Akizuno Garten is a city and country exchange facilities

 Wooden schoolhouse is Japanese landscape

The wooden schoolhouse was actually used as Kamiakizu elementary school until March, 2008. It was built in 1953, and it’s been more than 60 years. Grown-ups visit here and feel nostalgia by remembering old times with creaky hallway, sunny spot under the eaves, and lawn courtyard. In front of Garten office, there is a monument that children who graduated the elementary school buried the time capsule in 1976. When they will dig out it in the future, they will talk about old memories; they left such a beautiful parting gift.

 Local mothers make dishes in a restaurant.

　There aren’t any professional chefs in the farmer’s restaurant, Mikan batake. Instead, local mothers make slow food dishes with local fresh vegetables and edible wild plants. They know about local ingredients well, and are professional of making home-made meals.
There are various dishes and local dishes for from children to elderly such as curry and rice, deep fried, pickled vegetables, and cha-gayu.
‘What’s this?’ ‘How does it taste?’ Local mothers answer those questions friendly and it makes you feel like visiting relatives living in the countryside.
The restaurant offers slow food lunch buffet. Depends on the feeling and appetite on the day, each person can pick the dishes from 30 various dishes and all can enjoy the lunch together.
Mikan batake sticks to slow food and local production for local consumption, and is stuffed with the will of Akizuno Garten.

Akizuno Garten was established by local residents.

More than half of stockholders and two thirds of board directors of Akizuno agricultural corporation which manages Akizuno Garten are local farmers. It is a limited liability company using social business for regional vitalization with 489 investors and capital fund of 51 million and 800 thousand yen.
Kamiakizu is located in Tanabe-city which is the branch point of O-hechi route and naka-hechi route of Kumano Kodo, and it is said that in Heian Era, there were already a village there. By climbing up Aizu River, the road reaches Koya-san via Ryujin onsen which is one of the three onsen of beauty in Japan. Having a role of connecting southern seaside area and Kii peninsula, people living in mountain village cultures have interacted with others.
However, this area was destroyed by the great flood in 1889. The residents worked together to revive the area, and it took several decades for that. With those cooperative spirits, in 1957, Aigo-kai was established as the first corporation in Wakayama prefecture. Aigo-kai set the rules; “using earning only for public welfare in the area,” and it supported local education, welfare, and environmental protection, and built the base of making residents centered community.
Aigo-kai led to establish various association and movements such as famers and residents interacting events and environmental protection motion. Moreover, residents began to participate in making community, and by full participation, they made agriculture in this area multi-item and year-round harvest.

Social business for solving problems of the region

Not to rely on the administration from the beginning, but do what the residents can do, and if necessary, ask support and cooperation from administration. That’s what people experienced and learned from the regional vitalization. Nowadays, the environmental around agriculture is difficult, and there are many problems such as increasing abandoned field or unused agricultural land and lack of farmers and inheritors. However, there is a possibility of creating flexible employment because of agriculture. And green tourism is one of the way to solve those problems.
Garten is German, and it mean a garden. Here in Akizuno Garten is not only for sightseeing and regional vitalization, but also as a garden of the area which local residents gather. And we manage it with the idea of social business.