Aoi Nagasawa
Akita-based painter born in Yokote City, Akita Prefecture, in 1994. She participates in the Matagi culture and is active as a hunter, holding her own hunting license. She depicts the relationship between humans and nature in her paintings, which she submits to art exhibitions and festivals throughout Japan. In 2023, she won the grand prize in the Vision of Contemporary Art (VOCA) Exhibition.

Official Site：https://www.aoi-nagasawa.com/
Instagram：永沢 碧衣 (@nagasawaaoi)
X：永沢 碧衣 Aoi NAGASAWA (@DoorAoi)

Nagasawa recounts, “Before I became a hunter, when I would go fishing or picking edible wild plants, I was always afraid of bears. Even though I’d never actually seen one, I’d worry about coming across a bear.”

She was born in the city of Yokote in Akita Prefecture. Shirakami-Sanchi, visible from within the prefecture as a green mountain range, was a familiar presence to her, and she lived in close contact with nature from a young age.

Her interest in forests “first began as something casual” based on her love of fishing but eventually transformed into something deeper. She visited the Ani region of northern Akita Prefecture, where she encountered people called “Matagi.”

“The Ani Matagi of the region traveled and broadly spread their hunting culture to other areas. This culture is also said to have taken root in Shirakami-Sanchi. Shirakami-Sanchi is often described as ‘untouched wilderness,’ but in a way, the forest’s existence today is thanks to the involvement of the humans who have cherished and protected it.”

Total changes to the terrain like landslides often occur within the vast beech forest. However, Nagasawa says that this upheaval is instrumental in nurturing diverse forms of life.

“Although it’s not apparent at first glance, viewed over the long term, nature is breathing in and out in its own way. There’s a cycle of life created by enormous amounts of energy. This is the reality of Shirakami-Sanchi and also what makes it so appealing to me.”

Nagasawa had more opportunities to go into the mountains with the Matagi and eventually obtained a hunting license herself. When she came face-to-face with bears as a hunter, what she felt was not fear.

“Bears, like us, actually only bare their fangs when they have no other choice in order to survive. The Matagi people have engaged with bears and other wild animals for many years, and I realized that they have honed the art of coexistence—of living side by side while maintaining awe and fear toward one another and following the rules of nature.”

One day, while slaughtering a bear, Nagasawa witnessed an unforgettable moment.

“This was a bear that had been exterminated for posing a threat to humans. My job was to hold up the paws. After the bear was shot dead, I could sense the energy leaving its body and it gradually turning into a ‘thing.’ When a slaughtered animal draws its last breath, the color of the air changes.”

Nagasawa’s major work Undoing the Robe of the Mountains was modeled after this bear.

“I painted a human settlement nestled in the forest over the bear’s black fur. In Akita at that time, there had been a landslide that started from a logging site. I depicted this tear in the earth overlayed with the bear’s fatal wound. Of course, that’s not to say that everything is humans’ fault. But if this kind of disaster is the result of hurting the earth, we must not forget that pain. That’s what I felt as I painted.”

The black of the deep forest, houses puffing out smoke, a dam filled with blue water, a landslide, and the expression of the dying bear overwhelm the viewer in this work of an immense scale, which won the grand prize in the 2023 Vision of Contemporary Art (VOCA) Exhibition.

Nagasawa began to see bears through the eyes of a hunter but was eventually confronted by a serious problem involved in hunting nowadays.

“In past times, there was a lot of demand for bear pelts with thick, fluffy winter fur. But in recent years, bears are mostly captured to be exterminated for posing a threat to humans. These bears have thin summer coats with a lot of wounds, so they can’t meet the demand for pelts. More and more localities are being forced to discard pelts. It’s become an issue for hunters’ associations everywhere.”

The Matagi have always carefully processed the living things they received as “blessings” from the mountains and exhaustively used every single part in their daily lives. Faced with the reality that bear pelts were being discarded, Nagasawa contemplated what she could do as a painter and arrived at the solution of making glue.

“Japanese-style painting normally uses natural mineral pigments dissolved in a gelatinous glue, called nikawa. When I looked it up, I found out that this glue could be made from bear pelts. Based on this discovery, I experimented with making it from pelts that I received after the meat had been removed and after some trial and error, I started actually using it in my paintings. I feel like by painting images of bears with materials derived from their bodies, some part of the animal lives on.”

Glue isn’t the only painting material she’s created from bears’ bodies.

“I’ve always been fond of Prussian blue and use it a lot. When I looked into its history, I learned that it was the world’s first color to be synthesized from animal blood. That inspired me to try making it myself from the blood of bears and other animals felled by hunting. But this resulted in a surprisingly tiny amount of paint. I try to use it discretely for special accents like animals’ eyes.”

The setting of Nagasawa’s current project is an area in Shirakami-Sanchi called Dakedai Forest. One of the largest beech trees in Shirakami-Sanchi, over 400 years old, fell in 2022.

“But this fallen tree wasn’t the end. It was a new beginning. Its fall allowed light to reach the forest floor, and now, a new ecosystem is being nurtured here.”

She was also emotionally struck by a moss-covered stone slab that stands in this location.

“Half a century ago, this area was slated for beech tree felling and development by a lumber company. But local people launched a conservation movement. The stone monument tells the story of how the forest was preserved. Its presence might inspire someone to think about the forest and turn those thoughts into action. Making something that serves like an ‘ark’ in this way is amazing to me.”

The wishes of the people who wanted to keep the forest intact bore fruit, with Shirakami-Sanchi eventually becoming registered as a World Natural Heritage site.

“Whatever happens 100 years from now, whether the terrain and ecosystem change, the bears increase or decrease in number or even disappear, or the forest expands, I want to create artworks that convey to the future the sentiments that once existed here and how humans and other living things were connected.”

The fall of the giant 400-year-old tree has allowed new light to shine into the forest. Nagasawa continues to create art while observing the changing face of nature and remaining in touch with the sentiments of the people who live there.

Princess Mononoke (produced by Studio Ghibli)
This animated film is known as one of director Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpieces. It depicts conflict and coexistence between nature and humans, set in Japan’s Muromachi period (fourteenth to sixteenth century). “One of the art directors, Kazuo Oga, is originally from Akita, and some of the movie’s setting is said to have been modeled after Shirakami-Sanchi.”

Matagi: Their Consistent Work and Dietary Culture (by Yasuhiro Tanaka)
This book photographs and records Matagi hunts and scenes of daily life in the Ani district of Kitaakita City, Akita Prefecture, over the course of more than fifteen years. “I stumbled upon this book while I was student, and it led me to actually visit the area. It’s how I first learned about the Matagi way of life.”

Shirakami Studies, Vol. 3: The Matagi of Shirakami-Sanchi, Okumeya Edition (by Makoto Nebuka and others)
This book offers an accurate picture of the Matagi people of the Okumeya region bordering Shirakami-Sanchi based on authentic materials and ethnological research. “It gives insight into the worship of mountain deities unique to Shirakami-Sanchi as well as people’s ways of life, proximity to nature, and sensibilities that have been maintained since before the area became known as a World Natural Heritage site. This book is the perfect key to understanding the Matagi’s unique values.”

*This article was written in December 2025.