Date: Friday 10th – Sunday 19th November, 2017

Venues: Ueno Park; Tokyo National Museum; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum; Tokyo Bunka Kaikan; Yanaka area.

Artists: Katsuhiko Hibino; Yousuke Kaifu; Jin Ishikawa; Taro Suzuki; Kazuyuki Hashimoto; Shinji Ohmaki; Tokyo University of the Arts; École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux‐Arts; Lighting Detectives; Chihiro Minato; Tsuyoshi Ozawa; Kopanda Winds.

What is Tokyo Suki Festival?

Since Ueno Park (officially “Ueno Imperial Park”) opened in May 1876 as Japan’s first ever park, the surrounding area has attracted a medley of cultural facilities and institutions, including museums, art museums, an art university, a zoo, a music hall, and so on, making it a cultural zone unparalleled around the world.

Through collaboration with the groups and institutions in this area, a cooperative society called “Ueno Cultural Park,” has been working to develop all kinds of projects to bring cultural and art activities to people around Japan and overseas. As one arm of this project, they held the Tokyo Suki Festival in Ueno last year, over the course of three days in October.

The Suki Festival has its origins in Kakuzo Okakura, a figure who played a crucial role in shaping the development of modern Japan, and his philosophy, which he laid down in The Book of Tea. Against the backdrop of Okakura’s legacy, and taking as its stage the cultural facilities spread throughout the park, they present various art works, workshops, and concerts based around the idea of suki—meaning both the tea ceremony itself and those that love it, as well as warm feeling in general—that Okakura laid down in his book. During this time 320,000 visitors enjoyed this program encouraging them to feel suki, to have a love for Japan and Tokyo.

http://sukifes.tokyo/en/