Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, Suehirocho Station "Yūyū kaiei (The Eternal Playing beyond Space-time)"

Metal,Ceramic Relief

Chief Priest, Kanda Shrine
OOTRII Nobufumi
Our shrine was founded in Otemachi in 730, about 1,300 years ago, and moved to the present place 400 years ago and has kept an eye on the 108 towns including Kanda, Nihonbashi, Otemachi, Marunouchi and Akihabara as their tutelary deity.
In order to congratulate on 1,300 years from our foundation and 400 years from our relocation and to pray for the prosperity of Suehirocho and other parish towns, it is a great honor for us that we sponsored the public art at Suehirocho station in Akihabara by Mr. MIYATA Ryohei, who is a prominent metal craft artist, this time.
Suehirocho station of Tokyo Metro known as Japan's first and the Orient's first subway is famous as the nearest station of our shrine and Akihabara, a worldwide tourist spot. Akihabara, a parish town of our shrine, is crowded with young people and foreign tourists as an electric town and a sanctuary of animations and idols. Kanda Festival, our shrine's festival, is counted as one of the three biggest festivals in Japan and in Edo, and the spectacle called Portable Shrines' Heaven where many portable shrines fill the central street of Akihabara is overwhelming.
When the public art by Mr. MIYATA is seen, Akihabara is expressed by a Edo-style portable shrine which symbolizes Kanda Festival and a pattern of a computer foundation in which the electric town is imaged, and Mr. MIYATA's representative dolphin motif "Springen" is shining in the center. It can be said that the features of the towns surrounding Suehirocho station are superbly represented.
Mr. Miyata and Kanda Shrine have been acquainted for ten years, and he made a statue of Sukunabikonanomikoto, our enshrined deity, in the precincts and participated with the students in Kanda Festival many times when he was President of Tokyo University of the Arts. The public art which I requested at that time has been completed today after a long years.
I will pray from the bottom of my heart that you will receive prosperity from Kanda Shrine and prosper together with Suehirocho for a long time.

Chairman, Metro Cultural Foundation (Public interest incorporated foundation)
UMAZAKI Hisashi
I would like to congratulate you on this occasion with the presentation of a wonderful public art along with the completion of renewal of Suehirocho station.
Also, thank you very much to Tokyo Metro, who gave us the offer, and Mr. MIYATA Ryohei and NKB CREARE Atami-Yugawara Studio, who produced and installed the art.
Metro Cultural Foundation (Public interest incorporated foundation) was established in 1956 and conducts projects that contribute to promotion of art and development of transportation culture, such as holding Metro concerts and Metro culture exhibitions besides operating Tokyo Metro Museum.
Installing public arts is a part of those and we have installed ones at the 3 subway stations of Fukutoshin Line Nishiwaseda station, Kitasando station and Yurakucho Line Toyosu station so far, and Suehirocho station is the 5th station after Ueno station at which a work appeared previously along with the renewal of Ginza Line this time.
This public art "Yūyū kaiei (The Eternal Playing beyond Space-time)" is a wonderful work unique to Mr. MIYATA Ryohei, who is the former President of Tokyo University of the Arts and has made many works for this area, and I am very pleased that we sponsored this work together with Kanda Shrine.
We hope that this work will be loved by customers who use Suehirocho station for a long time and be familiar with them as the face of the station.

Pesident of Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd
YAMAMURA Akiyoshi
This time, we installed the stained glass "Yūyū kaiei (The Eternal Playing beyond Space-time)" by the original painting made by Mr. Ryohei Miyata, a Japan's leading metal craft artist at the renewed Ginza Line Suehirocho station platform in cooperation with Kanda Shrine (Religious corporation) and Metro Cultural Foundation (Public interest incorporated foundation).
I thank you very much for Mr. Ryohei Miyata and all the stakeholders who worked on the production and installation of the stained glass.
At Tokyo Metro, we are pursuing various measures to renew Ginza Line, such as the introduction of new model vehicles, installation of home doors, renovation of all stations, under the concept of "Fusion of Tradition and Leading-edge".
And the renewal of 7 stations from Asakusa station to Kanda station at the downtown area has been completed this year, which marks the 90th anniversary since the opening of Asakusa Station - Ueno station as the first subway line in the Orient on December 30, 1927. Suehirocho station was reborn to be the station that feels the leading-edge of the era with the concept of "Town of Electricity" as the nearest station of Akihabara Electric Town.
Kanda Shrine, who sponsored the work, is a historical shrine that has been watching Edo-Tokyo for over 1,300 years.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the shrine for its sponsorship in installation of the work that will be the face of the new Suehirocho station, which can also be called as a gateway for many visitors to the shrine.
Also, I am very pleased that a great work with the thoughts of Mr. Ryohei Miyada, who made a work in Kanda Shrine's precincts and has relationships with this area and Kanda Shrine as well, was installed.
I hope that this work is loved by many people for many years and connects the histories of the town together with Kanda Shrine, as a new symbol of Suehirocho station newly reborn.

Director General of JPTCA
TAKI Hisao
Congratulations on the 90th anniversary of the opening of the subway. In 1927, the first subway was born in Asia between Asakusa and Ueno, and 90 years have passed since then. At this memorable time, I am very pleased to have installed the public art work "Yūyū kaiei (The Eternal Playing beyond Space-time)" at Ginza Line Suehirocho Station by Mr. MIYATA Ryohei, a professor emeritus at Tokyo University of the Arts and a metal craft artist.
At Japan Traffic Culture Association, we have been actively engaged in promoting art and culture since our foundation in 1948. The main pillars of the projects are the exhibition project represented by "Traffic Culture Exhibition", the scholarship projects represented by "Takifuji Foundation"and "International Takifuji Art Award", and the promotion of public art.
There is a word expressing the thought that is the basis of those projects. The next sentence Herbert Read left in his book "The Meaning of Art".
"Now what we are missing is not an artist, but masses. Not art-conscious masses, but unconsciously artistic masses"
We continue our projects with the hope that arts installed in public spaces will help the realization of the social environment in which everyone unconsciously touches art.
We deeply appreciate Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd. who planned the installation of this work, Kanda Shrine and Metro Cultural Foundation (Public interest incorporated foundation) who sponsored, and everyone who cooperated, and we ask for your continued understanding and cooperation in our efforts.