The "Revive Time: Kaki Tree Project" is an art project through
which people can learn about peace and the importance of life.

kaki tree in Nagasaki miraculously survived the atomic bombing in 1945. The purpose of our project is to hand out saplings from the mother tree to children around the world and encourage them to express themselves through art with a theme of a kaki tree as they grow the saplings. Art cultivates the imagination to help us feel others' pain and creativity to build a new world. It goes beyond borders, religion, race and even language, and helps us feel sympathy for each other. We have been carrying out the project around the globe for 25 years, and planted the seeds of art, the seeds of peace into the hearts of 30,000 children who have taken part.

More information about the project ▶︎

{ Program }

Grow

We are recruiting tree foster parents who plant and grow the kaki saplings together with children around the world. By raising the saplings, you can learn about peace and the importance of life. Apply here.

Join

All activities by all persons participating in the Project are considered "art". Artistic expressions which anyone can enjoy and encourage to take part will be remembered as favorable memories deeply in the hearts of children and help nurture their imagination and creativity for peace.

Connect

They are in U.S.A., France, U.K., Italy, Korea and African countries. Brothers and sisters of the saplings are all over the world. You can surely make friends with children around the globe.

{ The Biginning }

On the 9th of August, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped in Nagasaki. Tens of thousands of people died suffering from the intense blast and heat, and the city of Nagasaki was reduced to ashes.
However, there was a kaki tree which miraculously survived while more than half of the trunk was burnt black, and barely standing and about to die at any moment.
In 1994, Masayuki Ebinuma, an arborist, started to treat the fragile tree and restored its health as to be able to produce "seedlings" from the bombed tree.

After contemporary artist Tatsuo Miyajima learned Ebinuma's activity, he wanted to support Ebinuma as an artist. So then he displayed the saplings and recruited foster parents at an art exhibition in 1995.
They received ten applications and selected the former Ryuhoku Elementary School in Taito-ku, Tokyo as a planting site.
Through the process, Miyajima had conceived an art project called "Revive Time: Kaki Tree Project" and launched the Executive Committee. In 1996, the first planting of the project took place at the former Ryuhoku Elementary School. Miyajima himself conducted a workshop at the tree-planting ceremony.

{ Concept & Aim }

We carry out the "Revive Time: Kaki Tree Project" with the following three concepts.

It Keeps Changing

Participants are all artists and people who love to express themselves. Formes of expression of the Project are not fixed. The Project will always change depends on time and region, and continues to magnify.

It Connects with All

The Project connects constantly with all people, all genres, and all organizations and groups as a joint performance.

It Goes On Forever

The Project will send peace messages forever as long as kaki trees are growing.

Revive "Awareness of Peace"

The history of human rights abuse such as the atomic bombings and Holocaust is a negative legacy of the human being. In order to keep these tragic incidents from fading away, the new generation needs to provide with a fresh expression to reread it with advanced awareness, and pass it on to the future. Art liberates the human mind and enables to express freely. The Project revives dormant awareness of peace within people and helps the awareness to be awakened by presenting the saplings from the survivor tree anew through artistic expression.

Revive "The True Way to Live"

We hope that each one of the participants in the Project realizes to one's full potential through expression and action inspired by the kaki saplings. All actions carried out for the kaki tree will ask people the meaning of life and how they should live their lives. The Project thus, is to think about how one lives.

Revive "Quality in Art"

The Project considers any actions and expressions with regard to the kaki sapling to be art. Making every effort to prepare plantings, children caring for the trees, and performances and concerts carried out by citizens are all looked upon as art. However, we consider all people who have been involved to be artists. The Project does not belong to the conventional concepts of art. Each participant embraces the kaki tree and simply does what one can do. That process itself is considered to be only one art.

Kaki Tree Fundraising

"The Kaki Tree Project" is looking for people who agree with the project and would like to support it financially. Please visit the following website to help us!

For those who would like to support us

If you click the button below, you will be taken to a dedicated donation site where you can make a credit card payment or bank transfer. (For security reasons, we have outsourced this to a payment processing service called "congrant". Please click on the link with your understanding.