Odori-Koen Park: Picture Lanterns
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Revitalizing Odori-Koen Park: Yokohama's Winter Art Exhibition
Location: Odori-Koen Park, Naka Ward, Yokohama, Japan
Timestamp: 17:29 on December 19, 2023
After spending several hours capturing street photography at the Yokohamabashi Shotengai shopping arcade, I made my way to Bandobashi Station through Odori-Koen Park near the shopping arcade entrance. To my delight, the path to the station was lined with 30 beautiful traditional Japanese paintings. These artworks had been enlarged and reproduced onto large acrylic panels, which were backlit and mounted on wooden frames.
This exhibition features paintings from Yuzawa in Akita Prefecture. The paintings are actually a part of Yuzawa’s annual Tanabata Picture Lantern Festival that is held every summer in August. The festival dates back to over 300 years and typically features over 100 woodblock-like paintings.
The exhibition here in Yokohama showcases 30 of the paintings used in Yuzawa’s festival. The paintings are modern creations using both modern techniques and traditional techniques and are based on Edo period woodblock prints (浮世絵・ukiyo-e) portraying bijinga (美人画), a genre of paintings depicting the beauty of women's appearance, manners, and customs from as far back as the 8th century, but more closely associated with bijinga paintings that had gained widespread popularity among the masses during the 17th and 19th centuries.
The exhibition staff shared that this event was part of a promotional initiative supported by both the city of Yuzawa in Akita Prefecture and the Eastern Yokohama Revitalization Association—a local civic group in Yokohama dedicated to revitalizing the neighborhood by optimizing the abundant space in Odori-Koen Park.
Expressing their hopes for the event to become an annual December feature, one of the staff mentioned that they aim to bring warmth and light to what would otherwise be a dark and cold winter evening in the park while simultaneously promoting exciting cultural events and local delicacies of Yuzawa.
Having frequented Odori-Koen park for many years, I had always sensed that its potential was not fully realized, considering its vast open space and proximity to Yokohama's historic Kannai district. Apparently, this sentiment was shared by many local residents and shop owners who recently formed the revitalization association to enhance the quality of life and economy of the neighborhood by leveraging the park as a valuable resource.
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