Exploring the Concept of NOW with Aki Goto

We are thrilled to continue our latest Future of Women Podcast series! In this four-part series, our host Momoko Nakamura takes us around the world to speak with brilliant and creative Japanese women.

Today, on our third episode in the series, Momoko speaks with Aki Goto about exploring the concept of NOW through a variety of mediums, including films, clothes, performance, music, painting, and drawing.

This episode was recorded on November 23, 2021.

Aki Goto is currently based in Hudson Valley, New York. When Goto was still based in Tokyo in 2008, she befriended the artist / fashion designer Susan Cianciolo and began working with her, going back and forth between Tokyo and New York. She officially moved her base to New York in 2009 and began her own art projects in 2010. After one year of traveling countrysides in the US and Japan in 2010, she grew interested in permaculture and conceptualized the core of her artwork as always “being conscious of NOW”. She moved her base upstate in 2012, and worked on her daily art projects based on the concept of “NOW” while being surrounded by nature and studying herbalism. Since her concept surrounded absolute trust in the universe, Goto naturally became a multimedia experimental artist, changing media depending on circumstances, natural environments, and emotional states to harmonize with her NOW. Goto's media include films, clothes, performance, music, painting, drawing, and more.

Momoko Nakamura is a cultural conservationist and storyteller, sharing the Japanese art of regenerative living with the world. She roves the Japanese countryside, exploring wisdoms imparted by professionals across the archipelago like ceramists, geologists, farmers, repairers, fermenters, and grandmas. Her community education and experiential programs are intended to help us apply teachings rooted in ancestral heritage into our everyday lives. Momoko hosts the podcast Roots to Fruit, is author of Plant-based Tokyo, and can also be found in the Netflix original series Waffles + Mochi.