Let’s make Ohinasama (Girl’s doll)
♪ Akari wo tsukemasho bonbori ni　ohana wo agemasho momo no hana ♪
　　　　　　(Let’s light the lantern and decorate flowers for the Girl’s Festival…)

My daughter used to sing this song when she was a little girl. I find myself singing this song without knowing, too.

It was such a nice spring day, with the sun shining into the classroom. 15 participants gathered to make Girl’s Festival’s dolls from pieces of paper. I came to know the beauty of washi (Japanese papers), its colors and softness. Since my every day life is so busy, knowing Japanese tradition fulfilled my heart. When we made our dolls, every doll had its own personality.

I thank UNESCO members for preparing such a wonderful party. I look forward to the next opportunity to understand more about Japanese culture.

Lin Lin (Taiwan, Japanese S class)

　* After making paper dolls, we created a little box from origami (Japanese paper), and put hina-arare (rice cake cubes) in it, and celebrated Girl’s Festival. The members of International Exchange Committee were delighted to see everyone enjoying the moment.

UNESCO art exhibition, UNESCO art classes and a charity concert are handled by the Art and Cultural Activity Committee, which changed its name from Cultural Activity Committee last autumn. Among them, the UNESCO Art Exhibition has a special pride and tradition which come from 47 years of history.

In 1957, only 3 years after the Meguro UNESCO Association was founded, UNESCO Art Exhibition started as an activity of an art club. Every year, the first corner of the exhibition is decorated by the works of art by Mr. Kizan Itaka, Jr. (an advisor of Meguro UNESCO) and Mr. Yosei Itaka. They are native Meguro ceramists and are deserved to be called foster parents of the exhibition. This is because they succeeded their father, Mr. Kizan Itaka, Sr., who proposed holding an exhibition.

In those days, people’s lives in Japan had little time to enjoy art and culture. Even the number of people who went to universities was limited. Many of those who were eager to study worked during the day and attended university night courses. People were ‘hungry’ in many ways then.

Art club started during the early times of our association. 30 famous artists who lived in Meguro attended the club as members. Their annual contribution was \360. A record says that their contributions and the money donated by Mr. Yoshizumi Yokoe, a director in charge of the art club, who was regularly invited to exhibit his works at the Nitten (The Japan Fine Arts Exhibition), were used to hold the exhibition.

The members made their works of art for the exhibition in order to answer the question, “How the world of art can cooperate with the movement of UNESCO”. And they talked to people through their works with an idea that art can unite people’s minds just like words do.

The first exhibition was held successfully at Toyoko (now Tokyu) Department Store. With this success, Meguro UNESCO Association proposed Kyoto UNESCO Association to co-sponsor the Japan UNESCO Exhibition. The exhibition was held at Mitsukoshi Department Store at Nihonbashi, and drew 140,000 (!) visitors, which surprised the person in charge at the department store.

As is told above, the UNESCO Art Exhibition used to be a place for the famous artists to show their works of art, but since 1965, it has changed its role and became one of the programs in Cultural Festival of Meguro City. It opened its door widely to the general public, such as foreigners living in Japan, foreign students, art-loving people and the youth and children from Japan and abroad. Beyond nations and generations, it became a place for amateurs. This year was the 39th anniversary since it belonged to the Cultural Festival of Meguro City.

Until Meguro Museum of Art opened, and its Kumin Gallery was offered to the UNESCO Art Exhibition, the Welfare Center and Meguro Kumin Center were often used for the exhibition. After the masters of the early times who loved and cherished the exhibition passed away, the committee members were so anxious about how to liven up the exhibition. Thanks to the artists who were watching over us from the heaven, we found our anxiety groundless.

Fresh breeze was blown into the exhibition from new participants, such as Mr. Ki Nimori, a teacher of stained glass classes this year, Ms. Tomoko Kurokawa, our new member and also an artist of ‘Rozashi’, Japanese traditional embroidery, who wishes to hand down it to children, young artists who would shoulder the next generation and talented young children from a studio in Meguro. Now we wish to reflect the spirit of UNESCO to the exhibition in order to show art, instead of weapons, can contribute to the world peace. I sincerely hope to hand down the spirit and the tradition of UNESCO Art Exhibition to a next generation.