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 Design.”
Miyajima gave a briefing on the past activities of the Kaki Tree Project since its launch. After hearing that Koyama regretted that he had not known about the Project at all. He learned about it for the first time that day and highly appreciated that the Project had been operating for 18 years. He indicated his intention to join the Project as he also has connections and relations with Nagasaki in many ways. He appraised the Project highly because it most effectively conveyed the reality of the Nagasaki atomic bombing in a fun manner, was easier for teachers to take part in and brilliant to combine artistic workshops with the Project. Miyajima mentioned fading memories of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and told that it was not through coercion to keep the memories alive, but compassion and deep emotions.
Then, Koyama suggested offering kaki fruit cooking and recipe contests to broaden people’s understanding of the Project.
Miyajima said that children who participated in the tree plantings 10 years or more earlier have now become adults, and shared his passion and the reason why he wanted to make this book; He wanted to show the passage of time and pass down the stories of the Project to the younger generation, especially those who were late teens.
Then, when Miyajima introduced the Project’s anecdotes from all locations, Koyama told how his project “Tokyo Smart Driver,” a campaign to reduce traffic accidents on the Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway, had spread nationwide. He indicated that the structure of development of his project seemed similar to the Kaki Tree Project once the public had started to get involved.
A Q and A session was held at the end.
