Why a small village of 800 people making NFTs.
Survive or Perish
Hi everyone! My name is Haruka Takeuchi and I’m originally from Japan. Now I’m working for a village representative in “Yamakoshi”. You might not have heard of “Yamakoshi”, it’s the name of a small village in the mountains of Niigata prefecture in Japan. We are a tiny village but have a thousand years of history. The village is now part of a big city called “Nagaoka” through municipal mergers. Before we go, let me introduce a little bit more about the village “Yamakoshi” and why it’s so unique.
Yamakoshi is a region with extremely heavy snowfall of up to 3 meters in winter and rugged terrain where there is almost no flat area. We’ve got a very tough natural environment, it’s no doubt, but that’s what we love about the village. You might be surprised by the fact that “Yamakoshi” is the birthplace of Nishikigoi (Colored Carp). Did you know that?
It’s not easy, but very fortunate that we’re surrounded by nature and live close to it. However, we had a massive earthquake in 2004. The earthquake is called the “Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake” and the magnitude was around 6.8. The situation was beyond devastating that the entire village had to be evacuated so that everyone thought at the time that there was no way to come back to the village anymore. That’s what we thought seriously. To stand up one more time for the village, we made a slogan “Let’s go back to Yamakoshi” and spent years and years trying to come back to the place. That’s how and when we “Yamakoshi Public Meeting Representative” were born to help rebuild the village once again.
But we had to face a sad truth to move forward. The sad truth is that there were about 2,200 people in this village at the time of the earthquake, now there are only 800 people living in this village. In addition to that, the again rate is over 55%, so if things keep going at this rate, sooner or later, this Yamakoshi village could disappear.
We just don’t want to let it happen. We do whatever we have to do, so we’re trying to find a way to use technology to ensure that the Yamakoshi village that has been handed down to us by our past will survive in the future. Strong will.
Digital Art × NFT-Residency
Some of you may have heard of the term “NFT”, it stands for “Non-Fungible Token” and what it does is that it enables a system in which the transaction history can’t be modified using blockchain technology for data management. And by using another technology called “smart contracts”, NFT has made it possible to provide some sort of proof of its uniqueness attached to digital data. With that being said, NFT can show you who owns that digital data. And of course, a person who is the owner of the digital data can buy and sell it. Since we have a situation where digital artworks can be bought and sold easily and safely on the market, there have been some cases of digital art (NFT) traded for millions of dollars.
The NFT that we Yamakoshi village made has been officially approved by Nagaoka City. And Nishikigoi (Colored Carp) is the symbol of the NFTs. It’s not actually just an NFT, but it also works as an NFT-Residency for the Yamakoshi village. The word “NFT-Residency” may not be familiar to you, but something close is “e-Residency” launched by Estonia, a small country in Northern Europe in 2004.
The NFT that we Yamakoshi village made has been officially approved by Nagaoka City. And Nishikigoi (Colored Carp) is the symbol of the NFTs. It’s not actually just an NFT, but it also works as an NFT-Residency for the Yamakoshi village. The word “NFT-Residency” may not be familiar to you, but something close is “e-Residency” launched by Estonia, a small country in Northern Europe in 2004.
As the overall Japanese population continues to decline, in reality, it is unlikely that the population of the Yamakoshi village will increase. We believe that by expressing Nishikigoi, which is already a global content, in digital art and adding more social contexts to it, we can take a new step forward in NFT and regional revitalization.
Creating a Global Digital Population of Relationships through NFTs
We named our NFT “Colored Carp”. This is a generative artwork which means that the art you see is generated by computer algorithms and works as a residency for the Yamakoshi village as I said earlier. At this moment, there is no connection to the actual resident card or My Number card (a Japanese social security system), but it shows that we’re friends sharing the same feeling for Yamakoshi. By visualizing the people who purchased our NFT “Colored Carp” from around the world on the blockchain, a global population of digital relationships can be created, which will help push forward the projects and even problems that we Yamakoshi village need to solve with its own financial resources based on the proceeds of this Nishikigoi NFT project.
For example, we’re planning to actively invest in the Yamakoshi village as a field to launch an educational program accessible to all children and adults worldwide. And we’re going to start a fund to solve local community problems, no matter how large or small, and invite some startups using vacant houses and facilities. At the same time, we’ll brush up on more ideas and develop business plans on how we can protect the village in a community chat room on our Discord server. This is going to be exclusively for our NFT holders, and we’ll aim to develop the community using as many democratic methods as possible such as gathering opinions and feedback from community members and voting.
In the future (this shouldn’t be too far), we’ll focus on creating more value for our Colored Carp holders to enjoy in real life. Something we’re currently thinking of is building a residence where Colored Carp holders can stay. We’re just trying to think of how we can thank and give back to our holders and provide the best interesting experiences.
The population of Nagaoka city is roughly 270,000 people while the Yamakoshi area (formally Yamakoshi village) is about 800. There is a big difference between the two in terms of things in government. From this perspective, being able to create a related population in each area as well as secure its own financial resources will help shine a light on the future of underpopulated areas like Yamakoshi, regardless of the current municipal classification.
Making a New Digital Village of “800” + “10,000”
It has been 17 years since we went through the huge earthquake and the merge into Nagaoka city. To be honest, it wasn’t an easy journey as we’ve faced so many difficulties and challenges along the way, but the reason why we were able to get up from those things is that we know that we’ve always wanted to rebuild a new Yamakoshi village. It’s always for the village. That’s why we decided not to rebuild the village with the only people living here, but decided to create a unique autonomous village and place with 800 local residents and plus 10,000 global digital residents, our Colored Carp holders.
The village is located in the deep mountains and it’s even true that the village is now at the forefront of depopulated areas, yet we’ve been connected to the outside world through the Nishikigoi (colored carp) industry. We’ve learned that national borders or even physical constraints don’t matter when it comes to things that have real values.
We’re committed to creating a digital village “Yamakoshi” that will be globally open to the world and the “Colored Carp” NFTs will be the bridge between you and us, and of course the village. This will be the first attempt of its kind in the world. The knowledge, networks and all the resources of 10,000 digital residents have will come together to create a new sustainable “Yamakoshi” with its financial resources and its governance regardless of the actual real society. By combining the real which maintains natural resources and unique cultures such as Nishikigoi (colored carp) and the metaverse which goes beyond physical constraints and expands infinitely, we Yamakoshi people and the digital Yamakoshi residents can develop our living heritage as common property.
Our Team Members
We’ve been working on this project with a team of people who share our vision for the future of Yamakoshi. We feel that they are the pioneers of digital residents enjoying this crazy idea, trying to learn more about the village and bringing their knowledge to the project. We’re truly genuinely grateful for the opportunity to be able to dream about the future of our village and work together with them. And we would be so glad if you are interested in joining us as the next digital resident!
We’re looking forward to seeing you there!
The Official Webpage:
The Official Twitter Account:
<Teams>
- Operation: Yamakoshi Public Meeting Representative
- Creative Coder / Generative artist: Okazz
- Project Adviser / Planning: Atsushi Hayashi
- Project Adviser / NFT Technical Support: Toshiaki Takase
- Official Partner: Nagaoka city in Niigata
