TEMPURA Magazine – Number 21: Japanese Countryside

TEMPURA, a magazine about japan: japan as you‘ve never read it before,

TEMPURA Magazine was born in 2019. Its mission? To open the doors to a Japan far removed from clichés. Co-founded by Emil Pacha Valencia, Editor-in-Chief, Clémence Fabre, Artistic Director, and Olivier Cohen de Timary, Publishing Director, TEMPURA is a magazine aimed as much at lovers of Japan as at curious readers seeking inspiration.

If Japan's cities are the receptacle for all our desires for shopping and late-night outings, it's the Japanese countryside that makes our hearts race. Just a few minutes on social media are enough to realize this: videos worthy of a Miyazaki anime; pastel-colored photos of septuagenarian farmers picking daikon; Young couples from the new countryside walking their Shiba Inu through the rice fields... Let's face it: the Japanese countryside is a dream come true.

Does that mean we should hand in our resignations and go in search of one of the many akiya, those empty houses that can be bought for next to nothing? Won't the rural exodus eventually lead to the collapse of this idealized image? And will these young urbanites who are leaving everything behind for a better, gentler life, closer to nature, be enough to save the countryside? The answer is in this new 196-page issue!

In this issue:

🫖 The town of Mashiko, the beating heart of Japanese ceramics, opens its doors to you. Our reporters take you to meet the people who bring Mingei, the folk arts movement, to life.
🤳Is the Japanese countryside like social media? Discover the behind-the-scenes story of depopulation and the struggle to preserve communities.
🐐Hori Itaru, a farmer unlike any other, is trying to convert the Japanese... to goat cheese. A meeting between milkings.
🎞️ Photographer Hiroshi Takai returned to his home village of Ichijima to sensitively explore the fragility of these environments.
🍙 What if rice were to disappear? Between soaring prices and predicted shortages, farmers have decided to take matters into their own hands.
📸 Ishiuchi Miyako, the cult photographer, welcomed us into her home for an in-depth interview where she discusses her obsession with the passing of time.
📝 Le Grand Reportage returned to Noto, one year after the great earthquake and tsunami, to meet those fighting to revive their town. 🪡 In Ivry-sur-Seine, in a discreet workshop, an artisan explores the limits of aizome, the natural Japanese indigo dye.
🍱 The Travel Journal takes you to Fukui, to discover the culinary expertise of Buddhist monks.

And many other surprises!

Language: Bilingual (French / English)