Reborn-Art Festival Breathes Life Into A Struggling Region

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On March 11, 2011, the magnitude 9 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami devastated the Tohoku region of in the northeast of Japan. In 2017, musician and producer Takeshi Kobayashi founded the Reborn-Art Festival with the aim of rebuilding the affected area. The Reborn-Art Festival includes art, music, and food and is held 70 kilometers from the earthquake’s epicenter, in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, and the broader Oshika Peninsula. 

Kobayashi had the idea for the Reborn-Art Festival in 2012 while visiting the Echigo-Tsumari Art Field, an art triennial held in Niigata Prefecture that features around 360 modern art installations incorporated into the natural landscape. The aim of the festival is revitalizing the towns in the area, which are suffering from depopulation and aging. The Echigo-Tsumari art exhibitions pop up every three years in terraced rice fields, mountains, vacant farmhouses and shuttered school buildings. Kobayashi was inspired by the festival’s success in bringing beauty and encouraging resilience in a struggling region.  

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Like the Echigo-Tsumari Art Field, the Reborn-Art Festival weaves its exhibitions into the natural landscape to showcase not only art, music, and food, but also the energy of Ishinomaki that remains despite the hit it suffered due to the earthquake. Kobayashi says of the festival’s name, “The word ‘reborn’ itself suggests that repeating the cycle of life and death; that combination, is what it means to live. As for art, it implies the artistry of living and the way of life. Together the name represents the festival’s intentions.” He credits these words to Shinichi Nakazawa, a fellow RAF organizer. Reborn-Art festival is about transformation: transforming a negative, traumatic experience into something hopeful and new.  

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The theme of the 2019 festival, which will be held from August 3rd to September 29th, is “Texture of Life.” Kobayashi tells The Japan Times “‘Texture of Life’ is an odd concept but I think it’s the perfect theme. As a pianist, I’m impressed with the idea that we have hands that allow us to reach out and feel. That sensation is such a crucial part of living. So, this theme embraces all the senses we use to live.” 

For this upcoming second edition of the festival, seven teams of curators were assigned to different regions. They cooperated with around 40 artists to create works that tie into the overall theme while honoring specific elements of each particular region. The food offerings will showcase local ingredients, and visitors will have the opportunity to participate in traditional dances and to stay overnight in the Momonoura fishing village and an abandoned former elementary school in Oginohama. The entire festival will thus paint a holistic picture of the natural majesty and rich history of Ishinomaki. 

The Reborn-Art Festival’s website beautifully expresses the goal of the event, stating, “In this place, which is in the process of being reborn, visitors can encounter values and people they would not find anywhere else. They may even meet new versions of themselves for the first time.”