Purpose

To keep alight what does not change

変容の時代に、変わらぬ理を灯す。
自然と文明の交わる場に、自らの在り方を見出す。

In an age of transformation, to keep alight the principle that does not change. Where nature and civilisation meet, to find one’s own way of being.

We live in a time when civilisation itself is being called into question. Science, technology and the market have brought a prosperity without precedent, and with it a deepening crisis of the earth, a hollowing of the inner life, and the fragmentation of society. Our very way of being is in question. KOTOWARI stands in that opening and takes as its work the sowing of seeds for another civilisation — not by producing new knowledge or solutions alone, but by standing on the truth that rises from the long flow of time and the depth of consciousness, so that inner transformation and the re-creation of the world can proceed together.

Principle

Three orders that cross

Kotowari is the order flowing beneath changing phenomena: what the East has called the Way, and what resonates with reason in the West — the source that sustains every living thing. We do not treat it as a doctrine to be learned but as a living sense, acquired through the body, through nature, through questions, relationship and creative practice. Our work stands where three of its orders cross.

The order of nature 自然の理

The cycle of life that turns with the seasons; the rhythm of a greater existence.

The order of civilisation 文明の理

The lineages of wisdom humanity has built — philosophy and history, science and art.

The order of the person 個の理

The inviolable centre in each of us: trust in one’s inner truth, grown in honest relationship with others and the world.

Where the three meet, the creation of the next era begins.

Mission

Change the way we see the world before changing the world

The complex crises of our time cannot be explained by the limits of institutions alone. They rise from a distortion deep in how we perceive — in the frames through which we grasp the world. Healing that distortion is not a matter of surface measures or short-term results. It asks for the capacity to intuit the essence of things and to change from within, a capacity born only of deep personal reflection and the resonance of a community.

KOTOWARI opens places for this — a home ground for seekers, where the next generation of makers can renew their relationship with people, nature, society and the unseen, through acts rooted in their own kotowari. It is an inquiry of civilisational and spiritual depth, beyond the problems of the day.

What we hold

Retreats, pilgrimages, and KUNI

Retreats. Time apart from daily life, in natural or historic places, to face oneself in silence and insight, and to hear an inner voice through dialogue with others — the summer schools and retreats in Oku-Aizu, and later in Kumano.

Pilgrimages. Walking the sacred routes of Japan — Kumano, Koyasan, Shikoku — in harmony with the wisdom held by the land, so that a person’s own search joins a flow much longer than a life.

KUNI. An annual gathering on the pilgrimage paths of Japan, first walked in 2023 and held as the KUNI Summit in 2024 and 2025. From 2026 it carries the name KUNI alone. For five to seven days, people of different generations and lands — young people alongside elders and practitioners from many fields, from more than thirty countries so far — walk, keep silence, share meals, and offer themselves to the rhythm of the land. There are no lectures or facilitated sessions; the path is the teacher. KUNI has its own home at kuni.one.

KUNI is held with as little centre as possible. There is no founder at its middle; responsibility is spread among stewards, some visible and many not, who tend conditions rather than direct outcomes. KOTOWARI is the vessel that makes this possible in the world — the part that signs the contracts, keeps the accounts, and answers for what is done — and it tries to hold that role quietly, without becoming the centre of what it holds.

A short history

From a summer school to a pilgrimage

2021

The first Aizu Summer School in the mountains of Oku-Aizu, Fukushima, run by a voluntary group of graduates of American liberal-arts colleges and funded by its supporters.

2022

In May, KOTOWARI is incorporated as a non-profit general incorporated association; Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi join as directors. In June the programme is selected by the Mitsubishi Mirai Ikusei Foundation for three years of support. The second Aizu Summer School in August; the first Winter Fellowship from November.

2023

The Summer Retreat in Oku-Aizu. In November, the first KUNI Retreat — Aso, Miyazaki, Kyoto — co-hosted with friends from abroad, and a youth forum in Kyoto.

2024

A pilgrimage on Koyasan in spring; the KUNI Summit Fellowship through the autumn; in December, KUNI Summit 2024 in Kumano, Koyasan and Kyoto.

2025

A Taoist retreat and a ten-day pilgrimage through Kumano to Koyasan in spring; in December, KUNI Summit 2025 on Koyasan — the pilgrimage of return.

2026

The gathering takes the name KUNI, with kuni.one as its home; KOTOWARI’s own site is renewed around a quieter proposition. KUNI 2026 walks from Kumano to Koyasan in December.

The full record is kept under From our gatherings.

People

Those who answer for it

Kotaro Aoki

Representative Director

Ikujiro Nonaka

Director · Professor Emeritus, Hitotsubashi University

Hirotaka Takeuchi

Director · Chair of the Board of Trustees, International Christian University; Professor, Harvard Business School

Many more people carry the work — those who cook, host, walk, translate, film, and keep the places we return to. Most of them do not appear on any page.

Records and support

In the open

Annual activity reports are published in Japanese: 2021, 2022, and 2023. The association is sustained by those who take part and by gifts from those who wish to see the work continue; you can support it here.

To write to us: info@kotowari.co.