Yuta Momose: In Search of a Place That Affirms Life

2020/07/17

I felt like I wanted a place.

I didn't know exactly what kind of place that was.

That was when I was 20 years old.

I was making music and writing poetry, thinking I might become a lawyer in the future, or trying my hand at community-based art projects—spending my days without anything being clear.

Starting a secondhand bookstore happened because of a very small trigger.

In Ena City, Gifu Prefecture, where I live, there were no independently owned secondhand bookstores anywhere.

There were large bookstores. However, I couldn't find the kind of wonderful place that I actually wanted to go to.

So, if I said I decided to create one, I suppose that would be true. While it's not a lie, it also feels like the reasons are just things I attached after the fact.

I loved books. I loved them and read many. I also loved music. The smell of old things, places where people can be quiet, and treating something important with care.

And more than anything, I think now that I wanted a place where I myself was permitted to be who I am.

And I hoped that the people around me, more than anything, would live their own irreplaceable lives with care. I believe that is certainly true.

I believe this place, the secondhand bookstore "Niwa Bunko," is what took that shape.

In an old folk house over 100 years old standing at the foot of Mt. Kasagi, with a massive ancient torreya tree and the majestic Kiso River before my eyes, amidst the richness of nature viewed from the veranda, I simply want the people who come here to live their own natural selves.

That is all I wish for.

The books are things I chose hoping they would provide a catalyst for living that way. I continue my work wishing that this place can always be like a cradle that embraces the existence of the countless lives living on this planet.

Far yet near, while warming the unique time that should belong to each of us on this planet, we live out our daily lives.