Allowing for 'Time Lags' and Removing 'Time Limits'

The small bookstore 'Hatsuzoe' inside the community laboratory 'Pukapuka' is open for only six days this month: the 1st, 2nd, and from the 13th to the 16th.

Last week, I brought back the 'Book' sign I used to use at Tsuruhashi Books, so I displayed it along with the OPEN sign at the back of the garage. Now I just need some steps for the curb at the entrance.

And for my reading diary, here is this one:
'The Philosophy of Happiness' (Ken Nishi, NHK Publishing 'Learning Basics' series)

I'd like to pick out two points from this book to introduce. (From Chapter 4, p. 76)
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When people feel a sense of freedom
1. Exploration: Wanting to verify a new or interesting world for oneself
2. Creation: Trying to create something by investing energy
3. Growth: Becoming able to do things one couldn't do before

And when living while exercising this sense of freedom, a sense naturally emerges that you are the protagonist controlling your own life.
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I see. Someone once said, 'It's important for children to hold the controller of their own learning,' and this is close to that idea.

Another thing I want to introduce is how freedom and recognition should be connected. The author explains this using the concept of a 'secure base,' proposed by British psychiatrist John Bowlby.

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It means that 'by creating a secure base through the recognition of one's existence, people become able to act freely.' Conversely, where one cannot expect safety or support due to a lack of recognition of existence, people cannot develop free activities.

Even in a company, if there is an environment where employees can consult with peace of mind and expect support, they will likely develop various innovations and projects.
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The same could be said if you replace 'company' with 'school (classroom),' 'club activity,' 'cram school,' or 'youth center.'

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The second is the connection where 'the results of free activities lead to evaluative recognition from those around you.'

When people have the expectation that their spontaneous activities will be evaluated by others, they will try their best at various things.

Looking at it this way, we can see that the first, 'recognition of existence (secure base) leads to free activity,' and the second, 'free activity leads to evaluative recognition,' are connected as a series.
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I see. Realizing 'freedom' is premised on having 'recognition' both before and after it.

My research theme at the 'community laboratory' is the study between 'play' and 'learning (work),' but perhaps the question is about how to create a place (environment) where people can exercise 'creativity.'

The keywords for that at the moment are 'time lag' and 'time limit.'

To put it another way, perhaps it's about allowing for time lags and removing time limits. Isn't that what 'play (creative action)' is all about?

What I want to express at the bookstore 'Hatsuzoe' is 'time lag.' As the name suggests, 'Hatsuzoe' is the first stage of the three-stage brewing process for sake, where koji, water, and steamed rice are added to the sake mash and mixed. It is brewed in three stages: Day 1 'Hatsuzoe,' Day 2 'Odori' (rest), Day 3 'Nakazoe,' and Day 4 'Tomezoe.'

I named it this because I thought that reading a book is like the first day of brewing sake—the beginning of fermentation.

The other is the "time limit." I feel that this very sense of "time" is what robs people of "play" (creativity).

The other day, while talking with a friend, I thought of a hypothesis: perhaps people are at their most creative when they have physical constraints but no time constraints?

For example, summer vacation spent at a grandmother's house in the countryside. Your usual friends aren't there. There are no toys. The TV isn't very interesting either. There is just an enormous amount of time. Isn't that when people can play most creatively?
Note: My grandmother's house in Niigata was a temple, so there was a main hall (where funerals and such are held), and I used to play with the large pile of cushions there.

This means that school classes, for instance, "Integrated Studies" in high school, are the opposite of an environment where creativity can be unleashed; in other words, it's quite cruel to be told to do as you please while under a time limit.

I think that "unleashing creativity" is what Ken Nishi calls "freedom," or in my own terms, "play."

And it is fun for me now to think that there are multiple places where I can put that hypothesis into practice (and verify it).

Allowing for time lags and removing time limits—is there anyone who wants to research this with me?

I'll be waiting for you at Hatsu-Soe today as well (Open hours: 13:00–18:00 on weekends).