Category: Archives

A farmer in Zonnemaire, Mr. Jaap Verseput, applied for the tree planting. Mr. Jaap grows vegetables such as potatoes but he also places art works in his vast farm and every year organizes and enjoys “Farm Festival” with the local people, where artists from all over the world are invited to do performance of music, theater, poem, etc. As Mr. Jaap was impressed by the purpose of the Kaki Tree Project, he established the local office with the local people including local artists. At first, they wanted to plant the tree in 2000, the year which marked the 400th anniversary of Japan-Holland friendship, however, since the summer season when the… Read more »

Once inside the city of Belgrade, destroyed buildings by the NATO airstrikes in 1999 during the Kosovo War are unavoidable scenery. Mr. Aleksandar Djordjevic, who expressed his interest in joining the project, said “Until we actually experienced bombings, we thought bombings in Irak and atomic bombs were their problems, not ours. However, it’s different now. This is a problem to all of humanity and that was the reason why I wished to join and do the Kaki Tree Project here in this place, because it has a special meaning to us.” He even came to Japan moved by his passion to realize the project. The tree planting ceremony was held… Read more »

The Kaki Tree Project participated in Echigo- tsumari Art Triennial in 2000 and in cooperation with people of Tahei district of Matsudai-cho, an unoccupied private house was remodeled and exhibited as “Kaki-an”, Inspired by this exhibit, Taihei Tomo-no-kai and Tahei Kodomo-kai applied for the tree planting and it was realized in the district. Since this region is deeply covered with snow during the winter, the tree presentation ceremony was held on the 10th of March and the official tree planting ceremony was held on the 28th of October. On the 10th of March, the tree presentation ceremony was held on the stage at an local event called “Fuyu-no-Jin.” During the… Read more »

Finsbury Park is a public park located in the northeast of London, on the top of a hill from which visitors can enjoy a nice view of the city. Next to the park, there is Park Studios Artists Co-operative where 25 artists create their works. Mr. Hans Diemel and Be van der Heide, (one of the artists), applied for the tree planting after seeing the Kaki Tree Project exhibit at Venice Biennial held in 1999. In order to realize the project, Hans phoned dozens of schools and visited 5 schools. Finally, he encountered Stroud Green Primary School and the project was realized after waiting for one year. Stroud Green Primary… Read more »

National Botanic Garden of Wales is located in the rural area in South Wales, which is about an hour and a half train ride heading West from London. Mr. Michael Nixon, an art adviser, expressed an interest in joining the project after seeing the Kaki Tree Project exhibit at Venice Biennial held in1999. On the day of tree planting ceremony, comings and goings of people were strictly controlled by the garden due to epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease and the restaurant was also closed. So the people and children who were invited to the ceremony could not enter the garden. We presented the persimmon tree and conducted a temporary tree planting… Read more »

Sintra City is a sister city of Omura City of Nagasaki Prefecture. It first flourished in the 13th century as a summer resort for the royal family and was designate as UNESCO’s World Heritage Site, where a number of beautiful castles and churches from the Middle Ages still remain intact. Ms. Maria Nobre Franco, director of the museum, expressed an interest in joining the project after seeing the Kaki Tree Project exhibit at Venice Biennial. The city of Sintra emphasizes on cultural policy and the museum was already conducting workshops and guided tours for children every week, in cooperation with elementary schools. So the museum was very keen on welcoming… Read more »

Takaho area of Suzaka City has been famous for persimmon tree production since early times and the school emblem design of Takaho Elementary School is based on a persimmon flower. Though the local people still have a special feeling toward persimmon, the most of the persimmon trees were destroyed by the powerful typhoon came to Ise Bay in 1971 and there is not many remnants of “the home of persimmon trees” any more. Mr. Seiji Arai, chairman of the regional development committee, read a newspaper article on the Kaki Tree Project and applied for the tree planting because he wanted to make it as “a starting point of peace movement”… Read more »

In the afternoon of the same day when the tree was planted at Tohoku Seikatsu Bunka College High School (Former Mishima Gakuen Girls High School), a persimmon tree was planted at Niji-no-Oka Community Center. A few student representatives and teachers from Tohoku Seikatsu Bunka College High School (Former Mishima Gakuen Girls High School) attended the tree planting ceremony. When we visited the site on the occasion of its first anniversary event, the tree was fine and growing. Adjacent to the front yard where the tree is planted, there is a children’s house so the tree can be seen well by children. The sign board that explains the tree planting is… Read more »

Mr. Ikuya Kuramoto, a teacher at Tohoku Seikatsu Bunka College High School (Former Mishima Gakuen Girls High School), applied for the project after seeing the works of Kaki-an at Echigo- tsumari Art Triennial and that was how the tree planting was realized. That year also commemorated 100th anniversary of Mishima Gakuen. So the persimmon tree planting ceremony was conducted as part of the commemorative events. The tree planting ceremony was a large-scale event, with almost 850 participants including the students from the school, related parties and neighbors, and the students buried the “Persimmon Tree Bottle” containing about 1,100 messages addressed to themselves 10 years from now. Another persimmon tree was… Read more »

The Hockaday School is a private, all-girls school where students from around the world gather and learn. Ms. Dee Mayes, artist and visual arts teacher at the lower school, saw the “seedlings from the bomb survived persimmon tree” at the Venice Biennale in 1999 and proposed planting of the tree to the school. Although some raised voices against taking part in the project that is involved in the atomic bomb, she appealed that by growing the “seedling from the bomb survived persimmon tree,” children will feel in their daily lives the importance of peace and will also help understand different cultures, and she finally won the support from the school…. Read more »

Leiden is a city located in the southwestern part of the Netherlands and is known as the city associated with Siebold. The Siebold House, which contains his ethnographic items from Japan collected during his life and is open to the public, has been turned into a museum of Japanese art and introduces a wide range of Japanese culture from the Edo period to contemporary art.. The contemporary art exhibition “Voices from JAPAN” was held in the Netherlands to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Japan-Dutch relations. The Kaki Tree Project was invited to the exhibition and introduced the project’s activities in the Hortus Botanicus of the Universiteit Leiden. Ms. Nicole Roepers… Read more »

Mr. Swole applied for the Kaki Tree Project for young people in Carpi and the tree planting at Giardini Napoleonici became a reality. The tree planting ceremony was planned and carried out by students of D and G classes in the first year of P.F. Carpi Middle School under the direction of teacher Flavio Franceschetto. The ceremony took place with cooperation of Castello Association and the tree was planted by the students from Carpi in Giardini Napoleonici. Children from Carpi Middle School and children of six classes from nearby Scuola Elementare Diaz and Scuola Elementare Gozzi, as well as small children from Elena Nursery School, Chairman of the Associazione di… Read more »