In my previous post for September 29, I showed you this year’s installation by Yoshikawa Youichiro, “Walking companion.” I introduced you tools he provided in the forest. They are
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| A visitor put the wheel
before him and walked circle around the “Garden.” |
Yoshikawa-san secretly invites whoever interested in this year’s exhibition to walk with him “driving” the handheld wheel. Secret? Yep. He did not put the notice in net-sphere. He casually left a pile of cards at the entrance of their forest, inviting anybody who find the card to join him. The itinerary is from JR Nakayama Station to the venue, every day till October 20 (the last day of the show). He waits at the outside of ticket gate of the Station till 13:00 (for 10/20 till 10:00) and walk with us to the Forest Lab via Shikino-mori Forest (my post on June 26, 2020). He carries a wheel bigger than those provided in the forest. It’s made of Japanese zelkova, aka Keyaki 欅 in Japanese. So, he calls his walk “Keyaki’s stroll 欅乃散歩.” The other day, I walked with him to the Forest Lab from Nakayama Station. This week is about my adventure of Keyaki’s stroll 😊
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| This is Yoshikawa-san’s Keyaki wheel. |
I’ve been to ticket gate of JR Nakayama Station. Sure enough, Yoshikawa-san was standing there. He said he always waited till 13:04 when the trains from both directions arrive at Nakayama. We waited a couple of minutes, then started walk. He had an IKEA’s large blue bag with him. Inside was his wheels. But he did not take it out at the station. “I noticed maneuvering the wheel can be intimidating for passers-by. And I’m relatively tall. Naomi, do you know tall guys are always very careful in Japan? If I walk with the wheel in this lively but crowded train station, the situation itself becomes too theatrical. I just want to stroll, not to demonstrate or else.” Oh, is it so? We left Nakayama Station and walked southwest toward Prefectural Road 109 where the promenade to Shikino-mori Forest begins. When we entered the path, he finally brought out the wheels from his IKEA bag, and assembled the doble-wheel.
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| No, we did not use the wheel for the steps of the train station. |
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| We entered the Promenade to the Park. |
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| Yoshikawa-san opened the bag. |
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| Assembling. |
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| Done! |
Yoshikawa-san’s doing it every day during the exhibition. He said the sense of touch was recalled through the vibration of the wheel. He guessed when we were kids, strolling was an adventure of this kind. Now we adults walk to a “defined destination.” Senses of sight and hearing are fully deployed to achieve this goal without accident, like crashing with a car. Senses of smell and touch are not used unless there is an accident along the way, especially such an urban stroll like Nakayama Station to Shikino-mori Forest. Sense of Taste? It should be a rarer occasion when we need this sense to walk as an adult. In contrast, when we were kids all the 5 senses were very busy. We noticed on the ground some sparkling thing (which would turn out to be a chocolate wrapper somebody threw out). We were excited to discover such treasure. Or, we touch the ground that could have different roughness from place to place on a road. Was that sound a chat of grown-up ladies including mammy? What was this smell? A poop of a dog? There were so many wonders in 10m. Now we forgot all. Though, when we walk with the wheels, we naturally concentrate to walk with this tool, and recall the wonders we knew when we were toddles.
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| I’m losing control! |
Having said that, once we entered Shikino-mori Forest, very adult requirements ask to join our walk. First, Yoshikawa-san had to say “hello” to the office of Shikino-mori Forest standing at the main entrance. “You know? It’s a prefectural park. I’m a sort of asking permission to do my installation here, although I don’t want to make it a show.” If Yoshikawa-san does it as a performance, the spectator of his act is ready to watch works of an artist as something non-ordinary. No. He just wants to recall the joy of using five senses that were so natural when we were young. It was not at all extraordinary when we were 3 years old, don’t you think? After clearing courtesy ritual at the admin office, when we pass the photo-point for common kingfisher, he carried his wheels on his shoulder, not drove it. “Those photographers with bazooka-sized lens do not want to have noise of wheels. I always shoulder my gadget when I walk through their point.” (My *sigh*.)
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| Be careful not to disturb these ferocious creatures. |
We kept on going southwest, and entered the Hikarigaoka Housing Complex. It’s almost the end of our journey to Forest Lab. The final part within Shikino-mori Forest was along an unpaved trekking road. I found the touch coming from the wheel was softer in trekking roads, though we could be taken the control of the instrument by mud. Once we entered the housing area, it was paved road again till the entrance of the Forest Lab. By then, I’m kind of accustomed to Keyaki’s Stroll. It’s a fun walk. Am I recovering my sense of wonder in daily life?
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| This part of Shikino-mori Forest is not paved. |
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| Nearly there. |
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| Goal! |
After we reached the forest, Yoshikawa-san kindly did a gallery walk for 2024 show. When we reached Yoshikawa-san’s installation, the Lordless Garden, he nudged us to use the wheel provided at the site. I chose one with an iron ball with a flexible handle. It gave me a different touch from the wheels of zelkova. The ball tumbled at the tip of springy metal handle and moved along the circle road. It was like walking with a dog. It was a fun!
I found several installations with new words from the author. Below is what they said.
Are they ascending or descending?
ISHIKURO Kazuo
A white oak wood ladder stretches up into the sky. There are also some places where it branches out along the way. Is the tower man ascending? Or descending?
Is there a country in the forest
ASADA
In the forest, I created borders for red countries, white countries, blue countries, yellow countries, black countries and green countries. Why?
The world is divided into countries, but if you look closely, you will see that there are countries in the sea, sky and forests too. It's the same forest, but there are red forests, white forests, yellow forests, black forests and green forests. Even the forests have countries? Why is that?
Woods or something else?
KIGA Youko
Unfortunately, woods near residential areas are often overgrown with vine and ivy due to lack of care, and littered with what looks like industrial waste.
In many cases, they are not so clean.
Even such overgrown mountains, there are times when a flash of light shines through from the sky and transforms the place into a place of purity.
The light is gone in an instant, but it is breathtakingly refreshing.
Longing for such a place of prayer, I am trying to create a convenient and instant place of prayer by hand.
2024 the Laboratory of Forest Art will be held during September 29 – October 20 in the same forest of the previous years. Since there is no parking, a recommended access to the Forest is by bus. The most convenient transportation is a bus ride to Yokohama Zoorasia, from JR Nakayama 中山 Station, Sotetsu Tsurugamine 鶴ヶ峰 Station, or Sotetsu Mitsukyo 三ツ境 Station. (Timetables are here.) Get off the bus at the North Gate of Zoorasia that is the closest to the art exhibition entrance. When you leave the terminal stop of Zoorasia North Gate, go back a bit along the bus road, and on your left is the sign for the GROUP. From there enter the forest. The road is a relatively wide walking promenade. Soon you can see a big banner over there saying “the Creation and Voice of the Woods 創造と森の声.”
When you find a problem in the site introduced in this post, the best contact address will be GROUP the Creation and Voice of the Woods.
https://morilab.amebaownd.com/
e-mail: morinokoe7@yahoo.co.jp
The city office which is in charge of this forest is
Office for the Park Greeneries in the North 北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Creative Environment Policy Bureau 横浜市環境創造局
Phone: 045-311-2016
FAX: 045-316-8420
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