2017
Future Proofing Kesennuma
Study tour of Kesennuma delegation to the
Huon Valley, Tasmania
funded by Australia-Japan FoundationAccording to Newton’s law, energy can be neither
destroyed nor created. Marieluise shattered that law
with her brilliant capacity to produce and preside over
multiple force fields that benefited human and all other
kind. With her power for positive change sustained by
a quiet beauty, dignity, compassion and grace, she
never submitted to vested or prejudicial interests. Her
understanding of the planet’s geo-forces and her love
for the fundamental relationship between the infinite
forms of life and non-life made a profound and lasting
impact on all whom she met.
Barbara Hartley
University of Tasmania
At the end of last year, with your acute powers of
observation and your depth of scholarship, you
carefully led a large group of students around
those sections of the Hashigami area that had been
devastated by the tsunami. How could I ever forget
the precious proposals for reconstruction based on
landscape design theory that you left behind. I can
only now try my best to implement as many of your
ideas as I can.
Masao Hijikata
Professor emeritus
Waseda University
Marieluise and I often discussed the epistemological
oppression of the modern knowledge over the traditional
knowledge based on our aikido practice experiences in
Australia and Japan. We assumed the similar oppression
could be happening in the redevelopment process after
the 3.11 earthquake in northern Japan, 2011. You left
this world before seeing the result of the Kesennuma-
Tasmania project you started. You may have wanted to
surface their locally contextualized, tacit and embodied
experiences, which are overshadowed by development.
Marieluise, I keep practising aikido, through which I can
get close to the world that you wanted to share with me.
Fumiko Noguchi
RMIT UniversityI need optimism. Why do this project?
What can I do? What can anyone do?
Then I meet Keiko and I know why.
We can share, teach and keep memories
alive. We can support each other by
being a witness, by listening and
learning – and by coming back.
Marieluise Jonas
January, 2017LEAVING A LEGACYbushfires in 2016. Deeply caring for the
experience of the participants but unable to
attend the workshop in person due to her
developing illness, she followed the event
via social media. Sadly, she was not able to
see the outcomes of her work.Marieluise Jonas was the epitome of a true
global thinker. Her passing is a great loss to
those who knew her as a friend, teacher and
professiona l. But a s so ma ny have com mu-
nicated following her death in September
2017, her influence on students is profound
and lasting, and her inspiring contribution
in reimagining a resilient future for the
devastated coastal communities of
Keseunnuma, Hashikami and Shibitachi
w ill cont inue to g uide f ut ure development s.Marieluise tried to shift the broader
narrative of the recovery process, which is
so often based on binaries, to create new
opportunities for growth and regeneration
through design. At the beginning of 2017
she finished a draft book proposal, tenta-
tively called “After Landscape: Designing
in uncertainty – learning from Japan for
post disaster futures,” which would reflect
on the collection and findings of her
extensive work.
Her passion for learning and sharing knowl-
edge through cultural exchange, derived
from her own experiences overseas, also
informed her last project, funded by the
Australia-Japan Foundation, in May 2017.
This initiative allowed a small delegation of
Kesennuma residents to visit Tasmania’s
Huon Valley, to exchange their experiences
in recovery processes with members of local
communities affected by the devastating
I give the deepest thanks for your brilliant imagination
making Kesennuma and also Tasmania into places
where we could mutually learn on site about the
severity of the Great East Japan Earthquake and
tsunami. In this way you helped me to think on a
global scale. You taught me how wonderful it was to
exchange ideas with others whose travel experiences,
country and point of view were different. You gave me
great solace. From my heart, I honour your life.
Abe Masahito
Teacher specializing in education for sustainability,
Koizumi district, Kesennuma CityLANDSCAPE ISSUE 157 052 — 053PRACTISING IN ASIA