Airportman.id –  The Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan launched an innovative cultural promotion project entitled “Culture Gate to Japan,” held from January 19, 2022, to March 22, 2022, at Haneda Airport and Tokyo International Cruise Terminal. This is the second year this project has been held.

This project allows artists and creators active in the Media Arts field to create works based on aspects of Japanese culture and exhibit them at airports and cruise ship terminals to convey the appeal of Japanese culture.

Haneda Airport will feature two installations, namely NEO-KAKEJIKU and Transcending Prayers in Terminal 2, starting January 19, 2022. NEO KAKEJIKU is a Japanese hanging scroll painting (Kakejiku) installation displayed in a modern way through a monitor mounted in the center of an area called the 'honshi.' This art will be displayed by five Japanese artists who work in the realm of modern media art, namely AC-Bu, Miyazaki Natsujikei, Nyamyam, Yoshigai Nao and Creative Label Nor.

Transcending Prayers displays the art of fireworks (Hanabi), where fireworks themselves have developed along with the local culture in various regions throughout Japan and become cultural significance for Japanese people. Artist Shimada Sayaka will use fireworks as a means of expression, exploring Japan's complex culture full of the coexistence of concepts even in history, philosophy, and aesthetics.

Meanwhile, Tokyo International Cruise Terminal will feature an exhibition entitled +A+ (Plus A Plus) that uses sound and images to appreciate the world of +A+, an imaginary code connected to a port. The letter 'A' represents the process of cultural and artistic activities in which the artist ('A'rtist) expresses and archives/records (A'rchive) the interaction between the existence of the port which includes encounters and traditions, and the sea adapting ('A'dapts) with Japanese cultural context.

The artists involved in this exhibition are Oishi Hiroaki, Nagashima Minori, Ehara Saeko, and Takido Dorita. Oishi Hiroaki and Nagashima Minori will present a video-based digital topography art about Japan's underwater topography entitled 'sealed aspect.' Ehara Saeko, featuring artwork inspired by the Gozuryu and Benzaiten motifs from Enoshima Engi (a story that describes the history of temples and places of worship on Enoshima Island) entitled Hope; and the last one is a video featuring a robotic eel larva 'leptocephalus' which is inspired by the summer tradition popular in modern Japan and a sea eel called the Edo Eel which was popular in the Edo period.

The Tokyo International Cruise Terminal itself is currently still temporarily closed from January 11, 2022, to control the transmission of the COVID-19 virus, and the exhibition will be held in conjunction with the reopening of the cruise ship terminal.