The course is inspired by and pays tribute to Mieko Kamiya, The Mother of Ikigai!

MIEKO KAMIYA

Mieko Kamiya is regarded as one of the most remarkable women of twentieth-century Japan—yet she remains largely unknown in the Western world. I like to think of her as the Mother of Ikigai.

Kamiya dedicated much of her later life to treating and understanding the plight of Japan's ostracized lepers. What she learned from their experiences became the foundation of her ikigai model.

‘I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to those who responded to the unpleasant surveys that violated the "privacy of suffering" and told us many things through their painful breathing, and to those who wrote their memoirs with their crippled hands. More than the words of any teacher or the teachings of any book, I believe that being in contact with the living presence of these lepers has taught me more than anything else.’ - Mieko Kamiya

Through her influential book and other published works, we can discover and explore the true essence of ikigai and how it helps us find meaning and value in our lives. A cornerstone of Kamiya's ikigai psychology is the fulfillment of what she identified as the "ikigai needs."