News Walker - Takeru Satoh

 

Sato Takeru, who visited Nazca and Maya, talked about ancient civilization.

Sato Takeru appears in the first and second part of the three-week series ‘The Premium Series: Unknown Ancient Civilizations’ (NHK BS Premium), starting on Dec 3. He visited Nazca, where Andean Civilization existed, which is said to have the most mysteries among ancient civilizations, and Maya (Guatemala), where Mayan Civilization prospered in the jungle. He reported on the Japanese team researching ancient civilization there. We interviewed Sato and he talked about what he felt during his trip and what he thought about ancient civilization.

――I hear that this was your first visit to Nazca and Maya. How did you like them?

When I was offered this project, I thought that I’d like to go to places new to me and that I might be able to understand human beings deeper by getting touch with such a civilization. ‘Primary Civilizations’, such as Nazca and Maya, started from nothing. The civilizations that started completely from zero might have great human essence hidden in them, I thought … The more I learn about such things, the more deeply I will understand human essential parts, and there must be something there that will lead to a great discovery or an idea which will have influence on our way of living now. So I was very interested.

――It was your first visit there. Did you have any troubles?

I was less in danger than I had expected and had a good trip because many people around me were used to the place. If I had been there by myself, I might not have returned alive. (lol) But it was in high land, so I suffered from altitude sickness a bit for the first time. Mine was not so serious one, but it was a little dangerous. I was careful not to frolic too much. (lol)

――You visited two places. How long did you stay there?

For about a week in each place. I stayed in Peru this January, and in Guatemala in summer.

――What did you do there?

In that I have little knowledge about civilizations, I have relatively similar viewpoints to the viewers, I thought. I hoped I could help viewers solve their problems by simply asking questions that came up to me. Director also told me, ‘It will be OK if you ask anything you have in your mind straight when you see something without caring about your role.’ So I was quite my natural self. I didn’t think ‘I have to make it!’ or something like that.

――What do you think about Japanese people making new discoveries about ancient civilization?

A lot of people in the world are doing researches and the Japanese researchers are in the front line. I felt both surprised and proud to hear that. I was happy that Japanese researchers are co-operating with people from many different countries, and some of them are taking the role of leaders.

――What impressed you most when you talked with the researchers?

A lot of things did. I went there without previous knowledge, so everything taught me something. For example, you may think it for granted but when I saw Mayan pyramid, I thought there are pyramids of the same shape in Egypt, too, though the materials are different. In totally different places, without any communication, the same shaped things exist, right? I wondered why and asked. Then they say human beings have a desire to head for higher places, and when they decided ‘to build a high building, there was no other way than building it in that shape in those days. On the foundation, people heap up the blocks over and over, so when they built a high building, it became the quadrilateral structure, they say. It means pyramids. They answered my question in about ten seconds. I really learned a lot!

――Through this trip, what did you feel and what were the benefits to you?

There were a lot of things I newly learned. I’ve been interested in civilizations, but had little knowledge. I visited the sites and I was taught a lot of things. People in modern world tend to look down on ancient people a bit, I think. For example, if you hear ancient people sang songs and played musical instruments, you may be surprised, I guess, say, ‘Wow, people played instruments thousands of years ago!’ It’s kind of haughty attitude, I think. I realized, ‘But wait a minute. It is because ancient people came up with it that we are singing as if it is a matter of course.’ As I learned to know about people in the past, my attitude changed. Of course they had no computers, but it may be possible that they had a higher IQ than us now … My mind about ancient people have changed that much. Also, I used have an impression that they were totally alien in the past far away from us, but I really felt, ‘People existed in the past and they passed the baton to the next generation one after another, and here we are now. We are connected.’

――Your mind changed after the trip, you said. Were there any clues to your job as an actor?

Recently many of the projects I’ve worked on are set in the modern world, but if I play a person who lived in the past from now on, I won’t think of him as an alien but I will have a different idea: It is because these people lived in those days that we are what we are now.

――Would you like to visit other primary civilizations?

As for the civilization I’d like to visit, I have never the pyramids in the desert with my own eyes, so I’d love to visit Egypt some day.

――I hear that you’ve liked Machu Picchu since your childhood. Are you interested in ancient civilizations o history?

The reason I was interested in Machu Picchu is something concerned with ‘Laputa’, I guess. When I was a boy, I didn’t understand what ‘ancient’ is or what ‘civilization’ is. I was just taken with its scenery, I feel. My recognition was just that I saw a great place on TV and it was etched in my mind.

――Finally, tell us the highlights of this program!

I went there without any previous knowledge (about ancient civilizations), but I was taught a lot of things, such as the story of pyramids, for example. More than that, honestly speaking, we are not sure how people have been living since the primary civilizations, that is, from nothing. I was taught a lot of things there and many times I had a lot of discoveries, such as, ‘Oh, as I expected! Human essence means something like this.’ Sometimes, on the contrary, I found, ‘They had different common sense as ours today.’ It created an opportunity for me to think back our way of living, I think. It was the case for me. I hope you will have such a feeling with me watching the program. Japanese researchers seem to be in the front line in the world. They are doing what may turn out to be a breakthrough if their excavation and research go well. So we can’t take our eyes off!

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