Activity

October 12,2011

The opening ceremony took place from 7:00 PM at the outside terrace of Pousada de Palmela(hotel). Around the time when the ceremony was about to start, the sky turned into beautiful red wine colors, as if to celebrate the opening of the exhibition.

At the exhibition, 75 items by Japanese and Portuguese artists were displayed together with 75 wine labels made of these art works, making the total displayed items 150. The encounter of the Japanese art and the Portuguese wine, which is a kind of art for drinking, is an occasion for promoting mutual understanding and world peace.

The ceremony began by congratulatory speeches by local dignitaries, who were kind enough to attend and celebrate the occasion. They were Mr. Orlando Araujo, Deputy Manager of Pousada de Palmela, Mr. Luis Miguel Calha, Member of Palmela City Council, and Mr. Tatsuo Arai, Minister of Embassy of Japan in Lisbon. In response, Mr. Nobutoshi Akao, Senior Advisor of WAC and former Ambassador of Japan to Thailand, and Ms. Valeria Koob, wife of President of SOTA Damasceno, made speeches, representing the organizers’ side.

WAC and SOTA Damsceno had jointly launched Art/Wine Chevalier title earlier and Art/Wine Chevalier this time was awarded to Ms. Mieko Kasai, poet, after which she read her own poetry aloud. Her unique reading of her poetry with warm tone conveyed message of heart from the Japanese to the Portuguese people; message wishing for friendship between Japan and Portugal as well as world peace.

Speeches and Ms. Kasai’s poetry reading were followed by reception and tour of the exhibition.

October 15,2011

At 11:00AM, art session for children took place under the stewardship of Ms. Mieko Kasai, poet, at the courtyard of Pousada de Palmela. Ms. Kasai normally composes her poems using ink brushes, which increase the appeal of her poems. On this occasion, she interacted with local children by way of teaching them how to write their names with ink brushes. The distance of heart became much closer between Ms. Kasai and the local children, who took keen interest in writing their names with brushes, although they had never experienced before. This exercise overcame the barrier of languages and the children paid candid respect to Ms. Kasai’s teaching.

Grande Reserva Opening Speech

Mr. Orlando Araujo, Deputy Manager, Pousada de Palmela

It is our great honor and pleasure to host this exhibition of Japanese arts at this hotel which was designated by EU as historical architecture. We sincerely hope that this type of exhibition will continue to be held in future for further strengthening of friendly relations between Japan and Portugal.

Mr. Luis Miguel Calha, Member of Palmela City Council

I would like to welcome you all to this city. Palmela is one of the major wine producing areas in Portugal and it is our great pleasure to see this kind of exhibition is being held here; I sincerely congratulate the holding of the exhibition, which is the collaboration of Portuguese art of wine and Japanese art. We celebrated 150th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and Portugal last year and a series of events organized in this connection contributed to further strengthening of friendly relations. The exchange through arts this time in Palmela offers bright perspectives for future of the two friendly nations.

Mr. Tatsuo Arai, Minister of Embassy of Japan in Portugal

Good evening to everybody. I am grateful for being invited to this opening ceremony of the exhibition, which combines Portuguese wine labels with Japanese art designs. I am fond of wine very much and, whenever I encounter with delicious wine with reasonable price, I always write down the name of the wine. The wine produced by SOTA Damsceno, which is being served at this reception, is one of such excellent wine, which I intend to put down in my memo.

Mr. Nobutoshi Akao, Senior Advisor of WAC

I would like to welcome you all to this opening ceremony and exhibition. I am grateful to all preceding speakers, who extended kind words of congratulations. We in WAC have been engaged in activities aiming at promoting mutual understanding between Japan and other countries through organization of art exhibitions. This exhibition is our second one to be organized in Portugal, following the one that we organized a year ago in commemoration of 150th anniversary of Japan-Portugal diplomatic relations. It was a great success and this time we are working closely with SOTA Damsceno. The exhibited art works are primarily those related to Japanese art and two Portuguese wood block organizations were kind enough to cooperate with us and exhibit their members’ works as well. We are grateful for this. Calligraphy and ink brush painting were originally imported from China. However, through constant cultivation and polish by Japanese artists over the period of many years, they developed such art unique to Japan, which I hope you appreciate.

Ms. Valeria Koob, wife of President, SOTA Damasceno

I am grateful to all of you for your participation in this opening ceremony. This exhibition signifies an encounter between Japanese art and Portuguese wine. SOTA Damasceno is a winery with very long history and Palmela is one of the oldest wine producing areas, which means that it is one of the oldest in the world. Therefore, we are making constant efforts to improve the quality of our wines to go with the history of such wine-making. In addition, the exchanges with Japan through this kind of exhibition would contribute to the world peace and, therefore, we would like to continue to attach importance to this kind of role as a wine producer.