Antoinette De Jong & Robert Knoth - ARENA

Mori, the Japanese word for woods, consists of two characters, which separately mean tree and soil. The leaves that fall from the trees each year are assimilated into the soil, from which new trees are able to grow. The water absorbed by the woods on the hills is crucial for the rice fields in the valleys. With its cleansing and revitalising power the woods symbolise renewal. Since the nuclear disaster in Fukushima in 2011, however, the woods have been contaminated by radioactive particles that have settled there and which have also ended up in the groundwater. The nuclear disaster thus forms a break with traditional Japanese values and Shintoism, which considers the preservation of natural and cultural landscapes to be of paramount importance.