Setouchi Triennale Part 2: Exploring Island Art Regeneration and Coexistence with the Historical Environment

General News Jan 1, 1970By Emily Carter 0 views

Editor's note: The triennial Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale is taking place right now in Niigata, Japan. The author of this article (Secretary-General of the Taiwan Association for Historical Resources Management) has specially written a detailed account, for readers who are unable to attend the event in person, of the context behind the creation of both the "Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale" and the "Setouchi Triennale," their exhibition content, and the impact such artistic actions have brought to the local area and to Japanese society. This article continues the introduction to the "Setouchi Triennale". To read other articles in the series, please see the appendix at the end of this article.

The Reappearance of the Original Landscape

Shodoshima is the second-largest island in the Seto Inland Sea after Awaji Island, with an area of about 153 sq km. Its warm climate is like that of the Mediterranean, making it suitable for growing citrus and olives. Olive cultivation began about 100 years ago, making it the birthplace of olives in Japan. Olive oil, soy sauce, and somen are the island's three major specialties. In 1954, the classic Japanese film "Twenty-Four Eyes" (Note 1), directed by Keisuke Kinoshita, was set on Shodoshima against the backdrop of the war-torn Showa era, describing the moving story of a young female teacher who goes to the Tanokubo branch school at the southern tip of Shodoshima and meets twelve students. The island's famous spot, the "Twenty-Four Eyes Movie Village," was converted from the filming location used for the 1987 remake of the film.

Green terraced fields are scattered across the mountains of Shodoshima, shaping a cultural landscape born from local residents' farming life adapting to the terrain. Among these, the "Nakayama area Senmaida" was selected as one of the "Top 100 Rice Terraces of Japan" (Note 2), and the spring-fed river flowing through the terraces, "Yufune no Mizu," was selected by the Ministry of the Environment as one of the "Top 100 Famous Waters of Japan." At the turn of each season, there is a traditional ceremonial festival in which local thanksgiving drama is performed on a rural stage. In the era before media existed, rural kabuki stages served many functions: gathering rural crowds, giving thanks to the gods, providing song-and-dance entertainment, folk performing arts, spreading information, and transmitting government decrees. At the turn of each season, farmers performed on the rural stage, and even in the 21st century today it remains an important local cultural activity.

In various parts of Japan, especially around the Seto Inland Sea in Tokushima Prefecture and Kagawa Prefecture, quite traditional rural stages and culture have been preserved. On Shodoshima, rural kabuki has been designated by Kagawa Prefecture as an "Intangible Folk Cultural Property," and the two rural kabuki stages in the island's Hidoiyama and Nakayama areas are nationally designated "Important Tangible Folk Cultural Properties."

(Left) Phase one of the refinery (Right) Reception house in front of Inujima pier (Photo / Yang Weilin)

**Satoyama and Satoumi - Restoring Japan's Original Landscape**

The Setouchi Triennale has received an enormous response at home and abroad. Residents of Echigo-Tsumari also formed groups to visit the Setouchi Triennale, exchanging experiences of community participation in art festivals. The Setouchi Triennale Executive Committee even received the Special Jury Prize at Japan's 15th National Furusato Grand Prize for "Setouchi Triennale 2010." The 105-day Setouchi Triennale, under the slogan "A Hundred Days of Ocean Adventure," highlights the uniqueness and charm of local culture through art projects, encourages residents to rekindle their love and memories of their hometown, and attempts to propose regional tourism plans and policy recommendations.

While the 2010 Setouchi Triennale was underway, planning had already begun for the next edition in 2013, aiming to incorporate overall regional planning into a mindset of coexistence with history, culture, and the environment, and to promote it over the long term.

To highlight the seasonal charms of the arc-shaped islands of the Seto Inland Sea and to disperse crowds and reduce the burden on local residents, the 2013 Setouchi Triennale divided its 108-day run into three periods: spring (3/20-4/21), summer (7/20-9/1), and autumn (10/5-11/4), presenting the theme of "Art touring the four seasons of the Seto Inland Sea islands." The venue range was also expanded to include the southwestern islands of Shamijima, Honshima, Takamijima, Awashima, and Ibukijima. Through art, it aims to remind everyone of the original landscapes that once lingered in memory, and how they can be preserved through our efforts.

Corresponding to Echigo-Tsumari's satoyama, the Seto Inland Sea is the Japanese people's satoumi, and both are beloved original landscapes of Japan. However, under the changes of the times, the areas around the Seto Inland Sea are also facing deteriorating local finances and population outflow. Fram Kitagawa believes that art can make us reflect on the crisis of urban capitalist civilization:

"Compared with trying to revitalize a region through civil engineering works or large commercial facilities, art remains the only appropriate means of respecting local culture, even if some believe art is being exploited; art is not the goal. What matters is whether the people living on this land feel happiness and fulfillment. Most people living in cities, even if materially well-off, have lost the joy of life due to the fragmentation of social patterns and the alienation of interpersonal relationships." (Note 8)

**Series Reading:**

**Land Art Coexisting with History, Culture, and Environment (1) Fram Kitagawa, Artistic Action to Reshape Regional Value**

**Land Art Coexisting with History, Culture, and Environment (2) Letting Abandoned Fields and Closed Schools Blossom with New Energy - Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale (Part 1)**

**Land Art Coexisting with History, Culture, and Environment (3) The Artistic Realization of the Satoyama Initiative - Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale (Part 2)**

**Land Art Coexisting with History, Culture, and Environment (4) Building a Sea of Hope - Setouchi Triennale (Part 1)**

(Note 1) An outstanding film work produced in 1954 by Shochiku Ofuna Studio, directed by Keisuke Kinoshita and adapted from the original novel by Japanese writer Sakae Tsuboi. In 1987, director Yoshitaka Asama remade the film based on Keisuke Kinoshita's screenplay.

(Note 2) Japan calls terraced fields "senmaida" or "tanada." The Top 100 Rice Terraces of Japan was designated in 1999 under the auspices of the Development Division of the Structural Improvement Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

(Note 3) At the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, French architect Dominique Perrault designed an open-air Noh stage in the Jimyo Waterside Park in Tokamachi (Pavillon / Papillon, 2006). Traditional Noh performances soothed the wounds caused by the 2005 major earthquake in the Niigata region and the heavy snowfall disaster in early 2006, serving as a spiritual landmark for praying for and healing the victims at the opening of the third Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale.

(Note 4) Quoted from the content of this study's interview with Fram Kitagawa in February 2012.

(Note 5) In 1909, a leprosy sanatorium was established on Oshima, and in 1946 it became the National Sanatorium Oshima Seishoen. According to 1999 statistics, 3,923 patients had been admitted, only 823 left the facility, and 1,970 died within it.

(Note 6) For the purposes of "preservation of historical and cultural heritage" and "local revitalization and development," in 2007 the Industrial Heritage Utilization Committee of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry comprehensively designated 575 pieces of modern industrial heritage that have made important contributions to national and local development. The Inujima Refinery belongs to the "modern industrial heritage group that tells the history of the copper mines of the Seto Inland Sea region, which supported our country's copper production through various connections with the region."

(Note 7) In 2010, Hiroshi Sambuichi won the 4th Japan Architecture Award for the Inujima Refinery.

(Note 8) Quoted from the content of an interview with Fram Kitagawa by Huang Shanshan in the October 2009 issue of CANS Art News.

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Setouchi Triennale Part 2: Exploring Island Art Regeneration and Coexistence with the Historical Environment

The Reappearance of the Original Landscape

Satoyama and Satoumi - Restoring Japan's Original Landscape

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