Our Story | Kuromamesan

The Hidamari building, where the story began

As a boy, I was wildly popular with middle-aged women. (Or so I had convinced myself.)

All I had done was say hello in passing, and they would call after me — what a cute boy! What a good lad! I want one just like him at home!

(Looking back, of course, every young boy is adorable to those ladies.)

So I became certain this was where I would be a star, studied social welfare, and took a job at the special nursing home in my hometown. A thoroughly shallow motive, I admit.

Hidamari Kaigo did not begin smoothly

Back then I had energy to burn and a mouth to match.

Naturally, the nursing home had no patience for me.

And I was supposed to become a star there.

In my fifth year, I finally decided to do it myself. I walked out and founded Hidamari Kaigo.

I talked a senior colleague who believed in me into joining, rented an old house a short walk from my parents’ place, and opened a day care service. And nobody came. Nobody at all.

Maybe I could not repay the loan I took out to renovate the bath and the toilets.

Maybe I could not pay the wages of the colleague I had recruited. Maybe I could not support my wife and children. For a while I sat with my head in my hands, sinking further and further.

A photograph from the early years of Kuromamesan

Saved by the wisdom and the hands of our neighbours

The neighbours who supported Hidamari Kaigo in its early days

What pulled us out was the wisdom and the strength of the few elderly people who did come. Because the place was an old farmhouse, they began moving through it freely, on their own terms.

People who had sat silent and idle at home were suddenly out in the vegetable patch. They were cooking us delicious lunches.

They were teaching us all kinds of old know-how. What a way to grow young again.

And I will never forget how the town pushed us along.

Seeing me walking around downcast, someone asked: why not run a one-day café at Hidamari?

When I understood that they were doing it to get the word out about us, I cried like a child, without shame. Thanks to the people who came to us and to our neighbours, Hidamari slowly became known, and within a year we had as many people as we had hoped for.

What mattered at Hidamari was simply enjoying the day

An afternoon of simply enjoying the day at Hidamari

What mattered at Hidamari was simply enjoying the day. Shall we go somewhere? It is raining, shall we just lie about? What do you feel like for lunch? Every day was a hunt for something good.

Among the elderly who shared those days with us, there were people who told us they wanted to die at Hidamari, and we were entrusted with their final days.

We were able to see ten people through to the end at Hidamari.

One man used to throw both arms up in a cheer every time he went home from Hidamari. We saw his hearse off with both arms up, cheering.

One woman fell at Hidamari and became bedridden. When she came back to us from the hospital — there she was, feeding herself again! It felt like nothing short of a miracle. She had wanted to come home to us after all.

We were able to see her through to the end at Hidamari too.

There is more to tell, and a book is on the way.

Future

“From this town, out to the world” — a new dream

Hidamari grew, until more elderly people wanted to come than we had room for.

The rented house became too small, and we made the big decision: build a new home and move. That was the start of Kuromamesan.

Another loan aged me considerably, and I am now far too much of an old man to be any grandmother’s star.

But what Hidamari taught me — enjoy it, whatever it is — is still our motto.

We want to keep evolving, keep widening, and send what we have found from this town out into the world. That is the dream we carry now.

See the house About the company