Yonago Sculpture Symposium Trajectory

The world's first sculpture symposium was proposed in 1959 by a writer named Karl Plantel of Austria. In fact, in 1957, when he was asked by the government at the time for a stone monument to determine the position of the border between Austria and Germany, he wondered if he could make use of it in university classes based on his experience of carving stones outdoors. I was struggling, but it seems that it changed to what I should do if I invited writers from each country to make works in Japan. At that time, 11 writers from 7 countries are certainly participating. Since it was 1959, it was 1959, and the participating artists at that time returned to Japan and started symposiums in each country. A symposium was held in the former Yugoslavia in 1961, and Japanese writers came to be called at several times. With that as an opportunity, there will be a movement to hold a symposium in Japan as well. The first event held in Japan was in 1963 in Manazuru, Kanagawa Prefecture, in anticipation of the Tokyo Olympics, hosted by the Asahi Shimbun. Since then, it has been held in various places such as Shodoshima, Hachioji, and Hagi.

Yonago will hold it at Minatoyama Park in 1988 and 1988. In a sense, I thought it would be almost impossible to do just by raising funds, but it was just around the time when Japan was about to enter the booming economy of the bubble, so from the outside, there was a historical background. I think I was lucky to start. From the outside, it was suggested by only young people from the private sector, so there were various mistakes, and there was a time when the government did not receive any assistance and there were only two executive committee members. There are only two people. When I was at a loss because no one listened to me, I was able to meet Mr. Iwasaki, the late president of Sanin Shinpan, and when I consulted, he said, "Do it!" Then I have a deficit, so do it. " I felt like I could do something about it, but I realized that we couldn't do anything alone in creating an organization, so we had to have someone who would be the core of the organization. I was asked to become the secretary general with the feeling of deceiving Professor Tomomatsu because there must be someone who can talk properly with the government (laughs). Finally, I was able to stand at the starting point for holding the symposium.

As for the material of the stone, 50 tons of granite will be provided free of charge from Mr. Mitsuda Stone of Okayama City, and it is good to get it for free, but at that time it was decided how to transport it from Okayama to Yonago. Thanks to Mr. Tomomatsu's efforts, Mr. Hatsuma will be able to carry the fare for free. When it comes to what to do with the crane when unloading it, I felt that it was free because Mr. Hattorishima had it (laughs), so I asked him to do it almost for free. Is that the good thing about Yonago people? I think that everyone was very supportive of the start, as they were interested in things that seemed interesting. However, for about two weeks after it started, I try hard to raise funds, but I don't collect. Only about 30% of the planned amount was collected. So it was in front of Obon, but Mr. Tomomatsu called me and let me go to a private room and said, "I'm going to do it." I thought that Mr. Iwasaki would be able to do something even if I was told that, but Mr. Tomomatsu seemed to think that he would not cause any inconvenience, so he paid the insurance money. I was told to sell the land because I am a farmer because I will cancel the contract. In other words, I felt that I was responsible for that much, but I thought that if Mr. Tomomatsu canceled the insurance money, the person who was deceived could not help selling the land (laugh) ), When the Obon festival was over, money suddenly started to collect, and the amount of money raised was much larger than planned, which was too much to run the symposium. In some cases, boys donated coins in bottles, and in some cases, an old woman over 80 brought rice balls for the writer. The spread of such support continued until the last day. I was physically distressed during the symposium, and I was honestly wondering if it would end early, but in a sense it feels like the best symposium. The signboard of the Yonago Sculpture Symposium was also hand-written by the members of the executive committee. We repaired the abandoned tree, painted it with white paint, and wrote it together. I haven't placed an order with a vendor. We did it all together. I wonder if someone was watching that kind of figure.

In such a nice atmosphere, the works were completed with good momentum from the writers, but I explained to the writers in advance how to set up the works and where to set them up, but the final step is unclear. I started as it was, so in the worst case, I couldn't install it for about half a year after the work was completed. In some cases, we couldn't get an agreement with the artist about the place we wanted to install, we couldn't get an agreement on the receiving side, and it was extended for about half a year.
That was a great lesson, and at the time of the second (1990), it was necessary to clearly decide where to install it before doing it. This is the only example of the 10 symposiums, but the pedestal of the work was decided first. From the writer's point of view, I thought it was a pretty terrible environment, but since I was doing it under the initiative of the private sector, it would be extremely difficult to install it, so I installed it a second time in a fairly forcible manner. Did. As a result, the current sculpture road plan came out.

From the 3rd time (1992), there was an opinion that it would be a good idea to put it on a pedestal like a square box, and I decided to get rid of it because it was justified. At this time, the sculptor and the secretariat probably did the most clearly in the 10 symposiums (laughs), or I think that there were the most discussions. As a result, it is now possible to place the sculpture on top of the interlocking as it is now. At that time, the sidewalk next to the Cultural Hall was made with a national subsidy, and the completion inspection had not been completed yet. Therefore, it would be a problem for the government office to get rid of the plants without permission or to peel off the bricks. However, from the standpoint of the artist, it is natural that if you want to set up a work, you want to make it the most environmentally friendly and regrettable form in the future, which is the conscience of the artist. Discussions about what to do in it continued like every night. It was a symposium where stones were carved during the day and installed at night. Among them, Mr. Matsuoka, who was the director of the urban development department of Yonago City at that time, said, "I'm not talking about this because everyone thinks it's bad. How can everyone be good for Yonago? I'm discussing whether it's okay, so as a result, it will be better here, so let's get rid of the planting, if it's okay to peel the bricks, that's better, I think it's okay, so I'm hungry if anything Let's do it with that. " I have met many government officials in both Tokyo and Nagano, but for the first time I have met those who have been told by the citizens. Thanks to this, the installation method has become ideal. Around that time, the "Yonago method" was formed, and the language was born and spread throughout the country. Therefore, I feel that the third Symbodium is a turning point in Yonago, or the initial completion stage.

It was the 4th time (1994), and Mr. Tomomatsu has been managing it as the secretary general from the 1st time, but at the same time the way of collecting donations becomes very bad, there is no place to install it from the city planning section. So, the executive committee decided to put an end to it for the fourth time. So this time, I saw Oda Shoreler from Germany, as I was asked to call overseas writers, and if I wanted to call them, a beautiful writer would be good.

-Since the symposium is over, we invited all 17 past writers to a forum. At the table, Mayor Yonago Morita asked me to continue, so the city later formulated the "Basic Plan for Town Development with Sculpture" and obtained the approval of the city council. In this way, under the initiative of the city, it was launched in a new form based on the know-how of the private sector from the 5th (1996). I think it started with a much better feeling than when I was doing it in the private sector on a budget, and it is environmentally better than before. The problem is that in the case of the private sector, audits are tentatively done, but it is not as strict as the local government, so it was relatively easy to collect funds, but it became difficult to do that, and there was a place for interaction between the general public and the symposium. I think it is a fact that it gradually shrank.

Looking at the basic plan for town development with this sculpture, the year of completion was when I was 78 (laughs), in fact. So now I'm wondering what that is supposed to be. However, I was enthusiastic about it. After that, the supervisor moved to the Board of Education, and it is still up to now.

In the meantime, he received the "Tottori Prefecture Landscape Award" in 1994 and was selected as one of the "500 Beautiful Japanese Ways to Walk" in 2004. In a sense, it can be said that it is a symposium that has been highly evaluated by other organizations and other parties. Also, although it is a rumor among sculptors, I have heard that attending Yonago's symposium will be the status of stonemason and sculptor. The writers you can see here are also those who have overcome considerable difficulties. A few selected from dozens of candidates. Perhaps in the early days, even the selected people didn't even realize that they were listed, but in secret, they spent six months to a year collecting materials, analyzing the writers, and selecting the writers. I did it.

The other day, I met a cameraman named Mr. Fujita who has been shooting stone carvings all over Japan, and it was said that there is no other example that works as well as Yonago's carving road. You can't understand it without comparing it. Many Yonago citizens do not look at or compare the sculpture installation status in other cities, so I think that there are places where (Yonago's) sculpture road is not good. If you look at it without comparing it, you will see the problem first, but I have seen various places, but I think Yonago is quite good and the quality is high in terms of installation. ..

I thought a little about the pause this time, but if I pause, who will maintain that sculpture? I think that it is a very important part whether it is a judgment that has been considered so far, so I hope that everyone will think hard about that. After that, there are many cities overseas where sculpture is familiar. Not only sculpture but also art is familiar, Kyoto is also a city, but there are many beautiful cities. Considering why it is such a city, I think it is all about the maturity of the city. Whether or not the city is mature, whether or not the city life is mature, and whether or not the symposium will be stopped or not, I think it will be one of the perspectives.

As an example, there was a symposium that lasted for about 20 years in the city of St.-Wendel in the former West Germany, where one or two writers were invited to live for three months to a year, and while living, they worked. If you make it. There is a road leading to Rome, where the Crusaders also passed, but there is a project to put stone carved things from the side of that road, so there is a way to do that, so whether you do the symposium or not, the city If we don't think about whether we are mature and whether our lives are going to mature, it will be ridiculous, or the 20 years we have done so far will be wasted. I feel like.