The Japanese art of kendama from a professional educator
As you see in the photo, “Kendama Ken-chan” often sports a kendama around his neck. As both a kendama master and an educator, he established a kendama club in his home town of Atsuma, and is working to form a new community from infants to the elderly with the generation-spanning policy of “no crying, be kind to others, and no farting”.
He has participated several times in the “Kendama Guinness Record Challenge”, which has become a tradition at the Kohaku Uta Gassen every year, and gives lectures and workshops on kendama about 70 times a year.
He is Chief of the Social Education Group, Lifelong Learning Division, at the Atsuma Board of Education, wher he mainly functions as a coordinator to connect the community and schools. He spent a year-long working holiday in Australia learning about pesticide-free agriculture, natural farming, and permaculture, returning to Japan to work in non-profit organisations providing nature experiences.
The fragility and beauty of the world, expressed in glass
In 1970s Japan, skyscrapers started emerging in Shinjuku and working in glass caught the interest of a modernising nation. Hakaru Mizuguchi was one of the artists selected in 1981 for one of Japan’s first glasswork exhibitions, called “Contemporary Glass – Australia, Canada, U.S.A. & Japan”. In 1983, he went on to found “The Glass Studio in Hakodate”, which has become an integral part of the tourist experience among the red-brick warehouses by the bay in Motomachi. He specialises in free-blown glassworks that express a personal warmth not achievable with machines. His decorations of the WMDF Tree have become a regular WMDF feature since 005. More worlds that meet.
One-man parade of instruments, plus a WMDF theme tune!
Drums, guitar, harmonica, percussion, bell, kazoo and more. Drawing especially on his past experience as a drum teacher, he incorporates some of the most challenging rhythms into his performances. Whether parading, walking, running or backstepping he delivers smiles and impact way beyond the music itself! Regularly touring overseas, including Vietnam and Cambodia, we are delighted to welcome him and his WMDF song back to our event!
