What type of schedule did you follow for the planning?

At the end of last year, we had put together a rough overview of the plan. This year, we wanted to give the venue a handcrafted feel, so in early February, we called upon families in the Friendship Circle (Tomo no Kai) to help with the venue decorations. That being said, there was still a lot of on-the-spot adjustments for the final setup of the venue. In a positive way, we freely shared our thoughts to expand our range of ideas, or you could say that we had not managed to decide on anything, so we made last minute decisions on the spot [laughs]. Nevertheless, through working and exchanging ideas with people, you often come up with new ideas that you would not have on your own. In this respect, I think we were strongly influenced by Takako Aoki, who had worked on the venue decorations up to last year. She helped out with various things this year, and she always provides us with an extremely positive energy. I think that we are making progress based on the creativity and energy that she gives us.

What were the key points of this year’s plan?

First, we posted panels of one of the prize-winning works from last year’s Nissan Children’s Storybook and Picture Book Grand Prix along the stairway at the building entrance. I was very pleased to see mothers and fathers proceeding up the stairs as they read aloud for their children and enjoy the illustrations. For children, I believe that words they hear touch them much more effectively than words they read. It was my hope that visitors would not just pass the exhibit, but rather start their experience and appreciation the moment they entered the building and that the exhibit would arouse their sense of creativity. I wanted the visitors to enter the “world of forests” after enjoying the “world of picture book.” I wanted the parents and their children to actively participate in the workshop and have lots of fun making trees for display.

I have heard that the materials used in the workshop were recycled materials.

Most of the materials used were provided by Nissan. I visited a warehouse with some Nissan employees. We selected materials that children could use and items that we imagined children would have fun playing with. Nissan sent these materials to us, and we prepared them so the children could use them easily. We understood that these were items that would have been thrown out, which appeared to all be high-quality materials to us, so we felt like we had discovered a gold mine [laughs]. The seat materials were of different colors and textures than the previous year, so we had fun just looking at them.

What was the reaction of the children like?

With the creativity of children, recycled materials can be rapidly turned into something interesting. A child will say, “I want to make such and such,” and begin making it, but while making it the child will come up with more and more ideas and say, “Actually I think I will make this,” or “It would be more interesting if I made this.” Usually, the end product will be something completely different than what was initially intended. This is the appeal of the creative process.

I observed one child who said “I will make a vehicle tree,” and began making it. The child got more and more engrossed in making it and ended up with a “ninja mansion tree” [laughs]. It was a very admirable piece of workmanship.

We did not place a time limit on the creation process, but we had envisioned about 30 minutes. This year, all the participants became very absorbed in their work, and many of the participants worked for about an hour. Of course, there were children who grew tired of the activity immediately, but the ones who concentrated were amazing. It seems like they did not want to compromise.