Story towards Reconstruction
* Please click on the arrows below to read each phase of its restoration efforts.
Using more local sea food
“Hamayui” is a folksy Japanese restaurant located in Kamaishi City. Mr. Mitsuzuka started the restaurant in order to let local people eat more food made by local ingredients, including seafood and crops. Mr. Mitsuduka succeeded his step father’s fish dealing business and has been selecting and selling fresh fish every day. In 2007, in order to promote their seafood to other cities, Mr. Mitsuduka and his work partners set up the Kamaishi seafood business union. Meanwhile, they cooperated with Kamaishi City to create relationship with and sell their products to other cities. However, as they felt that the ingredients were not so popular even in local Kamaishi City, they established “Hamayui” restaurant in 2008 in order to please local people with local ingredients. Mr. Mitsuduka said, increasing sales locally would cause shortage and price increase, then would contribute to add value on local ingredients and attract more tourists.
If you click the figure shown right. You can see how the factors around the enterprise are changing and affecting each other th
In order to promote local development
According to Mr. Mitsuduka, since local ingredients are more expensive than imported products, “Hamayui” restaurant doesn’t make big profit. Nonetheless, he sticks to this style in order to spread Kamaishi City’s food culture. Thus, he paid great attention to selecting local fresh fish and vegetables. Additionally, to attract local people, he says the dish should be not only delicious but also cheap and plentiful enough.
What makes it possible is “the team work of Mitsuzuka family.” First, when Mr. Mitsuduka does his selection work in fish market, he also searches suitable ingredients for the day’s Hamayui. And then Mr. Mitsuduka brings the ingredients to the restaurant and Mrs. Mitsuduka starts to cook home-made food with those ingredients. Until the 3.11 disaster, they made more than 600 menus in the past 3 years. Besides that, every day, they updated today’s menu on blog before the restaurant opened, then when Mrs. Mitsuduka finished cooking, they took pictures of the food and uploaded them. After operating for 3 years, their restaurant finally made a reputation among the local people.
If you click the figure shown right. You can see how the factors around the enterprise are changing and affecting each other th
When the earthquake happened
By chance, in the morning of March 11th, the day when the earthquake happened, Mr. Mitsuduka said to his family members, “Maybe a huge earthquake will hit the area sometime soon.” Mr. Mitsuduka went to Tokyo 2 days before the earthquake. On that day, there was an earthquake in Tohoku area and tsunami advisory was given. He was very upset about that. When he went back home, he searched earthquake cycle in the past on the internet. Then, he found that the seismic degree was becoming stronger and the epicenters were becoming more concentrated. Consequently, he felt that there would be a bigger earthquake sometime soon . So he told his family members to be more careful.
Unfortunately, his assumption became true. But thanks to his warning, his family members were all fine. However, the tsunami reached further inland than he expected. After the earthquake, Mr. Mitsuduka immediately closed Kamaishi seafood business union office, which is located at the fish market close to the sea, and drove towards Hamayui restaurant. He thought, since his restaurant was a little far away from the harbor, it should be no problem. So he escaped to the high ground with his wife without bringing anything. However, the tsunami was much stronger than he expected. At the high ground, he saw the tsunami sweep through the whole city. His restaurant, working place (at the fish market) and his house were all washed away.
If you click the figure shown right. You can see how the factors around the enterprise are changing and affecting each other th
Life after disaster
After the disaster, the first thing Mr. Mitsuduka did is to confirm whether his family and relatives were safe. Fortunately, his step father, grandchildren and mother were all fine. They stayed in the governmental office for the moment. Since the power went out, he could not recharge his mother’s medical device. So he walked to the Prefectural Hospital, which had an emergency power source, to charge it. He walked there every day until the power came back. Several days after, they moved to his parents’ home, which was located in Kamaishi city but not the tsunami-hit area.
If you click the figure shown right. You can see how the factors around the enterprise are changing and affecting each other th
Towards recovery
In order to encourage the whole affected area to reconstruct, Mr. Mitsuduka took up his own business recovery. However, since the damage was so heavy, it would took a long period of time to construct a temporary restaurant. He thought maybe “a kitchen car”, mobile catering, was the only way to restart his business quickly and with a small initial cost.
Just 2 days after the disaster, he started to make a business plan. When finished, he gave the idea to Platform Co., Ltd. ,which he has the connection, by sending message via Twitter immediately, which was the only available way at that time. He got the feedback, which agreed his idea. He thought this was the right choice indeed. Afterwards, as internet recovered, he started to talk with the company about the “kitchen car” business in detail. At that time, he targeted his first goal as he start running the kitchen car in May.
If you click the figure shown right. You can see how the factors around the enterprise are changing and affecting each other th
Kamaishi Kitchen Car Project
Platform Co., Ltd. has been funding Mr. Mitsuduka’s “kitchen car” business. This company is a very special one. Instead of paying shareholders money, it makes contribution to the society. Since the company also had some relationship with Kamaishi City originally, it decided to support Kamaishi city and set “kitchen car” project as one of their supporting activities.
Besides providing financial support, the company also sent an employee, Mr.Sekiguchi, to Kamaishi City to help them. Mr. Sekiguchi first arrived at Kamaishi City on April 1st. Since there were no hotel or guest house to stay at, Mr. Mitsuduka had him at his house. Then, they started to implement the project together Finally, Mr. Mitsuzuka could start operation of “kitchen car” on June 17th, 1 month behind the schedule. Before starting operation, he went to Tokyo and learned how to run the “kitchen car” from professional. You can find the details of the project at the website of Kamaishi City Reconstruction Support Project.。
Stress after the disaster
On the next day of the kitchen car started to work, Mr. Mitsuduka’ step father passed away. The cause of death was stress coming from the earthquake and the confusion after that. Mr. Mitsuduka could move to temporary house in July but they decided to stay at his step father’s wife’s house for 49 days, until when they have second Buddhist service for the dead. And finally, they moved to temporary house in mid-August.
If you click the figure shown right. You can see how the factors around the enterprise are changing and affecting each other th
Start operation
After testing, the “kitchen car” Hamayui started to operate. Mr. Mitsuduka said, its duty was to gather consumers again into the affected area. Movability was its strength. It could run to every place, even to the ruins to sell food and to other cities to tell people the situation of affected areas. Actually, there were many ruins in June, when the “kitchen car” started to sell food.
Mr. Sekiguchi said, using kitchen car to sell meals may seem to have no problem at first sight, but since they did not know how to use the kitchen car well, they encountered lots of difficulties at the beginning. Moreover, due to the limited speed of the kitchen car, it was necessary to be familiar with what it can and cannot do. So they examined the car and did preparation at one of the factories in the temporary office. For this reason, they could merely sell meals either in the daytime or at night. In spite of the limited opening hours, they were able to earn some money. Even though they were not sure when they could move out from the temporary shop, fortunately, the life without income came to an end.
If you click the figure shown right. You can see how the factors around the enterprise are changing and affecting each other th
The first step
However, Kitchen Car Project is merely the first step of recovery for Mr. Mitsuduka. For him, another step, which could be a reopen of Hamayui restaurant, is not the final goal. His final objective is promoting Kamaishi City and its local ingredients. For that reason, Mr. Mitsuduka thought, even after the disaster happened, he must provide as high quality meals as in the past. When the kitchen car started to sell food, 83 packed meal was sold out in 30 minutes. He thought, if at this speed, 100 packed meal would be sold out. But he also considered that would result in quality decline. Thus, he stopped to sell more. Since he didn’t want to cook meals carelessly. Afterwards, he decided to just sell 60 packed meals every day. If the meals could be sold out earlier, he would spent time to develop new menus and think how to improve the quality. At the beginning of June, Kitchen Car Project only owned two kitchen cars, including Mr. Mitsuzuka’s “Hamayui” , and “Wattsu”, provided by a restaurant which focused on local chicken and local ingredients. When August came, 4 new businessmen joined. The next challenge for them is, how to continue gathering people in bitter cold winter.
If you click the figure shown right. You can see how the factors around the enterprise are changing and affecting each other th
２つのNPO設立
2011年11月15日、震災後に立ち上がり、三塚さんが中心となって活動してきた2つの団体がNPO法人として正式に認められた。２つのNPO法人は、それぞれ「まちづくり」「水産業」という視点から復興を後押しする。
一つ目のNPO法人である『東日本経済活性化支援機構』はイベントの開催等によりまちを元気にする活動を行う。認定後最初の活動は2012年3月11日にイベント「かまいし復興の祈り」を開催すること。「かまいし復興の祈り」は、2011年8月11日に行われた第1回釜石復興祈願祭をステップアップさせたイベントだ。東日本経済活性化支援機構・三塚さんが事務局を務める「かまいし復興の折り実行委員会」*を中心に企画・運営を行う。第1回の釜石復興祈願祭では3月11日以来街灯が消え、夜には真っ暗になってしまっていた釜石の中心部、青葉通りを祈り・願い・想いを託した約3000のキャンドルで彩ったり、様々な団体の協力により揃えた浴衣をプレゼントした。「かまいし復興の折り」では、釜石駅前の「復興の鐘」を中心としたキャンドルイベントを企画しているという。
二つ目のNPO法人は、東日本大震災からの復興を「水産業」という視点から支援する『東北復興支援機構』だ。水産業に関わる人々の連携・協力による水産業新興や、東北地方と首都圏等の消費地をつなぐネットワーク構築による漁業への理解促進、魚食啓蒙、販路開拓等を目指す。最初の活動は、お客さんに水産物を安心して買ってもらえるように釜石の水産物のセシウム134・セシウム137・ヨウ素131の放射能を測定・公表すること。放射線測定機器は大地を守る会から貸与され、測定する水産物は有限会社泉澤水産に協力してもらっている。測定は三塚さんが忙しいスケジュールをなんとかやりくりして行っており、相当大変だとのこと。測定機器・方法や測定結果などの詳しい情報は同団体のFacebookページで公開されている。
* かまいし復興の折り実行委員会は、「東日本経済活性化支援機構」、「復興の風プロジェクト」、「NPO北海道ネオス」、「NPC釜石プラットフォーム」、「カリタスジャパン釜石ベース」が共同で立ち上げた委員会。
(2012年1月更新)
If you click the figure shown right. You can see how the factors around the enterprise are changing and affecting each other th
キッチンカー屋台と浜結の今後
東北の厳しい寒さの冬を乗り越えるため、かまいしキッチンカープロジェクトは「キッチンカー」と「屋台」をつなげる「キッチンカー屋台」を編み出し、「キッチンカー屋台」が集まるキッチンカー屋台村を、12月27日～30日にプレオープン、1月11日にグランドオープンさせた。キッチンカー屋台は、キッチンカーより少し小さい移動式のボックスをキッチンカーの側面につけるもので、カウンター席とテーブル席あわせて６～８人分の席ができる。透明なビニールシートで覆われたボックスの中には暖房器具が入れられ、暖をとりながら食事が出来る。キッチンカー屋台村がオープンするのは毎週木曜・金曜・土曜の夜。その日は、現在6台あるキッチンカーのうち居酒屋営業を主とした4台「和っつ」「乾杯」「リヴァル」「新華園 支店」がキッチンカー屋台での夜間営業に専念する。その4台が昼間まわっていた場所を残りの2台でカバーするため、「はまゆい」の負担は増えるが、これまで支えてきてくれたお客さんのためにも行けなくなる場所がないようにしたいという。
「はまゆい」は、今まで通り昼営業に専念している。冬季になって売り上げが減少することを心配していたが、販売数も安定しているという。キッチンカー「はまゆい」にとっての大きな目標は店舗へ移ることだ。震災前と同じ地産地消の日替わり定食屋「浜結」をやるのは、仕入れ可能な食材が限られるため難しいそうだ。そのため三塚さんは新たな店舗のアイデアもいくつか考えている。いずれも、これまで釜石にはなかったタイプのものだとのこと。店舗の場所は市の計画が具体的になってから、10年・15年先を見越して決めたいという。三塚さんは来年の秋、遅くても再来年の春には店舗へ移行したいと考えているそうだ。(2012年1月更新)
If you click the figure shown right. You can see how the factors around the enterprise are changing and affecting each other th
