Haruki Kumagai, 38, did not set out to start a yearly festival, or open a bar and performance space in Osaka.
Eight years ago he was working as a potter in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, and was preparing to move to Osaka when large parts of his hometown, Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, were destroyed by the March 11 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Kumagai put his plans on hold and raced back home, where he volunteered with bayside patrols, food distribution, removing rubble and reconstructing a local kindergarten.
A year later, Kumagai finally made it to Osaka where and he and a painter friend, who goes by the moniker Kotakeman, cooked up the idea for a two-day "21st-century strange festival" of artists, craftsmen and performers, which they decided to call "Self-Matsuri." The goal was to foster individual expression, and anyone could participate. The pair decided to hold the first Self-Matsuri inside the Shinsekai Market, a 100-year-old shopping arcade located less than a minute from the Tsutenkaku Tower, an iconic symbol of Osaka.
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