The Bernard Buffet Museum in Shizuoka Prefecture is located on the Clematis no Oka (Hill of Clematis) and also close to the Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum. The museum has a Children’s Museum and not only families from the surrounding area but also families from the Kanto region make a little trip to visit here. One hundred parents and children took part in a total of ten workshops that were held from January until March 2008 and learned about the Kaki Tree Project through making collagraph (print).
In the morning of the day of the tree planting ceremony, a workshop was held and persimmon leaves drawn by children were collaged on the “Tree of Life,” which was painted by artist (Ms. or Mr.?) Miki Mochizuka, who is based in Shizuoka Prefecture. A thousand leaves will be added to this tree of life in the next ten years.
Being surrounded by the paintings of Buffet, people enjoyed a memorial concert with Ms. Reiko Komatsu on the Marimba, Mr. Hirotake Kitakata on the piano and Mr. Yoshiyuki Miyaji on the drums in the afternoon. They played their original song “Tree,” composed by Ms. Komatsu and Mr. Kitakata, inspired by “the Kaki Tree Project.”
Afterward two trees were planted in the front courtyard and a big time capsule that contained the collagraph of persimmon leaves with children’s messages written on was buried next to the trees. The capsule will be opened at the “Harvest of KAKI” celebration ten years later.
Mr. Ebinuma also came over from Nagasaki and it was a ceremony with children’s cheerful voices echoed throughout the museum that is surrounded by a rich natural environment.
