92 Years Old and Still Active

The other day, I interviewed
Kazuko Koizumi, director of the Showa Lifestyle Museum in Kugahara, Ota Ward,
to hear her story.

92 years old.
Even hearing that, it is hard to believe.
Her back was straight, her speech was clear, her gaze was sharp, and she had the eyes of someone who truly observes the world.

Ms. Koizumi was born in Tokyo in 1933.
She is a Doctor of Engineering and a former professor at Kyoto Women's University.
She has served as a member of the Cultural Properties Subcommittee of the Council for Cultural Affairs,
and she operates her own home
as the Showa Lifestyle Museum.

Last year,
in commemoration of the achievements of Kan Kikuchi, founder of Bungeishunju,
she was awarded the 73rd Kikuchi Kan Prize (2025), which is given to those who have made creative contributions in fields such as culture, film, and publishing.
The recipients included the production team for the film "National Treasure," author Teru Miyamoto, mathematician Masahiko Fujiwara, Kahoku Shimpo reporter Isao Yokoyama,
and "Kazuko Koizumi and the Showa Lifestyle Museum."
Amazing!
Receiving an award at 92! I was surprised all over again.

The building for this museum
is said to be one of the first houses in Japan
built using a government housing loan.
It is not a space recreated for exhibition,
but the very house where she actually lived,
which is still open today as a museum.

Ms. Koizumi was born in Tokyo in 1933.
She is a Doctor of Engineering and a former professor at Kyoto Women's University.
She has served as a member of the Cultural Properties Subcommittee of the Council for Cultural Affairs,
and she operates the "Showa Lifestyle Museum,"
which is her own home opened to the public.

At the end of the year before last, Ms. Koizumi
published a book titled "Shimau" (Storing/Putting Away).
It is about an old house near the Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine in the San'in region.
Tableware, furniture, and clothing had been left in the wealthy home like a time capsule.
They had been stored away carefully and quietly.

Ms. Koizumi produced the restoration work,
and was so moved by the incredibly beautiful way things were stored
that she preserved it for the world in a book.

In the first part of the book, "My Way of Storing,"
the lives of women living in the modern age are introduced.
Ms. Koizumi asked me,
"Takako-san, would you like to write about how you store food?"
Ways to store vegetables, vegetable broth, and preserving dried foods. Being involved in a book by Ms. Koizumi, whom I respect so much, was such an honor that my hands shook the whole time I was writing the manuscript.

Regarding the Showa Lifestyle Museum, Ms. Koizumi
said, "I am not keeping it to reminisce about Showa life."
What she wanted to preserve
was not just the era or the objects, but the "wisdom."
The wisdom of Japanese life
breathes in fresh forms throughout the museum. During the interview,
she also touched upon climate change and the environment.
Supermarkets have become convenient.
But vegetables, fish, and meat
are all wrapped in plastic.
She spoke with a stern gaze, saying that it is no longer sustainable to continue living this way. "It's not that you shouldn't use air conditioning,"
"it's that the mindset of wanting to make small adjustments is important." If each person's way of life changes just a little,
society will change.
Japan will change.
The world will change.
She also said she sincerely hopes
that shopping streets will come back to life.

Ms. Koizumi has experienced war.
That is precisely why
she wants to convey to the next generation
how precious peace is,
and that it must never be repeated.

She keeps a close eye on the movements of the world,
and
at 92 years old,
she continues to put her thoughts into words and share them.
I was left speechless.

At the end of the interview,
I couldn't help but ask,
"Ms. Koizumi, is there anything you want to do from now on?"
After a short pause, she said,
"Well...
I want to research Japanese 'chairs'." When did Japanese people start sitting on chairs,
and until when did they sit on the floor?
She began to talk happily about the history of chairs and life, going back to the time of the Taika Reform when chairs are thought to have been introduced to Japan.

—At 92,
she still has "things she wants to research."
I was simply overwhelmed
by that fact.
Recording life.
Preserving wisdom.
Handing it over to the next generation.

Kazuko Koizumi
is still
actively continuing to do that.

On this day, I felt like I had been given another piece of homework by Ms. Koizumi:
to think more seriously about "how I want to live."