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.
Hokekyo Shadow Play is a one-of-a-kind solo performance inspired by the traditional wayang kulit shadow puppetry of Indonesia. Developed by a Japanese artist after seven and a half years of study in Indonesia, the show features entirely original puppets—each handmade using a variety of techniques—and dynamic storytelling brought to life by a single performer’s richly expressive voice.
All characters are animated by one puppeteer, whose seven-colored vocal range gives distinct personality and emotion to each scene. The stories and puppets are constantly evolving, forming what audiences have come to know as the whimsical and immersive “Hokekyo World.” Blending reverence for tradition with boundless creativity, Hokekyo Shadow Play offers a theatrical experience like no other—equally captivating for children and adults.
The handle turns, and the gentle tones of beech and hiba wood play, sometimes with a picture-story, sometimes with a little dancing, and always with fun and other whimsical tricks.
Street organs started in Europe in the eighteenth century, as tiny hand-cranked machines for teaching songbirds to sing melodies. The street organ you will see at WMDF started along with the Hakodate Trienniale in 2012, and it has already has brought new harmonies to audiences for more than a decade.
At WMDF, when the street organ sound drifts around Motomachi Park, we know that time and place are a little different, and that new worlds and new experiences are never far away. Prepare to be transported to a place where music, imagination, and fable dance to a new kind of beat.
