Yama | Yuba Farm
The photographs in this series were taken during a 2017 visit to a Japanese-Brazilian farming and arts community northwest of Sao Paulo in Brazil. While the farm is commonly referred to as Yama — the Japanese word for “mountain” — by its members, it has historically been called the Yuba Farm after its founder, Isamu Yuba. The visionary émigré left Japan with his entire family in 1926 to found the community which still thrives today.
Yuba’s founding vision for the farm community consisted of three major pillars: the cultivation of agriculture, an immersion in and appreciation for the arts, and a sustained posture of gratitude. He believed that for the human spirit to fully flourish and engage in the community, it would be essential to weave these values into daily life, blurring the line between work and creative expression. When visiting Yama, it is immediately apparent that the farm continues to be imbued with the extraordinary principles upon which it was founded. Food is grown, harvested, prepared, and eaten together on the farm. People of all ages engage in modern ballet, chorus, dramatic arts, painting and drawing, making and playing musical instruments, and writing haiku. A unique and pervasive sense of reverence ties the people to the land and to each other; a wide-eyed child learns by watching her relatives work, a former ballet dancer choreographs a piece that includes her daughter and granddaughter.