Posted by Dave Bull at 4:56 PM, September 21, 2013 [Permalink]
The next town up the valley from us - moving away from central Tokyo - is Okutama, and is a favourite spot for urbanites to escape from the big city for a while for some hiking or fishing.
It's been getting somewhat depopulated in recent years, but the town is fighting back with various promotional events, none of which will probably make much difference in the long run. Young Japanese families are simply not making as many babies as they once were, and what kids there are, of course head for the bright lights once they grow up.
But for now, the town is hanging in there, and one of the events they have come up with is an annual art show that involves pretty much every artist/craftsperson in town, showing there stuff all at once, in dozens of venues spread over the entire municipality. I don't actually live in that town - Ome is next door to it - but this year was invited to join the party and show some stuff.
So a couple of weeks ago, a couple of my staff members took some prints down there and set up a small display in one of the venues, a beautifully situated soba restaurant:
And to help liven things up a bit, on two Fridays during the month-long exhibition, we're holding a kind of 'do it yourself' printmaking day, where visitors can pull their own print from one of our block sets:
Good fun for all, but unfortunately, because those are weekdays, no kids are around ...
