Lesser panda Momotaro

Isozaki Michiyoshi’s "Zokinzo" and others

"BankART Life" exhibition

"Peruri Yokohama" local beer label

I dreamed I went to Nogeyama Zoo. That’s because the lesser panda died. The zoo has been admission-free since its opening, and although it’s not exactly a "hip" kind of place, it’s much appreciated by people in the know. I don't think it’s because it’s free of charge, but there are't many real attractions in he zoo, and every time an elephant, polar bear or giraffe dies, their cages and enclosures remain empty for a while until the zoo gets new animals. This situation seems to be what inspired artist Isozaki Michiyoshi to immortalize some large animals that have died in this zoo in a project with local children, making "Zokinzo" elephants and "Zokinshirokuma" polar bears out of rags, big enough to serve as sofas. The results were shown at the "BankART Life" exhibition held at BankART in connection with the Yokohama Triennale 2005. I may be frowned upon for saying that I felt like witnessing a sad and dreadful scenery, but somehow the news that lesser panda Momotaro, the only real "star" of this lonely and godforsaken place in the middle of Yokohama, had collapsed, put me in such a melancholic mood that I felt the strong urge to go and visit the zoo that is now without Momotaro.

There’s actually another reason why I went to the zoo. I wanted to meet director Takeuchi Masahiro, who used to work for the Green Environment administration Bureau of the City of Yokohama up to last year, and was kind enough to support the "Geijutsu Bakushu" ("art beer") project initiated by the likes of Oga Michio. It was a project involving beer brewed from water from Yokohama’s water resource in Doshi, Yamanashi Prefecture, and wheat grown in Yokohama, as well as a public competition for naming and label design. Takeuchi-san was the one who convinced farmers to grow wheat that hadn't been produced in Yokohama for many years. Takeuchi also contributed an article on Yokohama’s agricultural policy, including the city’s own "designated agricultural area" system of local production for local consumption, to "Bishoku Dogen", a book published at the occasion of the "Food and Contemporary Art part 2" exhibition. When he was moved to Nogeyama Zoo earlier in 2007, he came to BankART and introduced his new position personally. Wondering how he’s been doing at his new workplace, I decided to climb up Nogeyama to see him.

Allow me to stray off and mention that I never really understood this weird bureaucratic system that forces officers to shift workplaces every three years. There may be various reasons, but I've been thinking that it was a damnable idea to have people throw away all human relationships, know-how and shared experiences they have built up during those three years. However, after being in touch with the City of Yokohama through my work at BankART for some years, I gradually realized that it’s actually quite a clever system to spread DNA, just like dandelion seeds that spread all over the place. It is of course true that one has to abandon much of what one has laboriously picked up little by little, but on the other hand the system involves also the possibility to let once cultivated things sprout at different places. The jump from agricultural policy to zoology surely doesn't make a man a different person altogether. Takeuchi-san will always be Takeuchi-san, and I'll be working with him just as I used to. Anyway, returning to the actual topic, I went to see Takeuchi-san at the zoo.

Kazuo Ohno Festival 2007

Located near the Nogeyama Zoo are the "brain of Yokohama", aka the Yokohama City Central Library, and the Kanagawa Prefectural Youth Center, Mayekawa Kunio’s famed construction where a number of events related to BankART’s "Kazuo Ohno Festival" are taking place. The Youth Center is somewhat a "sister institution" of BankART for performance-related events, while director Soma Chiaki’s Steep Slope Studio, another venue in the neighborhood, is operating in a refurbished and converted former wedding parlor. Then there’s the Oimatsu Junior High School, students at which took part in an integrated learning program at BankART last fall. As you see, what you find there up the hill in a corner of Yokohama is quite a lively cultural zone.

So I had a chat with (the old) Takeuchi-san, strolled through the quiet zoo that looks deserted especially on weekdays, and climbed back down the hill toward the red lanterns in the streets of Noge. Such was my dream of a day in Yokohama.