Aoi Yamada Wings It Through Wakayama

In the hills, by the sea, where the wild birds may be.

“I often become something other than human, but this was my first time becoming a bird,” says dancer and performing artist Aoi Yamada with an open laugh.

In this feature, Aoi responds to the theme of “Birding” by embodying four different birds across four scenes. In the forest along the Kumano Kodo, she becomes Yatagarasu, the three-legged crow said to guide travelers. At a lookout over the Kii Mountains, she becomes a mountain hawk-eagle circling on rising air. By the river, she becomes a great egret watching for fish. And beside the sea, she brings a common sandpiper vividly to life, fluttering her wings as if they were trembling.

During the sandpiper scene, the pouring rain stopped the moment Aoi began to dance. Sunlight broke through the clouds and reflected on the mirror-like surface of the water, calling forth a moment that felt almost miraculous, almost sacred.

“Rather than trying to recreate bird-like movements, I wanted to express their strength, their instincts, and the way they live so freely and so themselves. In one of his books, architect Hiroshi Hara says that birds are the only wild animals we can encounter up close in everyday life. Seeing wild birds flying through the mountains and along the river, it reminded me how fascinating and complex their lives really are.”

To embody the four birds, Aoi gathered images of each one and created image boards, researching what they eat, where they live, and how they move through their habitats. Birds were not something she paid much attention to in daily life, but during her time in Wakayama, their presence seemed to grow larger. Wherever she went, she found herself sensing them nearby.

“Early one morning, I went for a walk along the beach in Shirahama, and the sound of the waves and birdsong was so lively. That natural clamor felt fresh to me. In the city, I tend to put on music without thinking, but here I wanted to take off my earphones and let myself sink into the sounds around me.”

Walking, Eating

Aoi’s daily life is simpler than many might imagine. Two things she really values are walking and eating. For her, these two elemental acts reset the mind and body, which can so easily fall out of sync in modern life.

“When my head is working too hard and my body feels left behind, I go outside and walk for a while. Somehow, that alone refreshes me.”

If walking works on the mind, food works on the body. As the saying goes, “you are what you eat.” What we take in shapes our health and our thoughts.

One place Aoi yearned to visit on this Wakayama trip was Villa Aida, a restaurant in Iwade that serves only one party per day. Centered on vegetables they grow in their own garden, the restaurant prepares local, seasonal ingredients in the way best suited to their condition and the day’s weather. Aoi first met owner-chef Kanji Kobayashi at an event several years prior, and since then, Villa Aida has been one of the places she’s been most curious about.

“Recently, we stopped using animal products,” says Kobayashi-san. “Limiting ourselves to vegetables has opened up new ideas and made cooking even more enjoyable.”

“These vegetables are grown with so much time and care, then cooked with such attention, and yet the finished dish disappears in an instant,” says Aoi. “The fleetingness. The joy. It almost brings me to tears.”

Guided by the chef through the garden, we find bright and colorful vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers growing in abundance. The richness of the ingredients, the sheer gift of life, makes our hearts leap.

Looking back, Aoi feels that Wakayama gave her everything she needed: a place that brings the body back into motion, ingredients rich with seasonal energy, and time that loosens its grip.

AOI YAMADA
A performing artist whose work brings together one-of-a-kind sensitivity and close attention to the moments of everyday life. She has appeared in films such as PERFECT DAYS and Enjo, as well as the music video for Sakanaction’s Iranai, and is also active in the performance units Aoi Tsuki and Tokyo QQQ. Yamada feels a personal connection to Wakayama, where her husband’s grandparents live. Returning for the first time in a while, she travels along the Kumano Kodo and through the Tanabe and Shirahama areas.

WAKAYAMA  Guide