Category: News from the office

Exhibition Celebrating the Publication of “The Story of the Kaki Tree” Talk Event Tatsuo Miyajima and Akio Nagasawa 　　　　　　　　　　　　 A talk event was held to celebrate the publication of “The Story of the Kaki Tree” at NADiff a/p/a/r/t. First, Miyajima showed the Kaki Tree Project DVD and talked about the Project. He also shared how the Japan’s art world reacted when they started the Project and about the state of participatory projects around 1996. Although some JR (Japan Rail) lines were suspended due to a large earthquake occurred in the early evening, people came to the event. He welcomed and enjoyed the interaction with those who attended. The Q and… Read more »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

Since the planting on 9 March 2008, in Castegnato, Brescia, peace march in Franciacorta has been held every year when plantings take place in the Province of Brescia. Although it rained this year, children marched on the street in the morning led by cars holding the edges of the large “PACE” flag of 10×20 meters. Many people stood along the street holding banners with messages, who brought additional excitement to the march. The mayor of Castegnato and the chairman of children’s congress also took part in. Unfortunately, Dr. Ebinuma and Mr. Takashisa Araki could participate in the peace march for only a brief time period as they had just come… Read more »

Watari Primary School was supposed to have the tree planting ceremony of the seedling of the bombed kaki tree on 13 April 2011. However, because of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster, hundreds of people had to evacuate to Fukushima-shi and Watari Primary School was also used as one of the evacuation centers, and the radiation problem thereafter, the school had to give up the tree planting. When three schools in Italy, Istituto Comprensivo Statale di Trenzano (planted the tree on 24 March 2010), Istituto Comprensivo Statale di Bagnolo Mella (planted the tree on 18 May 2011) and Istituto Comorensivo Statale di Gussago heard about… Read more »

Takaho Primary School planted two kaki trees on 1 March 2001 and will celebrate the 10th anniversary in 2011. 4 children on behalf of the pupils will take part in Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Victims Memorial Peace Prayer Ceremony in August 2011 and interact with primary schools in Nagasaki. Prior to the ceremony, as a preliminary study, Tatsuo Miyajima, founder of the “Revive Time” Kaki Tree Project, conducted a lecture titled “The Kaki Tree Project that spread all over the world” on 8 July 2011. All the 190 pupils of Takaho Primary School and Mr. Seiji Arai, who applied for the project, as well as Takaho regional development committee members attended… Read more »

Secretariat of The World March for Peace and Nonviolence Since the planting at St. Giulia Museum in 2000, the seedlings of the bombed kaki tree have been planted in 25 sites in the Province of Brescia, Italy. Representatives from several planting sites gathered for the general meeting in the evening of 20 May 2011. About 10 people including Mr. Foletti Francesco from Consorzio Tavolo Della Pace Franciacorta-Monte Orfano, representatives from the tree planting sites of 2011 and residents from the future planting sites attended the meeting. So did Mr. Masayuki Ebinuma and Mr. Takahisa Araki. In the meeting, each planting site provided the status report, the organization which initiated “The… Read more »

The kaki tree which was planted on 28 March 1998 at Yanaka Community Center in Taito-ku, Tokyo was moved to Hatsune no Mori, Disaster Prevention Space, which is across the street from Yanaka Community Center, in 2008. For 2 years after the transplantation, the tree did not produce any fruit, however, it produced a lot of fruit in the autumn of 2010 and the harvest festival was held on 13 November 2010. About 35 people including children from the children’s club and the children’s future club of the community committee participated in the event. They gathered approximately 400 pieces of kaki fruit and then in the community center’s kitchen, they… Read more »

After the plantings in the park of Ogaki Castle, Kono Primary School and Higashi Junior High School in 2000, citizen volunteers had set up the O-kaki Project Executive Committee and promoted various events such as the plantings in 41 locations within the city and chorus festival for the past 10 years. The chorus festival which had continued for 10 years ended on 10th of October 2009 with the final “O-kaki Big Chorus” and the general meeting was held on 1 August 2010 to report on the activities in the past 10 years and to discuss future activities. Ogaki Mayor Bin Ogawa, Mr Masatada Shiratori, Chairman of the Association of Primary… Read more »