Loaves of Light - Zero Waste Life

Since ancient times, the Japanese have believed that a life force resides in all creations. Valuing and caring for the things we use, a zero-waste life. Pointing the way to better living for a new era. The port city of Kobe. Many bakeries are found here, a leading area for bread production in Japan. It's also home to a certain artist's studio. An artist whose creations are altogether different. Morita Yukiko. She's operated this studio for six years now. And this is what she produces. Lamps made with real bread. Morita is particular about where she gets the bread she uses. She buys bread that bakeries discard. She tries to pay as close to the original selling price as possible. Since bread goes bad quickly, even though baked with care in the early morning, any that remains unsold often has to be disposed of. Many bakeries are troubled with this issue. To make use of such discarded bread, Morita has several bakeries which regularly supply her with bread. This popular bakery sells lots of bread, but they are still regularly forced to discard it. We are very grateful to the bakeries for putting their lives on the line so that we can bring our bread to customers in a new form. Morita uncovers the personality in each discarded piece of bread. I love this part. I love it. I think this French bread has a dignified personality, where the edges stand up beautifully and you can feel the dignity. This is also a personality. This little ball is very small. But when there are a lot of things on the table, I feel like this is a baby. It's like a family. It's like this. The moment I receive bread is the moment I start making things, so I feel like I should welcome the bread. I feel like I should become something good. With that, she gets to work making lamps. Once hollowed out, the bread is left to dry. The surface of each one is prepared by hand. It's then preserved in long-lasting resin. An LED light is inserted and it's complete. Morita has another passion. She bakes her own bread at home. Her daughter Kaede has come to take a look. When I make bread, I can feel it. It's a very important time for me to return to my roots. Her inspiration to make lamps from bread dates back 15 years. Back then, while studying art at university, Morita worked part-time at a bakery. Every day, she saw them having to discard bread. Every day, when I touch the bread, it feels like it's alive. After business hours, I close the shutter and look at the basket. It's still shining. When I put it in the basket, I always think, something's different. Her room was full of discards she brought home. One day, she saw a sunset illuminating the bread. I was like, wow, it's shining! The warmth, the softness, the softness that heals you, that warm feeling, that's what I think is the charm of bread. It's linked to my senses. I intuitively thought, this is it. Morita began working to develop a bread lamp, refining the preservation method and other aspects, all told, it took her six years to perfect. Attracting like-minded individuals, over ten people now work producing her lamps. The fans might have disappeared from this world. When the light shines through and the layers look beautiful, I think, wow, this is great. Sometimes I think, this is how it's going to be. The lamps sell for between 40 and 100 US dollars. Morita turns all kinds of bread into lamps. Ordinary white bread. When lit up, the lattice of fibers come to the surface with a texture like Japanese paper. This kaiser roll, with its characteristic notches, glows from within with a tasteful light. This large baguette lamp casts lovely shadows. A museum in Kobe. Morita has brought some new bread-based items for the gift shop. Hello. The new items are bread-based objet d'art. The shadows look great. Yes, they really do. When I saw the beautiful cross-section of the bread, I thought, wow, this is a great discovery. I hope people will realize the depth of this discovery. The concept of bread as food is re-constructed, and it's being used as a means of consumption. I think it's great that it's being used as a means of consumption. If I could see the daily life like this, I would be excited. I think the day will come soon when this museum will turn into a bakery. When I see a lost bread, I think, wow, bread is great. I'm glad that my thoughts have reached someone.