KADOKAWA, an entertainment company whose businesses include publishing, animation and video games, will stage “Edo --> <-- (round trip) 2018 Rediscovering the Sumida River: A Boat and Waterfront Art Project” starting in September 2018. The event will offer the public an opportunity to view works of art by famous Japanese artists featuring the Sumida River.

(Logo1: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/img/201808297339-O3-A455fE3r)

During the Edo period (1603-1867), the Sumida River facilitated distribution of products in support of people’s lives and the economy, fostered the development of artistic culture by figures such as Katsushika Hokusai, and brought people together in the course of their daily lives. The river’s bustling waterfront, a frequent subject of ukiyoe woodblock prints from the period, is home to much of the beauty that Tokyo has inherited from Edo. Taking advantage of 2020, the project seeks to utilize art as a uniquely contemporary means of revitalizing the waterfront space and communicating the area’s historical value to the world.

KADOKAWA has been calling attention to attractions of TOKYO to the people in and out of Japan, using its media such as local information media ”Tokyo Walker.” TOKYO will receive remarkable attention from all over the world with the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. Now, the company is eager to show TOKYO’s charming aspects and Japanese culture through this event in the Sumida River area, where common people have valued it as their special place since the Edo period.

The project will be held at the same time as “Sumida River Sumi-Yume Art Project,” an art event popularly known as “Sumiyume” that is being sponsored by Sumida Ward. Numerous Sumiyume events will be held until Friday, December 28, starting with the “Sumiyume Dance Parade,” on Sunday, September 2.

Project 1: Ship of the Zipper

(Photo1: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/img/201808297339-O1-a7vXTe6D)

As it makes ripples while moving forward on the surface of the water, which it utilizes as a canvas, this work seems to symbolize the opening of the Earth itself and the potential of a new future for the river, bringing smiles to crowds of observers who watch from shore.

*Yasuhiro Suzuki

Yasuhiro Suzuki, who graduated from the Faculty of Design at Tokyo Zokei University, is a visiting researcher at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo and an associate professor at the Department of Scenography, Space and Pattern Design at Musashino Art University. He draws inspiration from everyday landscapes and familiar objects, and has presented numerous works in Japan and overseas that change how people see things.

Project 2: Art space produced by Tatsu Nishino

The lively, remarkable and extraordinary art space is popping up around the Sumida River! During the Edo period, O-kawa, the old name of the Sumida River, had been a familiar and entertaining place for common people in each season of the year -- they held a cherry blossom-viewing picnic in spring, a fireworks festival in summer, a full moon-viewing party in autumn and a snow scene-viewing party in winter. Following their jolly ways to enjoy the Sumida River, artist Tatsu Nishino produces an art space which lets us get familiar with and play on the Sumida River, and get a new perspective.

*Event detail will be announced as soon as they are decided.

*Tatsu Nishino

Tatsu Nishino splits his time between Tokyo and Berlin. He produces large-scale installations, for example enclosing famous sculptures worldwide with temporary walls to change them into a living room or hotel. By transforming public places into private spaces, he destroys viewers’ concept of what is normal. At Singapore Biennale 2011, he presented “The Merlion Hotel” featuring the Merlion.

Project 3: Find the urouro-bune!

Photo2: Hokusai's comic verse picture-books “Ehon Sumidagawa ryogan ichiran chu muennonicchu”

https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/img/201808297339-O2-0kbVnHe8

During the Edo period, small boats known as urouro-bune (“meandering boats”) would row back and forth between houseboats selling food and drinks. Now, an urouro-bune has returned to the contemporary Sumida River. Members of the Sumida Sansan Association, a worksite for disabled residents, will sell a new product designed to evoke Edo from their urouro-bune.

*Kazumasa Noguchi

After graduating first in his class from the Department of Architecture at Tokyo University of the Arts’ Faculty of Fine Arts and working for Jun Aoki & Associates, Kazumasa Noguchi set out on his own. In addition to working as an architect, he has held exhibits of his works as an artist in foreign cities, including London, Paris, Berlin, etc.

*Dates and locations vary by project. Details will be announced on the event website shown below.

https://sumidagawa2018.com