Mekochan: Old School Bookstore
Mekochan: Old School Bookstore
Mekochan
The population of Megijima is about 100 people. The island’s only elementary school, Megi Elementary School, was closed in 2005, and currently there is only one elementary school student living on the island. In this work, a character named “Mekochan” was created based on that elementary school student, and her life is expressed in an installation. Mekochan is like a sprout that will soon take root in the soil and grow toward the sun. She absorbs nutrients from everything on the island and grows big. Every morning, Mekochan boards a boat and goes to school alone at her elementary school in Takamatsu. The road to and from school is a narrow path surrounded by giant trees and overgrown with flowers. She takes one step at a time, bathed in the sea breeze.
Old School Bookstore
I was allowed to enter the closed Megi Elementary School and looked into the library, where faded and rotten books were lined up quietly, covered in dust. If the school had not been closed, these were the books that Mekochan would surely have read. Looking at the selection, I could sense the kind feelings of the people of this island who are trying to raise the next generation. The books looked like objects that contained the dirt and smell of their hands, along with their memories. Inspired by this experience, I created the “Fertilizer Books.” I disassembled and fused the books from libraries of closed and closed schools in various places to reconstruct them as new objects. I hope that through the Setouchi Triennale, the “Fertilizer Books” will become nutrients like sunlight, water, and soil, and permeate the seeds in the hearts of people all over the world. Eventually, new shoots will appear here and there, and beautiful flowers will bloom. Just like Mekochan, all of you visitors are new shoots born in a land that is losing man-made resources. Old School Bookstore is a store that sells nutrients called “Fertilizer Books.”
Afterword
This work was created as a hymn to new shoots emerging in a land where artificiality is declining. We create our works in the closed building of the former Sekijo-Seibu Elementary School in Yufu City, Oita Prefecture. This elementary school closed in 2008, the same time as Megi Elementary School was closed, and we have been using it as an atelier for nearly 15 years. There is only one child in our village who is two years old. In today’s Japan, depopulation is evident not only on Megijima, but all over the place. It is sad that the number of people is decreasing and schools are disappearing, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I feel that the energy of the vegetation exceeds the power of humans and makes the land vibrant. Also, although the people who live on the land are few in number, they live strong lives and raise the next generation of people. This can be seen from the books in the library of a school that has been closed due to a decrease in population. I always feel that we receive a lot of nutrients from the depopulated land and are being raised.
April 2025
The Cabin Company
Kentaro Abe & Saki Yoshioka