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「カラフルユニーク夢いっぱい　おりこみアート」

• 東奥日報　 2000年　7月28日
• 東奥日報

"Colorful unique Orikomi Art."

• To-ou Nippou newspaper 2000 July 28
• To-ou Nippou newspaper

To-ou Nippou, (news paper) Aug.28, 2000 "
ORIKOMI ART: COLORFUL, UNIQUE, AND FILLED WITH DREAM
　　 by Takuji Matsubayashi"

Kids Create Relief Prints to Introduce Local Business.
Art Work Home-Delivered to Aomori Households as Part of the Tohou Daily.
Bond beyond Trade.

A rugged fisherman casting a line in the deepest water; dresses, both gorgeous and outrageous, on display amongst plants---.　 These are the examples from some of the colorful, 11" by 17" newspaper inserts that were home-delivered in Aomori City in August 19th, as a part of the Tohou Daily morning edition.　 Participating children interviewed local business owners and created the inserts about them using relief prints.　 The inserts, instead of, say, screaming about a three-day holiday sale or sputtering an endless number of store coupons, featured things that could not be bought with money, like a shop manager's hobby.
Also featured were notices of "art service;" creative activities and art work that the children offered to visitors to the stores, such as portrait drawing or a gift of handmade amulets containing red chili peppers.　 The inserts were delivered to the area where the participants came from.
Many people dropped by the stores to enjoy the art service and make new friends.

Four Businesses Interviewed.

The workshop Orikomi Art was a part of "Kids Art World Aomori 2000," hosted by Aomori Art Museum and Park Project Office.
The key word in Orikomi Art was communication/conversation, according to Rica Takashima, an artist from Tokyo who conceived it.　
"Japan's first home-delivery of art was a huge success.　 It embraced both kids and adults alike through the enjoyment of art," Rica Takashima expresses satisfaction with the outcome of merging art and newspaper inserts.

Ten children, age five to 14, took part in the workshop.　
They interviewed four local merchants in Shin-machi Mall and Yanagi-machi Mall, whose businesses included women's apparel, a meat shop, a confectionery, and a pharmacy.　 After the interviews, they created imaginative flyers that depicted such things as fishing, clothes, the meat shop owner and his beloved Kendama (a traditional Japanese wooden toy), and a pumpkin wagon inspired by the confectionery's name.
The notices of art services were hand-drawn by the children as well.

If you visited any venue, expect to come across unique art services such as: "We created the statue of the owners (of the meat shop).　 The first 30 visitors get free red chill pepper amulets made of Play-Doh," or "Let's listen to an amazing fishing story by Mr. President (of the store)!　 Bring this flyer; we will draw a portrait for you also."　 Boundless imagination was at work here.

"I had terrific time with this whole project.　 The statue the kids made for me is still standing right in the middle of the store.　 What I enjoyed the most was that I had a chance to meet with people who had nothing to do with my businesses," says Takao Kousaka, 52, the meat shop owner.

At the women's apparel store, Souta Tosaki, a first grader from the Hamadate Elementary school, decided to give massages to the visitors. Notice of the art service he and his group put up read
"Everyone forgot about Mr.Noguchi's(the store's owner) birthday this year. So we decided to throw a party for him. If you attend, we will punched your shoulder 52 times, which is how old
Mr. Noguchi is now."
After congratulating Mr.Noguchi for his belsated birthday, visitors received relaxing massages.
At some point, all the visitors helped to give massages to a smiling Noguchi.

"I thought that we successfully created an atmosphere where all participants got to know each other outside a market economy. The kids made discoveries about the stores that were possible only if they situated themselves outside monetary system. I believed that all participants experienced a joy of art and communication," says Yoko Itakura, curator at the Aomori Art Museum and Park Project Office.