Category: Archives

Kaki trees on Gran Canaria Island, Spain

Mr. Masao Kitazawa and Ms. Chiyoko Sano gave us another report on the kaki trees following the one in February. The trees were planted on 13 March 1999 at the Finca de Osorio. They told that the trees must have produced plenty of fruit as they saw a lot of stalks left on the trees. Mr. Kitazawa has been living on the island for more than 20 years. When he met the trees by chance in November 2011, Mr. Manolo, who has been working at the community house for 25 years, told him about the trees. Mr. Kitazawa kindly offered us “Is there anything I can do?” and visit the… Read more »

Mr. Rosario Scollo from Mirabella Imbaccari, Sicily, Italy came to Japan

Mr. Rosario Scollo from Mirabella Imbaccari, Sicily, Italy came to Japan and visited the Project’s head office in Moriya City. The planting took place on 26 April 2012 in Mirabella Imbaccari. Mr. Scollo told us about the planting ceremony in detail, and together we visited the kaki trees at the nearby Toride Daini Junior High School (planted on 20 February 2004) and Terahara Elementary School (planted on 12 February 2010). The trees have grown bigger, and the tree at the junior high school has already produced plenty of fruit that looked red, juicy and delicious. Mr. Scollo is responsible for SCI (Service Civil International) in the entire province of Catania…. Read more »

The Fondazione Don Angelo Colombo in Travagliato

The kaki tree, which was planted on 24 March 2010 at the Fondazione Don Angelo Colombo in Travagliato, Brescia, Italy, has produced fruit for the first time this year. Children from the neighboring Travagliato primary school came to see the fruit, which made them remember the Kaki Tree Project.

News from Sonico
Scuola dell’infanzia e Scuola primaria di Sonico

We have received an email from Mr. Giacomo Fanetti, Sonico, Italy. “According to the kindergarten principal, the kaki tree was bestowed unexpected honor when the Bike Trial Championship was held in Sonico this summer. He told me as follows: The Japanese delegates were visiting the town accompanied by the guide dispatched by Pro-Loco. As they passed the kindergarten, they realized that the descendant of the bomb-survived kaki tree of Nagasaki was planted in the garden. The news surprised them immensely, and they kneeled down on the road to honor this young seedling, a symbol of peace, and gave a silent prayer. What a glorious moment!”

Yoshino Saga’s Monologue “Wind’s Aria ~Wishes of the Bombed Kaki Tree” in BLD Gallery

Exhibition Celebrating the Publication of “The Story of the Kaki Tree” Guest Artist Performance Monologue “Wind’s Aria ~Wishes of the Bombed Kaki Tree” By Yoshino Saga Script, Production and Sound by Seigo Yatagai Actress Yoshino Saga’s monologue performance “Wind’s Aria” was held on the day before the final day of the exhibition. Mr. Seigo Yatagai, Producer wrote this work to pass down the stories of the Kaki Tree Project and the Nagasaki atomic bombing to children. Mr. Yatagai and Ms. Saga have been performing monologue dramas on the bombing since 2011. Through such activities, they came across the Kaki Tree Project. The “Wind’s Aria” is a story of a kaki… Read more »

Anken Kitadani’s Workshop in BLD Gallery

Exhibition Celebrating the Publication of “The Story of the Kaki Tree” Guest Artist Workshop No.3 Let’s Make “Kaki Tree Picture-Card Show” By Anken Kidani Mr. Anken Kidani is a member of the Kaki Tree Project Executive Committee and the creator of the well-known picture-card show “Kaki Tree Parent and Child.” The workshop started with the the picture-card show performance by the artist himself. Then, each participant of the workshop chose a scene and drew that scene to make a picture-card show together. Participants of the workshop ranged in age from kindergarten, elementary school, university to adults. Small children seemed to be a bit nervous before the workshop because they did… Read more »

Sankakuma’s Workshop in BLD Gallery

Exhibition Celebrating the Publication of “The Story of the Kaki Tree” Guest Artist Workshop No.4 “Let’s Draw A Family Portrait! Let’s Draw Peace Just As You Like!” By Sankakuma Guest artist “Sankakuma” is a group of artists based in Kumamoto, which consists of painter, contemporary artist, researcher, curator and art student. Normally, each of them pursues one’s artistic interests in own way, but they joined as a team this time as they agreed with the purpose of the Kaki Tree Project. The workshop’s theme was “Family Bond.” Participating family members were asked to pair up, and look at and draw a portrait each other. The artists made them do so… Read more »

Talk Event: Katsuhiko Hibino, Tsukasa Mori and Tatsuo Miyajima in BLD Gallery

Exhibition Celebrating the Publication of “The Story of the Kaki Tree” Talk Event No.3 Art that Deviates, Confronts, and Expands ~Explore the Possibilities of Workshop We asked Mr. Tsukasa Mori, former curator at Art Tower Mito and currently Director of the Tokyo Culture Creation Project’s Tokyo Art Research Lab, to host the event, and Mr. Hibino and Miyajima talked about “Workshop.” First, Miyajima explained that works on display at the venue were created by children through the Kaki Tree Project’s workshops, which took place in 190 locations in 22 countries around the world and the themes were not told them in advance, rather, they were allowed freely to choose. Hibino… Read more »

hinichi Yano’s Workshop in BLD Gallery

Exhibition Celebrating the Publication of “The Story of the Kaki Tree” Guest Artist Workshop No.2 “Let’s Make Magical Kaki Fruit Together” By Shinichi Yano Mr. Shinichi Yano serves as a director of a general social organization, Children Art Network. He is also an artist who is engaged in research in education through art in many kindergartens. He prepared white cocoon-shape packing materials, sparkling beads and marker pens on the table prior to the workshop. Children first applied color to the cocoon-shape packing materials with marker pens and paints, then they drew shapes on them. They also pasted beads on them with adhesive bond. When they made some of them, Mr…. Read more »

Misa Akiyama’s Workshop in BLD Gallery

Exhibition Celebrating the Publication of “The Story of the Kaki Tree” Guest Artist Workshop No.1 “DREAMS COME TRUE! ~Let’s Grow Kaki Tree With Our Power ~” By Misa Akiyama Guest artist Misa Akiyama is a member of the Kaki Tree Project Executive Committee and has been working as a printmaking artist. She works with a traditional Japanese woodblock printing technique with water-based inks and creates abstract works with themes such as the passage of time and the history of man. She has also engaged in stage design since 2003 and creates large-scale works, as well. Her workshop started with an explanation of the kaki tree as she showed the just-released… Read more »

Talk Event: Kundo Koyama and Tatsuo Miyajima
BLD Gallery, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan

Exhibition Celebrating the Publication of “The Story of the Kaki Tree” Talk Event No.2 How to Make “the Landscape of the Future” ~Small Forces that Move the World Kundo Koyama and Tatsuo Miyajima To this talk event, we invited Mr. Kundo Koyama, broadcast writer who had won the Screenplay of the Year for the film “Departures (Okuribito)” at the 2009 Japan Academy Prize to discuss “Ideas to make society and people happy.” First, they talked about their workplace Tohoku University of Art and Design as they were colleagues at the university. Koyama told how he accepted a teaching position at the university and introduced the newly established “Department of Project… Read more »

Talk Event: Kenji Yanobe, Masaki Higuchi and Tatsuo Miyajima
BLD Gallery, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan

Exhibition Celebrating the Publication of “The Story of the Kaki Tree” Talk Event No.1 ~ Statement and Committment ~ A Struggling Artist’s Social Approach Kenji Yanobe, Masaki Higuchi and Tatsuo Miyajima We held the first talk event to discuss the theme of “Social nature of man and art.” Mr. Yanobe has been approaching the nuclear issues since his visit to Chernobyl in 1997. He created work called “Sun Child” after the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant to express his attitude that he would be unbeaten by the disaster. He is an artist who squarely struggles with society. Mr. Higuchi, on the other hand, works for the Japanese cosmetics company… Read more »

Exhibition Celebrating the Publication of “The Story of the Kaki Tree”

The “Revive Time – Kaki Tree Project” head office has a lot of treasures. These are artworks created by people and children around the world for the seedlings of the bombed kaki tree. The exhibition “KAKI STORY 1995-2012 —Kaki Tree’s Journey to Connect and Spread—” held this summer to celebrate the launch of “The Story of the Kaki Tree” invited those works to play the leading role and conveyed aspirations for peace and life energy from around the globe. Even the long-time executive committee members have never seen some of the works. What seemed to be common were that they were created based on “a good understanding of the bombed… Read more »

Planting Ceremony, Kabul, Afghanistan

The “Garden of Peace and Hope” was created in collaboration with Global Hope Network International and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Information & Culture. It is located inside the National Gallery in Kabul. The garden and its facilities were designed and accomplished with the purpose of providing beauty and inspiration to the art fields and contributing to peace and hope. The garden gives a sense of “paradise” or oasis, in which people seek refuge from the oppressive and hostile elements that often exist in society. It should be the place of reflection, creation, opinion exchange, and aspiration for development and well-being of the art fields. The garden is hoped to be a… Read more »

Primary School in Mirabella Imbaccari

Mr. Rosario Scollo, who applied for the planting in Sicily, is responsible for SCI (Service Civil International) activities in the entire province of Catania. SCI was established in 1920 and is one of the largest volunteer organizations in the world. It promotes a culture of peace by breaking down prejudices and barriers between people with different social, cultural and national backgrounds. They organized a photo exhibition of atomic bombings in the spring of 2011. On the day of planting, children from the primary school gathered in the schoolyard where they hung the big national flags of Japan and Italy on the wall. Several participants made speeches, and secondary school pupils… Read more »

Conservatorio Botanico della Valle d’ltria

The town Cisternino, in which Valle d’Itria Botanical Conservatory is located, is in the center of Puglia, and situated between two ports (Taranto and Brindisi). The conservatory is established by Mr. Paolo Belloni in 2004, which shows abundant examples of biodiversity. Therefore, pupils and students visit the conservatory for their research. 300 varieties of fig trees, biblically a symbol of peace, are planted and grown here. Ms. Tiziana Volta, editor of an Italian magazine called “Gardenia,” has applied for the plantings at three locations; the conservatory, the National Gallery in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Parco San Giovanni, Trieste, Italy. On the day of the planting ceremony, children came by a school… Read more »

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