charged with his creative spirit, it’s easy to lose all sense of time here. One wonders if the tree frogs he sought were also at the nearby pond. Kawauchi resident Fuka Shiga greets visitors to the museum, and also operates Café & Gallery Shufusha, a renovated old house where one corner is filled with books by Kusano. Shiga grew up in Kawauchi, and was away at college when the 2011 disasters struck. Concerned that so many people in their twenties and thirties had fled the area, she quit her studies to return home so she could work toward bringing them back. She created the café in the gallery where her father, a potter, had shown his works, making it a community space where she offers support to new residents and connects elderly farmers and their fresh produce with new clientele. “I love the nature here,” Shiga says of Kawauchi’s satoyama—the settled area adjoining fields and hills that from centuries ago was sustainably managed countryside. “No one frets over a rainy day here—on the contrary, rain is rightly appreciated. I love all the satoyama sensibilities like that, which are still very much in place here.” Surely it’s just this spirit that attracted Kusano to Kawauchi all those decades ago.A Poet’s Beloved Getaway27Tenzan Bunko Museum and Shufusha
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