Unending dreams: One man's fully lived life

Recently I went hiking with three other people. When we were at the summit, one of the men, whom I had just met that day, mentioned his grandson. This child was born very prematurely, weighing 690 grams at birth. He was in an incubator for months and even now, over a year later, he breathes with tubes up his nose because his lungs are too weak and underdeveloped to support him. Even though this youngster is not yet able to walk, he is growing, is alert, and seems quite bright.

“I’m waiting for the day when my grandson will be well enough and old enough to go hiking with me. I want to share with him the important things of life, the things I love.”

Rather than being overwhelmed with worry, this grandfather chose to focus on hope and possibilities. That positive perspective made me realize I wanted to learn more about him, his life, and his outlook.

Yoshiyuki Ajiki is this man’s name. He is in his 60s, so straddles two very different Japans. In his youth people were still filled with “Samurai Spirit” and would endure hardships very stoically. But now the top priority is to enjoy life. So, the values Ajiki grew up with are becoming diluted and disappearing.

When Ajiki was a child, Japan was going through an extremely confusing time. The war had ended. That past was over. The future was not clear. So much was uncertain. This affected not only the country as a whole, but individuals as well. For example, his parents divorced when he was only a year old. That breakup hurled him into a dimension of life that would affect him forever. He learned to fend for himself. His mother never remarried, and single parenting was too difficult. So, Akiji was sent to live with an older woman. Later he was taken in by a younger woman. He says, “I had three mothers. One gave me birth, but rejected me. Another cared for me like a grandmother. And one deeply loved me. Even today I call her my mother of love.”

Going from household to household, as he did, Ajiki had to make decisions for himself. He completed high school, but know being a “salary man” was not for him. University was not an option because he had no money. So, he entered a preparatory school, but left after six months.

Out on his own, he worked several jobs. He began as a milkman because he could get a free room and milk. But that job was six days a week, morning, afternoon, and evening. He had almost no free time. So, he tried other jobs: a short-order cook, a waiter, a bar tender, a delivery boy, whatever he could find.

He also played around and got a “good girl” in trouble, which infuriated her parents. They married. And Ajiki knew he had to find some sort of steady work that would enable him to support a wife and child. Yet, from early on he had always known he had to use his own inner resources to shape his life.

“I have my hands. They are my power. I can rely on them. I will use them to survive and to shape what I become.”

Traditional Japanese architecture has a marvelous play of inner space. Nothing is set. But rather, furniture and even sliding doors and partitions can be easily and quickly moved or removed. That enables a small, intimate room to be transformed into an enormous, bright, welcoming space within a matter of minutes.

The sliding interior doors are called “fusuma”. It takes great skill and years of training to make them correctly. True craftsmen are very few indeed, and are becoming fewer still as the years go by. Yet, that is the profession Ajiki chose.

So, he packed up his wife, child, and belongings and headed south to the tradition-bound city of Nara. There he apprenticed for five years in the studio of the greatest master craftsman in the area. There he learned not only how to create perfect “fusuma”, but also how to make Japanese hanging scrolls (“kakejiki”), and how to repair ancient documents and Japanese paper (“washi”). The work demanded precision, discipline, and concentration. So, Ajiki learned to focus very intently for hours at a time. That enabled him to become highly skilled in his chosen profession. (1)

When his daughter reached school age, the little family returned to the wife’s hometown so their child could attend school there. And they have been there ever since.

Ajiki works out of his home. He has a small studio, where he works from early morning to late evening every day. The work goes in cycles. The end of the year is particularly busy because people want to refurbish their homes for the New Year. He says he becomes a bit frantic at that time. But he loves his work.

“I am living my life the way I want to, “ he says. “This is my life and no one else’s. My bank account may be almost empty, but my heart is rich and full. I feel sorry for folks who have no inner dream, who retire and feel lost and empty. That is not me. I do not have enough of life for all I want to do.”

Besides his work, Ajiki loves hiking. He knows nearly every mountain in this region. And if he has not climbed them all, he knows their names and history. And of course, he hopes to get to every summit some day.

When Ajiki reached his mid-50s, he knew it was time for formal academic education. Up until then he had felt a tremendous gap and regret for not having attended university. So, at 55 he entered college, knowing exactly what he wanted to study. Shamanism. Animism. Specifically Bear Culture and Mountain “kami” shrines. “Kami” is the Japanese word for spirits or gods found in all forms of nature. He also delves into regional culture and anthropology.

His studies entail book and online learning, seminars, and conferences with his professors, of course. But more important is his own direct research. Ajiki roams the entire northeastern section of Japan, seeking shrines of all sorts. Large ones are well documented, but smaller ones dot every corner of this vast region. Some are very subtle as they emerge out of the environment with only a carefully placed stone or significantly shaped tree root to mark the spot. He explores, photographs, talks to old timers and locals, and listens to folklore whenever he can. The more he discovers, the deeper his connection to the mountain “kami” becomes. He and they breathe the same unspoken language of knowing.

When Ajiki was a small boy, he was at home one day and a huge white snake slithered under the floor. There were no white snakes in that region of Japan, so that unusual occurrence was extremely auspicious. At that exact same time his relatives across the mountains saw Ajiki in the room with them. The image was so real, it seemed as if he were there in person. That occurrence set him apart. And he knew he had some sort of special mission to follow.

From that time, the white snake became a powerful memory for Ajiki. And that in turn allowed him to be deeply interested to the “kami”. He knows the “kami” of the rivers and trees, of plants and animals. Yet the “kami” that touch him the most deeply are those of mountains and bears. That is why he reveres peaks, and why he goes hiking every chance he gets. He needs to be in nature, rejuvenating his soul through the power of the earth and the deep wisdom of mountains.

Bears here are black and roam the hills, returning year after year to certain specific places. Ajiki knows their power and is very, very respectful of them. “There energy is powerful in a very profound way,” he says. “They are great messengers of mountains. In fact, in olden times people revered them and called them Yamanokami --- Mountain Kami.”

“In the future my dream is to follow the sweep of bear territory. I want to go into Russia, Siberia, the Arctic Circle, and then into Canada and Alaska. Those creatures resonate deeply within me. I want to follow their path.”

Ajiki also wants to continue his profession. “In America and Europe there are many permanent Japanese exhibitions. There are some in the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, for example. The paper in those places is decaying and needs repairing. There are almost no skilled craftsmen left to do that job. And surely there are none in those countries. “I would like to go to those places and do what I can. That way I can keep Japanese traditional high standards, while at the same time expanding my world through travel.”

“I have so many dreams. But do I have the time and health to fulfill them?”

If not in this life, then surely in the next this unusual man will continue working to make his many and varied dreams come true.