Welcome to the First Amabiki Village and Sculpture

Yamato Village and Amabiki are about 100 kilometers from the center of Tokyo. The area has a surprisingly rich natural environment and rice-growing scenery still in place. Visitors can see many historic and cultural buildings, including the Tsukuba shrine, Kaba-San shrine, and Amabiki Kannon temple. The region is an extensive grain belt. It has one of Japan's foremost stone-quarrying industries, which is known for the marble taken from the mountains. Nearby Tsukuba University campus and Tsukuba Science City are in the foothills of the same mountains.
The local culture and values have shielded the region from the waves of urbanization, and emphasis on the local and regional characteristics have preserved the region's natural beauty and the quiet mountains facing the Kanto Plain. It is now vitally important to preserve and nurture this cultural heritage. Life in Japan has tended toward a step-by-step and rather monotonous approach to things. We see what is at hand, then do the next thing that happens to come up. Social phenomena and issues are taken up and made widely known by TV, newspapers and other media until all of their own color has been rubbed away. After a certain amount of time passes, attention moves on to the next problem, even if the previous issue remains unresolved. Culture is Tokyo-centric, and there is a strong tendency to eliminate regional characteristics. Even people in charge of regional culture appear to have become Tokyo-oriented.
In the age ahead, however, various events will happen simultaneously in multiple places. The new age will be a time of diversity, a time for the outlying regions. It is now essential for distinct cultures rooted in the character of each region to emerge. Although close to the capital, Amabiki, Yamato Village, is a tranquil space in the mountains, where much rural farmland and nature remains. We have planned an exhibition that will display works of modern sculpture, for a limited period, as a way of helping to nurture the local culture in this village.

Amabiki Village and Sculpture, Executive Committee