Theme: The Core

The world has been accelerating its transformation every day by day.
Here we are the ones to create our future.
Is our future map leading us to real happiness?
Before rushing into a new era, why don’t we take time to turn our vector inward to explore the true “Core” of our reality?
Feeling the “Core” will make us remind some critical things we have forgotten and found new excitement in an ordinary world.
Also, we may even acquire more power and firm conviction toward our future!
Let’s celebrate the beginning of a new era by taking a journey into our true “Core”!
And devote ourselves to joyful conversations to make our glorious dream come true!

Anjo city culture center
17-11
Sakuramachi
Anjo, Aiti, 446-0011
Japan

Asahi Sugiura

Hair and Makeup Artist

Born in Osaka in 1977, and raised in Okazaki, Aichi, Japan. Asahi first visited Tiulon, a small undeveloped village deep in a jungle of Borneo island in Malaysia in 2001 as a participant of a reforestation tour by OISCA. Fascinated so much by people in Tiulon, she revisited there again and again. From 2007 she started fundraising to improve Tiulon’s living environment. Although she didn’t have any experience of fundraising and had to start it from scratch, she could gather almost $10,000 just in a year. Her personal action gradually evolved from simple fundraising into a reforestation project cooperating with the OISCA Chubu Japan Training Center.

Hideo Asada

Astronomical Researcher

Born in Yokkaichi, Mie prefecture, Japan. He dedicated his college days for spreading astronomy with Takashi Yamada, a planetarium commentary pioneer in Japan. After his graduation, he worked for an astronomical telescope company. In 1992 he resigned and founded Asada Thinking Laboratory to teach people how wonderful and joyful to observe stars. Now he gives lectures and writes articles about the wonder of the universe while serving as a planetarium commentary. Currently he is a director of i-Planets, a nonprofit organization managing Anjo City Culture Center Planetarium, and travels around many planetariums in Japan to teach planetarium commentary and support their managements.

Hiroki Kora

University student

Born in Anjo, Aichi, Japan in 2000. Against strong opposition from his teachers, he entered to study agriculture at Anjo Norin High School. He was so eager to acquiring multiple licenses and conducting a big event with nationwide agriculture students besides curriculum study. Especially his research paper about producing Japanese fermented rice drink won the first prize of “Student Research Paper Prize for Industrial Education.” Also, he won the grand prize at the National Agricultural Appraisal Competition (Food Division) held by Future Farmers of Japan Organization. Now he is studying microorganisms and nutrition at Meijo University.

Junko Shimizu

Hunter / Restaurant owner

Born in Nagaoka city, Niigata, Japan, in 1971. When Junko was working at a child welfare facility as a caregiver, she was forced to resign due to terminal cancer. During her home recuperation period, she participated in a rice-making workshop in a mountainous area of Toyota, Aichi. A conversation with local people about the crop damages by wild animals triggered and inspired her to acquire a hunting license. Since then, she is not only a hunter involved in harmful birds, and animals control actions, but also the owner of a wild game dish cuisine restaurant. Prized for both Aichi Prefectural Governor’s Award and Aichi Credit Guarantee Association Award at “Aichi Shining Women’s Social Business Plan Contest 2018”.

Nobuyoshi Asai

Butoh dancer

Born in Nagoya in 1983. Started dancing at the age of ten, he won many national and international street dance contests and worked as a back dancer and as a choreographer for popular Japanese musicians like SMAP. In 2005, seeking a new possibility of dance as fine arts, he moved to contemporary dance and joined a butoh company, Sankai-Juku. Asai also performed at Batsheva Company and directed PIERRE MIROIR Company in Paris. Back in Japan in 2016, he established Dance House Kogane 4422 in Nagoya to explore a possibility of contemporary dance as a tool to inspire social issues and communities. Today he performs in Japan as well as overseas actively. Nagoya Special Mission Ambassador for Touristic and Cultural Interactions.

Ximena Elgueda / Steven Ward

Contemporary Artists

Ximena, born in Chile forged her artistic path in Venezuela inspired by the indigenous landforms, was awarded a scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Education to study architectural ceramics at the Nagoya University of the Arts in 1994. Steven grew up in California surrounded by art, gravitated to clay as a medium to express himself, and after traveling the world, he came to Shiga (1995) to do an artist in residency. Like two stream tributaries, they met in 1996 and started developing multimedia collaborations together. In 2000, they embarked on their remarkable public art project which involved 2,000 volunteers for over 16 years to create the world’s first and largest ceramic amphitheater: The Mountain Plaza Ceramic Amphitheater Art Center.

Yoshinobu Sugiura

Mrin(Japanese sweet sake) maker

In 1966, Yoshinobu Sugiura was born as the third successor of Japanese sweet sake 'mirin' maker in Hekinan, Aichi, Japan. As one of traditional Mikawa Mirin makers, he energetically promotes his 'mirin' not only as a traditional seasoning for Japanese cuisines but also as a natural sweetener without any sugar for various new possibilities like healthy desserts and others.