Whilst 2020 has been a tough year for event organisers, Tokyo’s Meiji Shrine is celebrating its centennial with the themes Celebrate -Pray- Create and proving that a celebration can be “a walk in the park” or in their case a walk through their very own forest. To mark the first steps into the next one hundred years, and with the sacred forests of Meiji Shrine as the venue, the shrine is presenting a multi-faceted festival of arts and culture, “Meiji Jingu Forest Festival of Art”.
The festival theme is “Celebrate, Pray, Create”, with the sacred forests as the ideal backdrop the Shrine hopes the festival will help visitors to reconsider the relationship between Japanese arts, culture and nature and introduce a uniquely Japanese aesthetic to the world. With an overarching theme of “tradition and innovation” the festival has a program of events taking place throughout 2020 and into 2021, highlights include outdoor sculpture exhibitions in the serene natural surroundings of the forest, art shows, contemporary culture programs and much more events. Running parallel to these events there are also programs to support promotion and revitalization activities for regional disaster struck areas, sending a message of prayer to the world.
Festival Overview:
Art exhibitions until March 2021
Contemporary culture exhibitions October-December 2020
Nature/Environment/Coexistence Society Project until March 2021
Inbound tourism regional revitalisation of disaster struck regions until March 2021
Tea Ceremony/Contemporary Art Tea Ceremony September/October 2020
Main Exhibitions:
Tenkukaikatsu – Meiji Jingu Forest: Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition
until December 13 (Mon), 2020
“Tenkukaikatsu” (meaning “as open as the sky and sea”) is an outdoor Sculpture exhibition showcasing the work of six artists. All of the artists visited the installation site, understood the history and culture of Meiji Shrine, and created each piece with respect, honouring and responding to the environs.
Shikansuiyo – Art of the One Hundred Year Forest
until September 27 (Sun), 2020
An exhibition showcasing new works by thirty artists at the Meiji Shrine Museum. Works use traditional Japanese media; folding screens, hanging scrolls, partition screens and folding fans.
Kiinseido – A Genealogy of Sculpture, from Hirakushi Denchu to Kohei Nawa until September 30 (Wed) 2020
An exhibition taking a fresh look at the lineage of sculpture at the Homotsuden Treasure Museum.
About Meiji Shrine:
Meiji Shrine is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken and is made up of the solemn inner gardens, the outer gardens which hold the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery and the Meiji Kinnenkan.
The dense forest that surrounds the shrine was planted by hand with around one hundred thousand trees brought from across Japan. It covers an area of 700,000 sq. metres and has grown into a rich and luxuriant forest, much loved by the people of Japan. Learn more: LINK
COVID-19 Important: Meiji Shrine and organisers are committed to the measures put in place in accordance with the “Guidelines for preventing the spread of new coronavirus infection in museums” of the Japan Museum Association. Measures include social distancing (2m) and wearing of appropriate mask. Please check before visiting.
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