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Kuni, as heard on Louisiana Eats!
In the 30 June 2023 edition of her celebrated radio program, Louisiana Eats!, Poppy Tooker reveals that there's more to the Louisiana-Japanese connection than Lafcadio Hearn. With more than twice the land mass as Louisiana, Japan struggles to keep its rural hamlets and villages alive and filled with people. What is to be done?
One man's theories and actions are testament to the creative spirit alive in Japan to revive rural communities (together with urban allies): My co-author, Tsuyoshi Sekihara, in our book, Kuni: A Japanese Vision and Practice for Urban-Rural Reconnection. Rural Louisiana has similar challenges. Once thriving small towns have since been emptied out by lack of opportunity, the arrival of the big box stores (most notably WalMart) to lure people and money beyond town limits, and the lack of imagination among those who remain to rethink the sense of place. Louisiana is not alone. This is the issue that challenges much of rural America. This was why I became so intrigued with Tsuyoshi Sekihara's ideas. Once I saw them in action, I knew it was important to collaborate, capture his insights, and share the model. To share this model with Louisiana's most effective communicator was too good to pass up. Thank you, Poppy! The Kuni episode of Poppy Tooker's Louisiana Eats! can be heard here.