Par Toulouse editorial staff
Published on
With the 5e edition of « Japan Touch Toulouse », it is a polymorphic event inspired by Japanese matsuri, in the heart of the Jardin de Compans-Caffarelli, which will take place on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 September 2022.
“We wanted to create a free, open-air festival in Toulouse centered around the Compans-Caffarelli Japanese Garden,” explains Jean-Pierre Gimenez, one of the organizers of the association, which has become the company “Japan Touch” with success.
Japan in all its forms
“We knew that Toulouse could host our festival – I prefer this term to that of “fair” – dedicated to Japan in all its forms around this very beautiful garden. The success was there since, even after confinement, in reduced form, we attracted 12,000 visitors”.
Ikebana, pop culture, cosplays…
This 2022 edition will extend the discovery of Japanese arts with young Japanese fashion designers, illustrators and artisans of art and decorative objects, typically Japanese workshops, such as ikebana, which is floral art, bonsai, martial arts, cooking, pop-culture with manga, origami, calligraphy and photo-shoots of ‘cosplays’, these disguises very popular in Japan and Europe for characters from manga culture.
With this many workshops
Zen meditation, shiatsu and even archery workshops will be offered to the public. In the pavilion of the Japanese Garden, tea ceremonies and calligraphy will complete this overview of traditional and modern Japanese culture. “About the Japanese Garden of Compans-Caffarelli, which is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful in France, the head gardener Frédéric Bordis will reveal to us during guided tours its history, its secrets, its design, its maintenance…” , continues Jean-Pierre Gimenez.
The Shibuya crossroads recreated as Place de l’Europe
The high point of this festival, which will spectacularly highlight the duality between tradition and modernity in the Land of the Rising Sun, will be the recreation, by the inhabitants of Toulouse, of the largest crossroads in the world: that of Shibuya in Tokyo.
Located at the “Hachiko” exit of Shibuya Station in Tokyo, it is famous for its five pedestrian crossings, including one diagonal, which more than 100,000 Japanese use every day.
“This event will take place on Saturday September 3, 2022 at Place de l’Europe, a three-minute walk from the Garden. Very early on, we will have installed stickers on the ground to represent the five famous pedestrian crossings and, at 11 a.m., we will invite all Toulouse residents who wish – for free of course – to recreate the Shibuya crossroads right here, in Toulouse. A drone will film the scene and a small gift will be offered to each participant! “.
And to add: “We wanted this festival to be participatory, for the public not only to be spectators but to meet specialists and artists and exchange with them around Japan, that of the delicate art of bonsai and that , huge and dynamic, of the megalopolis of Tokyo. »
Jean Claude Simon
Complete program on the event site.
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