【Panel Discussion】 the Design to make full use of the charm of the Ogaki Festival ~ Is the poster useful for attracting tourists? ~

On February 10, 2018, a panel discussion on “Ogaki Festival World Poster Exhibition” was held at the Ogaki Poster Museum in Gifu Keizai University.

The title is “the Design that makes full use of the charm of the Ogaki Festival ~ Is the poster useful for attracting tourists?”

Under the coordination of Professor Haruhiko Takeuchi of Professor Gifu Keizai University, Mr. Fujio Hori (Chairman of The poster exhibition of the Ogaki Matsuri festival executive committee), Mr. Shoichiro Asano (Counselor), Shohei Matsumoto (Genki Hazuratsu City executive committee), Yoshiro Kato (graphic designer) presented a panel discussion.

The Ogaki Poster Museum was established in 1996, and it aims for the goal of “Establishing international style of visual language” and “Disseminating visual communications from Ogaki to the world”.

“The Ogaki Poster Museum is nurtured by the power of the people of the area, people of the company, people of the secretariat, so we would like to contribute to the city as an art museum,” Mr.Hori, the director of the museum, said.

In “The poster exhibition of Ogaki Matsuri festival” there were applications from 205 designers from 50 countries including Europe, Asia and Africa.

Particularly, the attractiveness for designers around the world who applied this festival was that 50 works selected were printed using this Mino paper registered as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, Silkscreen as the birthplace of Gujo Hachiman in Gifu.

Here is a part of the silkscreen plate. Using several plates to produce one poster to be finished.

It is hard work for craftsmen to check each color with eyes while printing on a poster. Thanks to that, each color is printed very vividly. 

Mr. Ogawa, the Mayor of Ogaki said, “It is made up of two UNESCO ‘s collaborating, the Ogaki Festival and Japanese traditional paper ‘Minowashi’ registered as UNESCO intangible cultural heritage in December of last year and I think that it is a good opportunity to appeal the cultural heritage to the world. ”

His own home is a paper store, so he would like to preserve the both tradition, the festival and the paper, and create a bustle in the city that can solve the problem of the lack of personnel who can be a successor.

Mr. Matsumoto is the executive chairman of Genki Hatsuratsu City and a pharmacist at the shopping area of Ogaki.

“Since the poster matchs a town, I would like to display posters at all stores through this poster exhibition. I would like to engage with the Ogaki Festival, create the city tradition and bustle and try hard to regenerate the local shopping street. “ he said.

“The Ogaki Festival is not done in only one town, but it is made up of a lot of people who will help the town for a long time. We looked for participants whoever want to carry 軕 (Yama).It is a feature which is not found in other festivals.” said Mr. Asano.

The Ogaki Festival has a history of 370 years, but the　Yama has been destroyed by fire three times in the past. It takes at least 35 years to rebuild a Yama destroyed by war or water. Because we make it by thinking with everyone. It takes time, because we talk over each other until everyone is satisfied.

Mr. Asano wants not only Japaese but also many people around the world to see actually the festival’s Yama we made.

Mr. Kato, a graphic designer, said he actually　did not know about Ogaki Festival and the paper “Minowashi” until he was involved in poster exhibitions.

When he visited the festival for the first time, he was overwhelmed by the number of people and the bustle of the stands, the power of the Yama.

Actually, in the year before last, there was a man who came all the way from Finland to see the Ogaki Festival and this Mino paper.

Kato said that he was able to know the true good points of the festival and the culture of this Mino paper when he told him about the festival.

At that time, he realized again that we should feel proud of the washi and festival to the world.