I would first like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the ward heads of the Abeta, Haneda, Kisaki, Maehara, Nakane, Takaku, and Washijuku districts, the landowners, and all the volunteers whose cooperation made AMABIKI 2025 a resounding success.

AMABIKI 2025 commenced on September 21, the summer heat still lingering in the air. It drew to a close on November 23, following the solar term known as Minor Snow in the traditional lunisolar calendar. Amid all the clamor about climate change, looking back, I recall two months of abrupt transition from summer to early winter: eagerly awaiting cool, sunny autumn days, only to find myself shivering in the morning frost before I knew it. Even with such extreme weather conditions, the days brought a tangible sense of nature’s resilient transformation: the once-lush green leaves turned crimson and gold, and the short buckwheat shoots grew tall, bloomed, and offered up their seeds, ready for harvest.

I believe the artists themselves were able to fully appreciate the dialogue between their works and nature, the shifting atmosphere, and the relationships between their creations and the landscapes in which they were installed. We also warmly welcomed a large number of visitors and heard many words of praise from them. We take pride in the conviction that the exhibition allowed every single attendee to thoroughly enjoy themselves.

The bus tours, which were canceled last time due to lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and transformed into an artist talk, made its comeback this year. It proved highly successful, and reservations filled up quickly.

We also held workshops for the frst time since 2015, which were enjoyed by children and their parents both within and outside the city. Seeing so many children gathered together, absorbed in their woodworking projects, was truly heartwarming. It’s rare to see something like this happening outside of the environs of a school or daycare.

Sakuragawa was designated as a depopulated area in 2022. This is happening in regional cities all across Japan; as the national birthrate continues to decline, elementary and junior high schools are being consolidated and closed. I keenly sense how the increase in vacant houses is inversely proportional to our decreasing opportunities to see children’s faces in wonder and play.

For a more intimate experience of my work, I was given the opportunity to display my piece in the garden of a vacant house. The main building, long uninhabited, has deteriorated to the point where it would be difficult to restore it, yet the trees in the garden continue to live on, blooming each year and scattering their fallen leaves. Standing in the garden, you feel as though the daily lives of those who once lived here are resurrected.

I recall reading this in a local publication some time ago, but these words of a local junior high student have stayed with me: “Sakuragawa City is a waste.” When you think more about these words, the underlying message is that it’s too good to waste—in other words, something we value. The rich natural beauty and stunning views of the Tsukuba mountain range, an environment where children can grow up freely and safely, and the deep-rooted culture of this land… there is surely still much we can do to transform these feelings of “waste” into “a source of pride.”

For 30 years through these sculpture exhibitions, we have been involved with this special place where people have built their lives and a history has been formed. It is my sincere hope that, within this history, AMABIKI will be engraved more deeply in the hearts of the children who are growing up here and the adults who were born and raised in this region, as one of our important cultural elements.
What can AMABIKI achieve now, through the medium of a sculpture exhibition, as a source of pride for the people of this land, and ultimately as a hub driving artistic and cultural expression? I hope we’ll approach this question with sincerity and dedication, with the aim of bringing future activities to life.

AMABIKI Exhibition Executive Committee
KOBINATA Chiaki, Participating Artist

I would like to offer my heartfelt congratulations on the opening ofAMABIKI 2025.

The city of Sakuragawa is located in the midwestern part of Ibaraki Prefecture, within 70-80 km of Tokyo. Surrounded by mountains on three sides, the beauty of the city’s 550,000 wild cherry trees in full bloom in spring have earned it mention in the expression “Yoshino in the west of Japan, Sakuragawa in the east of Japan.” The Sakuragawa River, the city’s namesake, runs north-south through the center of the city, and it is a land that is blessed with a green, natural environment.

The AMABIKI exhibition has been held regularly since 1996; this year marks the 13th time the exhibition has taken place. Over a two-month stretch from September 21 to November 23, magnificent works of art created by 35 artists using a variety of different materials like stone, wood, iron, and fabric were displayed throughout the Abeta, Haneda, Kisaki, Maehara, Nakane, Takaku, and Washijuku districts.

It was a pleasant season for leisurely viewing the pieces, and visitors were able to make the rounds of the sculptures on display while cycling and hiking, experiencing the nature of the countryside and the shifting expressions of the works amid the changing mountain scenery.

This exhibition has established itself as an outdoor event with a certain distinguished rarity for Japan. Spanning 30 years, it has consistently drawn large crowds from both within and outside the city, making it a bustling attraction. We frequently heard visitors say they had been looking forward to attending. The event has also been featured in newspapers, magazines, and electronic media, making it a highly anticipated attraction in Sakuragawa.

Sakuragawa is celebrating its 20th anniversary as an incorporated city this year, and is now positioning this exhibition as one of its commemorative events. By coordinating its timing with the City Cultural Festival and Music Festival, we were able to achieve a synergistic effect that allowed even more people to attend. All of this contributed to making the exhibition a commemorative event for the autumnal season of the arts.

I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to the many individuals who were involved to make this event possible. This includes, of course, the participating artists, as well as the landowners who generously provided the exhibition spaces and the local community members who warmly welcomed the artists and our many visitors.

In conclusion, I wish to offer my best wishes for the continued growth of AMABIKI and for the ongoing success of everyone involved.

Mayor of Sakuragawa City
OTSUKA Hideki

My name is FUJII Tadasu, and I’d like to offer my sincere congratulations on Sakuragawa’s 20th Anniversary of Incorporation as a City: AMABIKI 2025. I would like to further extend my congratulations on the 30th anniversary of the sculpture exhibition, which began in 1996.

A 30-year continuity is quite rare in the history of outdoor sculpture exhibitions. Excluding Ube City in Yamaguchi Prefecture, which began in 1961 and was recognized by Guinness World Records in 2024, the sculpture exhibition in Kobe City, which began in 1968, ended in 1998 after reaching its 30th anniversary. The Hakone Open-Air Museum exhibition, which began in 1969, later switched venues to the Utsukushi-ga-hara Open-Air Museum, but ended in 1995, 26 years after its inception. The outdoor cement sculpture exhibition, initiated in 1951 by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government with sponsorship from Onoda Cement, concluded in 1973, so it did not quite reach the 30-year mark. I believe the historical significance of the AMABIKI exhibition can be understood when viewed in this light.

Of course, if we include indoor exhibitions, there are many that have been running even longer. What this means is that keeping outdoor exhibitions running presents more challenges. This is largely because they reflect the political and economic trends of the time. During the late 80s, when Japan was booming and government tax revenue was robust, many cities held outdoor sculpture exhibitions under the banner of “sculpture-based community development.” However, this trend came to an end in the early 90s. The period in which the AMABIKI exhibition has taken place largely coincides with Japan’s so-called “lost 30 years” of economic stagnation. These circumstances are quite different from the other outdoor sculpture exhibitions I mentioned, which began during the postwar economic growth period of the 1950s and 60s, so the significance of AMABIKI having successfully continued for thirty years is even more profound. AMABIKI can be considered the first sculpture exhibition that has followed the unique “sculpture-based community development” initiative.

Let’s consider the climate of the mid-90s when this exhibition began. Around this time, the phrase “public art” had become common place in Japan, which can be attributed to movements related to urban redevelopment. This made it necessary to promote the “vibrancy” of an exhibition. This is very much in contrast to previous outdoor sculpture exhibitions, where parks served as the main venues and “serenity” and “enrichment” were the key words used. AMABIKI differs in both of these respects, which also contributes to its uniqueness.

Let’s broaden our perspective and think about this a little more. The 1990s marked the end of the Cold War, and the world became unified under global capitalism. In the art world, a parallel trend that emerged was the rapid proliferation of international exhibitions known as biennials and triennials. Public art in Japan was also part of that movement. As international star artists tour the world, they are compelled to prove that their works in each city possess a certain inherent value. In doing so, it was often argued that the unique character of the host city’s venue itself guaranteed the work’s inherent value.

It was during these times that the AMABIKI exhibition was conceived. Of course, in this exhibition too, each sculptor has chosen their installation site with great care, but there is no need them to justify why they picked it. The more valuable aspect is how the sculpture itself appears to the viewer.

This ability to think in terms of individual works stems from the fact that this exhibition has been organized under the leadership of sculptors themselves. Artist-led outdoor exhibitions were not uncommon, and were practiced in various forms in Japan in the latter half of the 20th century. However, they didn’t survive very long. So, what has made the longevity of the AMABIKI exhibition possible? I personally attribute it to the “spirit of the sculpture symposium.”

A sculpture symposium is a project where multiple sculptors share accommodations while creating works of art in the same place. While there are no inherent restrictions on materials, stone is often used due to considerations of both the production location and available equipment. This was the case both when symposia began in Austria in 1959 and when the first one took place in Japan in 1963. The AMABIKI exhibition is not a symposium, but given that this region is a source of white granite, many stone carvers take part in it.

This sculpture symposium was one of many held during the “sculpturebased community development” movement in the 1980s, but that movement largely came to an end in the 90s. However, this spirit has lived on in different forms: what’s important is that it has continued under the leadership of sculptors, and developed through the broad network of sculptors themselves. In other words, this spirit lies in sculptors supporting one another in their work and gaining mutual understanding through a process of discourse and exchange. I believe that this spirit has been the greatest factor sustaining this exhibition. In this sense, I believe we can consider AMABIKI a form of exhibition succeeding from sculpture-based community development.

Having said this, it would be difficult for this spirit to endure if it remained confined only to sculptors. In reality, the sculptors participating in the exhibition have continued to share that spirit with local residents through negotiations about the installation of their pieces.

The exhibition opens today. Throughout the AMABIKI’s run, I hope that this spirit of sharing with both local residents and visitors from outside the city will continue. I greatly look forward to seeing that happening.

Art Critic & Professor at Tokyo Zokei University
FUJII Tadasu

*This text is a transcription of the congratulatory speech given by Mr. FUJII Tadasu, guest speaker at the opening reception of AMABIKI 2025 (Sakuragawa’s 20th Anniversary of Incorporation as a City), which took place at 3:00 on September 21, 2025 in the first-floor hall of the Yamato Fureai Center, Citrus, in Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture.