About us

About us

Weaving together the fleeting moments of a finite life

The river flows on without end, yet the water is never the same.
The foam that gathers in the still pools vanishes and forms again, never lingering long.
(from Hōjōki, 1212)

We live in a 120-year-old farmhouse on the old Nakasendō road in Kashiwabara, Maibara, Shiga Prefecture, Japan.

On this stretch of road, where travellers of the Edo period once walked and passed through, we began renovating the house ourselves in 2023 — with the help of professional carpenters, and together with helpers who came from all over the world to lend a hand.

Like the flow of a river, everything changes, disappears and is born again.
Precisely because time is impermanent, we feel that making something with our own hands, and the solid touch of time spent with others, are among the few things that do not fade whatever the era — the unchanging within the ever-changing.

We used to create gathering places under the name "Watanabe Tateguten" (a joinery workshop).
The name and the form have changed, but the "place-making" we care about continues here, in this place called "flow".

■ Our six "pursuits"

In the passing of time, we hope to be like a clear stream that keeps flowing and never stagnates.
At flow, we express that wish as six pursuits, which we offer to you.

🏠 1. Yamagen Stay & Retreat (guesthouse)

We made the old house barrier-free so that wheelchair users and people with chemical sensitivities can stay with peace of mind.
The concept is "experience and exchange". Cooking a meal together, picking herbs in the garden for tea —
beyond the roles of host and guest, shall we create a rich time of living together?

💆 2. Salon flow (bodywork)

Person and person, environment and person, body and mind, organs and membranes and muscles and bones, the subjective self and the objective self —
a bodywork salon that attunes the "in-between" (awai).
Through many-sided approaches including dialogue and art, we help clients recover the natural healing power that body and mind already hold.
To give each person our full attention, we see one client a day.

🎨 3. Atelier flow (art class)

Sharing the things that matter at the roots of art — how paints are made, the character of different materials, techniques of expression — we each face our own way of expressing.
Held on the fourth Saturday of every month.

🎸 4. Guitar flow (guitar lessons)

One-to-one guitar lessons for beginners.
The finger movements, posture and bodily sense that videos and books cannot convey — we work through them side by side with each student.
Without hurry, without comparing, let's enjoy the moments of "I did it!" together.

🌾 5. Farm flow (rice-growing workshop)

A rice-growing experience packed with more than fifteen years of hands-on knowledge, using no pesticides, no fertiliser and no machines.
Caring for the weeds and the insects too, you can experience every step of rice farming through the year.
The rice you harvest is yours to take home.

🧂 6. The Little Living Shop (natural seasonings, sold by weight)

A shop for ethical seasonings and everyday goods, chosen with care for the environment and for the people who make them.
Package-free by default — buy by weight and make no waste — for a healthy way of living that is kind to people and to the planet.

Born in the evening and gone by morning — such is our lot, like foam upon the water.
I do not know whence those who are born and die come, nor where they go.
Nor do I know, in this temporary dwelling, for whom we trouble our hearts, or what it is that delights our eyes.
(from Hōjōki)

(Hideo & Yu)