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Studio X · Founder Snapshots / 設立者スナップショット

Founder Snapshots

Four founders, one instrument: where each of them stands on Red Dot School.

Internal · 内部用

Each founder answered the same ten questions: what "Red Dot" means, the flag, why they started, what success and failure look like, what students should leave with, the operating principles, the mission in one sentence, and which moves would be a departure. Below, each answer is given in English and Japanese as coequals, summarized faithfully for reading length. Where a founder gave only one language, only that is shown.

Founder 01 / 設立者 一

Bryan Ortega-Welch

Educator-turned-architect; named the school. Signs as BOW.

From Bryan's own written answers (bilingual PDF, 2026-06-03), marked "Internal Use Only, Not For Publication." The English is Bryan's; the Japanese is RDS's own rendering reproduced from that PDF.

Q1What does "Red Dot" mean?

The true origin of the name is a secret. But people tend to read the red dot as red pins on a map, marking all the places students have come from, and he likes that reading.

この名前の本当の由来は秘密です。ただ、人々はその赤い点を、学生たちがやって来たさまざまな場所を示す地図上の赤いピンと結びつけて考えているようで、私はその解釈が好きです。

Q2Why does the flag look the way it does?

See the UW1 document.

UW1の資料を参照してください。

Q3Why did you start Red Dot School?

As a turbulent 13-year-old he transferred from public school to a small alternative school for kids who hated school. The principal saw at once that he did not want to be there and told him: "Do you hate school? Me too. I hate school so much I had to start my own."

落ち着きのない13歳の頃、公立学校から、学校嫌いの生徒のための小さなオルタナティブスクールに転校しました。校長は私が居たくないことを見抜き、こう言いました。「学校が嫌いか? 私もだ。あまりに嫌いだったから、自分の学校を作らなければならなかったんだ。」

Q4What do you hope RDS accomplishes? (success in ten years)

In ten years, a thousand students having visited Sagishima and joined the project: a thousand vectors injecting more happiness and generational thinking into architectural practice. A thousand arrows shot at the cynical, emotionally deaf "beast" running rampant through the field, perverting our ability to replicate civilization without harm. He wants to be in the hunting party that weakens that animal so future generations can finish it off.

十年後、千人の学生が鷺島を訪れプロジェクトに参加していれば、それは建築実践に、より多くの幸福と世代的思考を注入する千本のベクトルです。害なく文明を再生産する力を歪めてきた、冷笑的で感情的に鈍い「獣」に放たれた千本の矢。私はその危険な動物を弱らせる狩猟隊の一員でありたい。そうすれば未来の世代がとどめを刺せます。

Q5What would have to happen to say "we failed"?

We fail if we become unhappy: if we stop radiating happiness toward students, if we stop being a happy center of a community-of-practice. We fail if we stop. If we are happy and keep going, we cannot fail.

私たちが不幸になったら失敗です。学生へ幸福を放射することをやめ、実践共同体の幸福な中心であることをやめたら失敗。止まったら失敗です。幸福であり、進み続けるなら、失敗することはできません。

Q6What should every student leave having learned? Is RDS unique?

Every student should learn to listen to this island, and to each other. RDS is unique, like any school, through the specificity of its context and its educators; it is "the best in the world" at what it does only because no one else does exactly this, the top of a very, very small mountain. But there are many other projects to learn from, and that wisdom must always be translated into usable intelligence attuned to this context.

すべての学生は、この島に、そして互いに耳を澄ますことを学ぶべきです。どの学校とも同じく、文脈と教育者の具体性によって独自です。私たちがしていることでは世界一ですが、それは同じことをする人が誰もいないから、自分たちだけのとても小さな山の頂上にいるだけ。学べるプロジェクトは他にも多く、その知恵を常に、この文脈に調律された使える知へ翻訳し続けねばなりません。

Q7Why should a student come to RDS?

Come if you are kind-hearted, curious, and not afraid of sweat and wild boars. Develop control over something you do, and test your power in a dynamic, context-embedded setting. It helps if you already know design is just making a gift for someone else, one that helps them meet their own desires; if not, RDS helps you make a gift for the island and leave it happier than you found it.

心やさしく、好奇心があり、汗とイノシシを恐れないなら来てください。自分が取り組む何かのコントロールを育て、動的で文脈に埋め込まれた環境で力を試しに。デザインとは誰かの欲望を満たす助けとなる贈り物を作ることだと既に気づいていれば助けになります。まだなら、島への贈り物を作り、来る前より島を幸福にして帰る手助けをします。

Q8Three to five operating principles for decisions.

  • From each according to their ability, to each according to their need.
  • Carrots, not sticks (and ice cream instead of carrots when possible): teach through reward, not punishment.
  • A school is a place that provides a field of meaningful experiences so students can harvest their own knowledge.
  • Increase flow on the island.
  • First three years: "Just keep going!" Year four: "Adapt or die."
  • 各人からはその能力に応じて、各人へはその必要に応じて。
  • ムチではなくニンジンを(可能ならニンジンの代わりにアイスクリームを)。罰ではなく報酬で教える。
  • 学校とは、意味ある経験の場が提供され、学生が自分の知識を収穫できる場所である。
  • 島の流れを増やす。
  • 最初の3年間「とにかく続ける!」 4年目「適応するか、死ぬか。」

Q9The mission in one sentence.

Two renderings. First, the "vessel" poem:

to offer up for adoption to the island and its people a vessel for the safe-keeping of their memories and the distribution of their knowledge

Second, in plain terms: to increase empathy and generational thinking in architectural processes and practices around the world.

二つの形があります。一つ目は「器」の詩。

差し出すこと 養子として 島とその人々へ 一つの器を 彼らの記憶を守るために そして彼らの知識を分かち合うために

二つ目は平易に。世界中の建築のプロセスと実践において、共感と世代的思考を増やすこと。

Q10Which moves would be a departure from the mission?

Satellite program on another island

Sparking another educational project on another island would be the happiest day of his life ("we'd become grandparents"). RDS lacks the "magic" for a satellite now and can only expand through people and places it knows and loves; but it would help loved-ones launch a similar program anywhere. He prefers the word "federation" over "satellite": a fleet sailing together, sharing provisions, tying boats together for a drinking session.

別の島で別の教育プロジェクトに火をつけられたら人生で最も幸せな日(「私たちは祖父母になる」)。今はサテライトの魔法がなく、知って愛する人と場所でしか拡張できない。ただ愛する人の似たプログラム立ち上げは助けたい。「サテライト」より「連邦」を好む。共に航海し食料を分け、時に船を結び飲み会をする船団。

Accredited degree program

"100%." The first American step is accreditation to offer an Associate of the Arts via the California Community College system (tied to his 2020 GSD thesis).

「100%」。アメリカ側の最初の一歩は、カリフォルニア・コミュニティ・カレッジ制度で準学士(A.A.)を提供する認定(2020年GSD論文に連なる)。

Restrictive corporate sponsorship

Fine, as long as we don't hate the company; "restrictive" depends on the kind. If Festool or Makita gave all the tools on condition of using only theirs, probably OK; if ZipAir donated, happy to fly only ZipAir for life. Depends on the restriction.

嫌いな会社でなければOK。「制約」は種類による。FestoolやMakitaが自社工具限定で全工具を提供するなら多分OK。ZipAirの寄付なら一生ZipAirだけでも構わない。制約の種類しだい。

Partnership with a developer

Only a very special relationship, like Tsumiki's with Omusubi Real Estate in Ichikawa. He'd rather Sagishima be developed by a friend they can guide than by people who don't care about the island. More interested in setting up a Sagishima Akiya (vacant-house) Bank, modeled on the Onomichi Saisei Project.

市川でつみきがOmusubi Real Estateと持ったような、非常に特別な関係に限る。島を気にかけない人より、導ける友人による開発の方がよい。むしろ尾道再生プロジェクトに倣い、鷺島空き家バンクの設立に関心がある。

Pivot toward tourism revenue

Definitely not a pivot to tourism revenue. But RDS must still think about how it relates to tourism: others on the island pursue it, and RDS should consider how to relate to and help islanders invigorating the local economy. In general, if something is happening on the island he wants RDS to know about it and hold a position: "You can't be neutral on a moving train."

観光収入への転換は明確に違う。ただ観光との関係は考えねばならない。島では他者がそれを行っており、経済を活性化する島民とどう関わり助けるかを考えるべき。島で何かが起きているなら、知り、立場を持っていたい。「走る列車の上で中立ではいられない。」

Bryan's PDF closes with a "Sagishima 2072 / 50 Years" design-fiction appendix (a 2072 joint venture offering a world-first architecture associate degree, low-residency across Japan and the US, accredited by Kyoto University and the California Community Colleges). It is aspirational vision, not current fact, and the concrete face of the accredited-degree and federation threads above.
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Founder 02 / 設立者 二

Kono Nao

Architect-turned-educator; co-founder, design-build lead.

Transcribed and translated from Nao's audio recordings (Q1 to Q5 on 2026-06-02; Q6 to Q10 on 2026-06-04). The authoritative original is his spoken Japanese; the English is Claude's translation. The Japanese summaries below are editorial and have not had a native pass. He answered Q1 with Q3, deferred Q2 to Bryan, and answered Q4 with Q5.

Q1What does "Red Dot" mean? (answered with Q3)

The name came from Bryan, one of his proposals when the group was choosing, and it stuck: he wanted a clear-ringing name carrying a color. It is "not unrelated" to the Japanese flag being a red dot, though they have never explained it that way. If an explanation is asked for: red on a white map, and creativity connecting across the world.

名はブライアン発。命名候補の一つが定着した。色を帯びた、はっきり響く名前を望んだ。日本の旗が赤い点であることと「無関係ではない」が、そう説明したことはない。あえて言えば、白い地図の上の赤、そして世界をまたいでつながる創造性。

Q2Why does the flag look the way it does?

Bryan will answer this; Bryan designed it.

これはブライアンが答える。彼が設計した。

Q3Why did you start Red Dot School?

It traces to meeting Bryan. From 2010 he ran a participatory-renovation design-build firm with Momoko; once it was running, around 2014, he felt (as inspiration, not logic) he wanted to devote his life to architecture education, and since he is not one to climb a big organization, concluded he would have to build a school. Around 2018 he met Bryan (then at Harvard GSD) through a mutual friend; Bryan had come from education into architecture, Nao from architecture toward education. They ran a first workshop for Ichikawa high-schoolers, RDS's precursor. Separately, Prof. Takeyama invited him and Momoko to teach an Asian architecture workshop that happened to be on Sagishima, reconnecting him to the island after twenty years. In 2019 the three taught a Sagishima workshop together and decided to continue; Bryan named it Red Dot School. COVID cost three years (online workshops meanwhile); the first studio was May 2023, when they founded the non-profit association. Isso was instrumental, arranging Sunoue's donation of Kakumeisha and transfers of vacant houses; Nao asked him onto the board for his island roots and foresight.

ブライアンとの出会いに遡る。2010年からモモコと参加型リノベの設計施工事務所を運営。2014年頃、論理ではなく直感として建築教育に人生を捧げたいと感じ、大組織を登る型ではないため学校を作るしかないと結論。2018年頃、共通の友人を介しハーバードGSD在籍のブライアンと出会う。教育から建築へ来た彼と、建築から教育へ向かう自分。市川の高校生向け初回WS(RDSの前身)を実施。別途、竹山先生の招きでアジア建築WSがたまたま鷺島で開かれ、二十年ぶりに島と再会。2019年に三人で鷺島WSを行い継続を決意、ブライアンがRed Dot Schoolと命名。コロナで三年を失い(その間オンライン)、初スタジオは2023年5月、同時に一般社団法人を設立。イッソが須ノ上による格明舎の寄贈や空き家移譲を仲介し尽力。島の根と先見からナオが理事就任を依頼。

Q4What do you hope RDS accomplishes? (with Q5)

First, for students: to bring change to their lives, above all to know that life is free, that you can carve your own path by your own will. Especially a message to Japanese students he sees carried into unwanted work by parents' wishes or job-hunting pressure. RDS's design-build in a real community makes this teachable: in two weeks they talk to real people, enter the community, and make something by hand, a success experience of acting by one's own will. He wants them to come back; Sagishima becomes a quiet "home / furusato" where they re-examine their lives, returning alumni mentoring current students, growing into a creative community that spreads worldwide. The larger horizon is Sagishima's own survival (neighboring Ko-Sagishima is down to four people from over 300): helping the culture, the people, and the spirit of mutual aid (相互扶助) persist, and helping grow the island's "related population" (関係人口) into kind-hearted migrants. Real success is this beautiful place persisting over ten, twenty, thirty years.

まず学生に、人生を変える経験を。何より「人生は自由だ、自分の意思で道を切り拓ける」と知ること。親の希望や就活で望まぬ仕事に流される日本の学生への思いが強い。実在の地域での設計施工がそれを教える。二週間で実在の人と話し、地域に入り、自らの手でつくる、自分の意思で動く成功体験。彼らに帰ってきてほしい。鷺島は人生を見つめ直す静かな「ふるさと」となり、帰る卒業生が在校生の先輩となり、世界へ広がる創造的共同体へ育つ。より大きな地平は鷺島自体の存続(隣の小佐木島は300人超から4人に)。文化と人と相互扶助の精神を残し、関係人口を心優しい移住者へ育てること。真の成功はこの美しい場所が十年、二十年、三十年と続くこと。

Q5What would count as failure? (folded into Q4)

The inverse: losing what makes Sagishima beautiful, the community, customs, people, landscape, the spirit of mutual aid. He calls the island's depopulation almost unbearable to take in. The second recording restates it plainly: failure, ten years out, is simply that RDS is not continuing, that educational activity on Sagishima has stopped.

その裏返し。鷺島の美しさ、共同体、慣習、人、景観、相互扶助を失うこと。島の過疎は受け止めるに堪えないほど深刻だと言う。二度目の録音では明快に、十年後の失敗とは要するにRDSが続いていないこと、鷺島での教育活動が止まっていることだと言い直す。

Q6What should every student leave with? Is RDS unique?

That life's choices are free, and that through design-build, making with their own hands, they learn they can step forward using their own hands, head, and warmed-up body. On uniqueness: an ordinary university studio observes a site from a distance as a third party, the limit of the school structure. At RDS the situation to analyze is the very place you stand; to engage the community you are already inside it, and the project positions you within a narrative already there. Becoming part of Sagishima, its time, history, life, narrative, and future, is what makes RDS special; you cannot make anything worth making from ego alone, the work asks you to be thoughtful. That is not found at other schools.

人生の選択は自由であること。そして設計施工、自らの手でつくることを通じて、手と頭と温まった身体で一歩踏み出せると知ること。独自性について。普通の大学のスタジオは敷地を第三者として遠くから観察する、学校という構造の限界。RDSでは分析すべき状況は自分が立つその場所そのもの。地域に関わろうとすれば既にその中におり、つくる作品は既にある物語の中に自分を位置づける。鷺島の、その時間・歴史・営み・物語・未来の一部になることがRDSの特別さ。エゴだけでは価値あるものはつくれず、仕事が思慮深さを求める。他校にはない。

Q7Why should a student come to RDS?

He reframes "should" as why students are in fact drawn here. More people want not only to conceive but to make with their own hands and bodies, and RDS has become the vessel for that; actually committing to a community is another draw; and travelling to a place as unheard-of as Sagishima carries real wonder. Those who come are "heroes / brave ones" (勇者): unlike a school with a laid-out curriculum and checklist, RDS is more like a story, mysterious and half-understood. For Japanese students he is glad some go abroad after, some start their own ventures, more step up to graduate study, but those are short-term joys. The deeper value beneath all of it: your options are free, and you build your own life by your own will.

「べき」を、実際になぜ惹かれて来るのかに読み替える。構想だけでなく自らの手と身体でつくりたい人が増え、RDSはその器になった。実在の地域に本当に関わることもひとつ。鷺島ほど無名の地へ赴くことには確かな驚きがある。来る人は「勇者」。決まったカリキュラムとチェックリストの学校と違い、RDSは物語に近く、神秘的で半ば未解。日本の学生について、その後海外に出る人、自ら起業する人、大学院へ進む人が増えるのは嬉しいが短期的な喜び。すべての底にある深い価値は、選択肢は自由で、自分の意思で自分の人生を築くということ。

Q8Operating principles for decisions.

  • Be creative: when there are options, creativity is one of the most important factors in choosing among them.
  • Reach genuine agreement among the core members: the group being on one boat, headed the same way, matters enormously.
  • Make decisions that keep us happy, so the work can continue: since failure is simply not continuing, the test is whether we are accumulating happy choices that let us keep going.
  • 創造的であること。選択肢があるとき、創造性は選ぶうえで最も重要な要素のひとつ。
  • コアメンバーが本心から合意すること。同じ船に乗り同じ方向を向くことが極めて重要。
  • 続けられるよう、自分たちが幸福でいられる選択をすること。失敗とは続かないことなので、続けられる幸福な選択を積み重ねているかが良し悪しの基準。

Q9The mission in one sentence.

To become free (自由になる). He is deliberate: not "make students free," not "change them," but "become free," because becoming free is something one can only do by one's own will. The mission is to be a school that creates the spark for everyone who takes part to become free. (He is unsure of the exact English wording.)

自由になること。表現は意図的。「学生を自由にする」でも「変える」でもなく「自由になる」。自由になることは自分の意思でしかできないから。使命は、参加する誰もが自由になるきっかけを生む学校であること。(正確な英語表現には自信がないと付記。)

Q10Which moves would be a departure?

  • Satellite program: acceptable if temporary; exporting the pedagogy elsewhere is fine. But the deep driver is this Sagishima community's survival, so the real thing must be done here.
  • Accredited degree: not a departure. He'd actively like it, if it does not cost the program's quality and uniqueness.
  • Restrictive corporate sponsorship: not a departure. RDS already accepts this, in very small amounts.
  • Partnership with a developer: acceptable with caveats. Many Japanese developers are not, in his words, companies with beautiful hearts, so begin from that premise and partner only with the ones that have heart. RDS's core body should not spend much time acting like a real-estate operation, but partnering to become an engine welcoming more creative people, in service of a large positive change on Sagishima, is acceptable.
  • Pivot toward tourism revenue: feels off. Tourism is a necessary element of Sagishima's future, and RDS being an engine for the creativity and spaces that bring money and activity is fine. But making tourism the main income would pivot the founding philosophy and the institution's most important use of time; contributing to tourism yes, tourism as the core no.
  • サテライト:一時的なら可。教育法を他所へ持ち出すのは構わない。だが深層の動機はこの鷺島共同体の存続なので、本体はここで行うべき。
  • 認可学位:逸脱ではない。質と独自性を損なわないなら積極的にやりたい。
  • 制約付き企業スポンサー:逸脱ではない。RDSは既にごく少額で受けている。
  • 開発業者との提携:留保付きで可。日本の開発業者の多くは美しい心の会社ではないという前提から始め、心ある相手とだけ組む。RDSの中核が不動産業のように時間を費やすのは違うが、より創造的な人を迎えるエンジンとなり、鷺島の大きな良い変化に資する提携なら可。
  • 観光収入への転換:違和感がある。観光は鷺島の未来に必要な要素で、RDSが島に金と活気を呼ぶ創造性と空間のエンジンになるのは可。だが観光を主収入にすれば創立の理念と機関の最重要な時間の使い方を転換してしまう。観光に寄与する、はい。観光を核に、いいえ。
Source flag: Nao's spoken Japanese is the original; the English is a translation and the Japanese transcript was machine-generated (whisper), with context corrections noted in the file. A cleaned, coequal Japanese version still needs to be produced and given a native pass before formal use.
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Founder 03 / 設立者 三

Kono Momoko

Co-founder; design, construction, meals, the arts-and-crafts class.

Transcribed and translated from Momoko's recording. The Japanese is reproduced verbatim from her own words; the English is Claude's translation and should have a native pass before formal or public use.

Q1What does "Red Dot" mean?

To her, Red Dot is the image of seeds of hope scattered all over the world. Bryan named the school, but she thinks it a good name: it expresses, in a visually playful way, where the energetic young "seeds" who pass through the school have come from.

私にとってレッドドットは世界中に散らばる希望の種のイメージです。レッドドットスクールの名付け親はブライアンですが、私たちのスクールを経験する元気な若い種が、どこから来たのか、視覚的にも楽しく表現される、いい名前だと思います。

Q2Why does the flag look the way it does?

Because it turned out simple and strong, and yet friendly in feel.

シンプルで力強く、それでいてフレンドリーな印象のものになっているからだと思っています。

Q3Why did you start Red Dot School?

Originally she started thinking it would be enough to support Nao and Bryan's enthusiasm while finding some enjoyment for herself, but as she continued her feelings shifted. She does not really think of herself as an educator, but if there is something she can give through her interactions with students, she wants to give it without holding back. And while raising children, designing, building, cooking everyone's meals, and running the arts-and-crafts class, she wants to send the message that this kind of free image of an architect is OK too.

元々はナオとブラインの二人の熱意をサポートしながら、自分も楽しみを見いだすことができれば、とはじめたスクールでしたが、続けていくうちに少し気持ちは変わってきました。私自身はあまり教育者ではないと思っていますが、学生さんとの関わりの中で私にも与えられるものがあるのであれば、惜しみなくそれを渡していきたいと感じています。また、こどもたちを育てながら、設計をしたり、施工をしたり、みんなのごはんをつくったり、図工の教室をしたり・・・こんな自由な建築家像もOKなのだというメッセージを送りたいとも感じています。

Q4What does success look like in ten years?

Isn't it to give participating students inspiration and hope? And to keep being warmly accepted by the people of Sagishima. If, ten years from now, the number of students who keep coming back here full of energy is still growing, then she thinks they can say they are fulfilling the mission.

参加する学生さんに刺激と希望を与えることではないでしょうか。また、佐木島の方々にあたたかく受け入れられ続けることです。10年後も元気にここに帰ってくる学生が増え続けていれば使命を果たしていると言えると思います。

Q5What would count as failure?

If RDS ever does something that hurts someone or something, that is a failure.

RDSが誰か、もしくは何かを傷つけることをしてしまうことがあれば、失敗です。

Q6What should every student leave with? Is RDS unique?

To really feel they have enough power to affect people and the environment, to gain confidence and take it home. She hopes that, for the rest of their lives, they keep asking what, and for whom, the things they make are made, and that the experience becomes a trigger for turning their attention toward that. These could be learned in other places too. She does not think RDS's fee is high. Where it excels: you can be taught both design and construction; the setting is wonderful; it is easy to reach from the city yet you experience the good of the Japanese countryside; and the alumni (OB/OG) stay involved.

あなたは人や環境に影響を与える十分なパワーがあるということを実感してもらうことです。自信をつけて帰っていってもらいたいです。そして、これからの人生の中で手がけることが、何のため、誰のためのものなのか、問い続けながら生きていって欲しいと願いますが、そのようなことに意識を向けるきっかけとなる体験であって欲しいと願います。他の場所でも学べることだと思います。RDSの参加費は高くないと思います。設計も施工も教育できる。環境が素晴らしい。都市からのアクセスが容易であるにも関わらず、日本の田舎の良さが体験できる。OBOGが関わりつづけている。というような点が優れていると思います。

Q7Why should a student come to RDS?

That you can learn both design and construction, and that you can experience the good of the Japanese countryside.

設計も施工も学べることと、日本の田舎の良さが体験できることです。

Q8Operating principles for decisions.

  • Whether it is something all four members (Bryan, Nao, Momoko, Isso-san) agree on.
  • Whether it would give the island's people a bad impression.
  • Whether it is something achievable in two weeks.
  • 4人のメンバー(ブライアン、ナオ、モモコ、いっそうさん)が全員賛同する内容であるかどうか。
  • 島の人に良くない印象を与えるものでないかどうか。
  • 2週間でできることかどうか。

Q9The mission in one sentence.

To provide unconstrained, creative design education.

自由でクリエイティブなデザイン教育を提供すること。

Q10Which moves would be a departure?

  • Satellite program: she doesn't think there is a real possibility of starting a program on another island.
  • Accredited degree: she doesn't yet know where the hurdles are, but if it could be realized without strain she thinks it would be lovely.
  • Restrictive corporate sponsorship: aiming to accept conditional corporate sponsorship is realistic.
  • Partnership with a developer: at the moment she can't come up with any positive ideas about it.
  • Pivot toward tourism revenue: she can't envision a major business pivot toward tourism revenue either.
  • サテライト:他の島でプログラムをはじめる可能性はないと思います。
  • 認可学位:ハードルがどこにあるのかまだ知りませんが、無理なく実現するのであれば素敵なことだと思います。
  • 制約付き企業スポンサー:制約付き企業スポンサーシップの受諾を目指すことは現実的だと思います。
  • 開発業者との提携:前向きなアイディアは今のところ考えられません。
  • 観光収入への転換:観光収入への大幅な事業転換も考えられません。
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Founder 04 / 設立者 四

Isso / Kawamoto Yoshishige

Island-rooted board member; secured Kakumeisha and the dorm houses.

Transcribed from Isso's written answers (questions prepared by Team X members Ōte Akio and Maeda Shun), ingested 2026-06-04. The Japanese is reproduced verbatim from his answer sheet; the English is Claude's translation and should have a native pass before formal or public use. His answers to Q2 and Q9 are a single haiku.

Q1What does "Red Dot" mean?

He understands "Red Dot" to mean a national flag. He was not involved in naming the school, but thinks it was named out of a wish that all sorts of people (dots) from countries all over the world would gather on Sagishima.

レッドドットとはナショナルフラッグを意味すると捉えています。学校の命名には私は関わっていませんが、世界各国から様々な人(ドット)が佐木島に集まってくれるといいなと思い名付けられたのだと思います。

Q2Why does the flag look the way it does?

Because Bryan's proposal, which won a competition, was the one adopted. Even so, he thinks the feeling each founder pours into the flag is shared. His own feeling is held in seventeen characters:

東西の日輪点じて島熱る

Interpretive gloss (flagged for native review): "East and West, the sun-disc is kindled, and the island grows fervent." 東西 = east and west; 日輪 = the sun, lit. "sun-disc"; 点じて = lit, kindled; 島熱る = the island grows hot / fervent. The 日輪 sun-disc is the Red Dot. Back-translation offered for meaning: "People from East and West light the sun, and the island runs hot with life." His own reading, sitting alongside (not replacing) the others on record.

コンペティションで勝ったブライアンの案が採用されたからです。ただし、みんなが旗に込める思いは共有できているのだと思います。私が込めた思いは「東西の日輪点じて島熱る」という17字に込められています。

Q3Why did you start Red Dot School?

Six years ago, what are now Tsumiki House and Kakumeisha were slated for demolition. The former owner of Tsumiki House offered to sell him the house, but he was holding off. Right then, Nao ran an academic-society workshop on Sagishima, and it was while cleaning up together afterward that Isso spoke to him: the start of everything. He felt a "weirdo's sympathy," a kinship between eccentrics, with Nao and thought he would help however he could. He felt it would be a waste to tear the buildings down to bare ground, but did not think he could look after them himself.

6年前、現つみきハウスや格明舎は解体予定でした。当時私はつみきハウスの元オーナーから「家を売ってあげる」と提案されたのだが、保留をしていました。ちょうどその頃直さんが学会主催のWSを佐木島で行い、その片付けを一緒にしていた際声をかけたことが、全ての始まりです。直さんには"変人のシンパシー"を感じ、僕ができる手伝いをしようかなと思い話をしました。解体して更地にするのはもったいないと思っていたけど、私では面倒を見られそうになかったので。

Q4What does success look like in ten years?

RDS has run many times and the dots from all over the world keep increasing. If this can spread inside and outside Sagishima and out into the world, and if people come back again, that would be his heart's wish. Success, to him, is on one hand sustaining this marginal village (限界集落, now below 600 people), and on the other Sagishima continuing to be a place where architecture, and the many forms of expression deriving from it, take place. He does not particularly want mass cultural cultivation or an "exchange population"; he wants it to become a "base for weirdos" (変人の拠点), for the people who actually get it, not those who come only to have fun and make noise. He'd love it to become an island where core members carrying all kinds of interests and expression gather and do all kinds of things.

現在RDSは回数を重ね、全世界からドットが増えつつあります。これが佐木島内外にも、世界にも広がっていったり、また帰ってきてもらえたりすることができれば、それが本望だと思います。また現在人口が600人を切っている限界集落の地域を維持するという面と、建築なり建築から派生した色々な表現がなされる場として、佐木島があり続けられることこそが成功だと思います。そうしたことにより文化的なものを育んでいくことや交流人口を望むわけではないが、分かってくれる人だけの「変人の拠点」になってほしいと思います。ただ楽しんで、ワーワーするためだけに来るとかではなく。様々な興味や表現を抱えたコアなメンバーが集まり、色々な活動を行う島になってくれたらいいなと思います。

Q5What would count as failure?

He has not thought about that at all.

そこについては一切考えていません。

Q6What should every student leave with? Is RDS unique?

He doesn't really know about other places. But this workshop, he would not say it is the best, but it is the weirdest. As for what makes it unique, he thinks it is that the organizers own a base on the island and run it while being a presence rooted in the island.

他の場所のことはよく分かりません。しかしこのWSは一番とは言いませんが、一番変だということです。また独自性については、主催者が島に拠点を所有し島に根差した存在でありながら行われているという点になると思います。

Q7Why should a student come to RDS?

If you feel like coming, then just come.

来たいと思うなら来てくれればいいと思います。

Q8Operating principles for decisions.

None in particular.

特にありません。

Q9The mission in one sentence.

Everything he feels about RDS and its mission is contained in the seventeen characters he gave for Q2:

東西の日輪点じて島熱る。

"East and West, the sun-disc is kindled, and the island grows fervent." (See Q2 for the gloss and back-translation; native review needed.)

私がRDSに思うこと、使命についての考えは、問2で回答した17文字に全てが込められています。「東西の日輪点じて島熱る。」

Q10Which moves would be a departure?

All five sub-questions left pending (保留中 / on hold), with no answer yet.

Isso left the entire departure question pending, consistent with these mission-boundary questions being held for the founders to discuss together (as with the dissolution clause): satellite program, accredited degree, restrictive corporate sponsorship, partnership with a developer, and a pivot toward tourism revenue are all marked pending.

逸脱に関する五つの問い(他の島でのサテライト、認可学位、制約付き企業スポンサー、開発業者との提携、観光収入への大幅な転換)はすべて「保留中」とされ、未回答。これらの使命の境界に関する問いを設立者で話し合うために保留する方針と一致(解散条項と同様)。

Unanswered/pending: Isso left all of Q10 (the five "departure" prompts) pending (保留中), and answered Q5 ("what would count as failure") with "I have not thought about that at all." His Q2 and Q9 are a single haiku whose translation is flagged for native review.
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Internal · 内部用. Summarized faithfully from the four founder snapshot files and the shared instrument; not for publication. Japanese English coequal; Japanese summaries in the editorial sections have not had a native pass and a cleaned coequal Japanese rendering is still to be added for Nao's and the editorial summaries. Recommend native review before any formal or public use.