May 3 (Constitution Memorial Day)

Screening of the film work Spring 1982 (@ Lanai)

A rare film capturing the atmosphere of the Showa era through the eyes of Bruce Osborn, shortly after his arrival in Japan.

The evening will also feature a DJ night with Bruce and friends.

Venue

Lanai

Home of the Masaru & Bruce Two-Person Exhibition.

Bruce first met painter Masaru Fukuda when Fukuda was still working as an art director.
Now, nearly fifty years later, that friendship has become the exhibition Masaru & Bruce.

Official Website

https://www.hayama-artfes.org

Inquiries

yoshiko@intheozone.net

The post Screening at the venue “Lanai” during 34th Hayama Art Festival appeared first on 「親子の日」Oyako Day.

Oyako Day Essay Contest 2025 — Prize-Winning Entry

The Home to Which the Noise Returns

There came a day when I stopped going on family trips.
I had been glued to my desk preparing for university entrance exams… or perhaps, I had just come up with that excuse.
The truth was, I simply couldn’t find a reason to go to noisy places with my family anymore.

— In other words, I longed for silence.

My family silently accepted it. Gradually, the number of trips they took without me increased.
They must have sensed that I was yearning for “serenity.”

In my house, silence never truly existed.
The TV was always on, laughter shook the walls, the ventilation fan hummed, and the air conditioner groaned.
Even if I curled up in the furthest corner of the house, the noise would follow me.

— However, when my family was gone, silence would unexpectedly arrive.
A silence so empty it felt almost unnatural.
The body left behind in the stillness experienced a strange sense of liberation.
The air spreading from corner to corner of the room didn’t clear with a “shh” but instead carried a tension, as if it were on the verge of snapping. I tried to merge with it.

I wanted to live in that stillness forever.

…That was my feeling for the first three hours.

Soon, the silence turned into a ringing in my ears, summoning phantom sounds that gnawed at my mind.
I started feeling ill, and in the end, I turned on the TV and played music…

— Ah, please come back.

When the door opened, the noise rushed in.
Laughter bounced through the air, the clinking of dishes echoed, and the TV blared noisily.
I frowned, but deep inside, I felt relieved.

The stillness certainly comforted me.
But it was the noise that connected me to something.

I hear there is something called “OYAKO Day.”
I want to celebrate that day not as a day to give flowers or exchange special words, but simply—
as a day to truly appreciate the value of the noise.

The discomfort of being alone.
The disharmony born from the interactions between parent and child.
That disharmony is my life, my comfort,
— and the place to which I belong.

Nao Sasaki
Age: 22
Ebina City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

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In 2026, the festival will run from April 25 to May 17.
Photographer Bruce Osborn will also participate.

Exhibition Venues

Venue 1: Morito Shrine

《HAYAMA TIME》 Outdoor Installation
A large-scale work composed from landscapes and memories accumulated over 25 years of living in Hayama.

Venue 2: LAH Land

《Flying》 Outdoor Installation
A photographic series in which objects that had completed their purpose were released into the sky and captured in a single instant—an early conceptual starting point for Bruce’s later Nature Calls works.

Venue 3: Lanai

《Masaru & Bruce》 Two-Person Exhibition
Bruce first met painter Masaru Fukuda when Fukuda was still active as an art director. Nearly 50 years later, that connection has finally become this joint exhibition.

Official Website

https://www.hayama-artfes.org

Inquiries

yoshiko@intheozone.net

Featured Books

What Matters Most

A photo picture book created from approximately 9,500 parent-child portraits.
A book made by families, for families.
Kindness, challenge, honesty, gratitude—
What is important to you?

OYAKO

The culmination of 42 years of parent-child photography.
Parents carry the past, children become bridges to the future—
A photographic collection reflecting Japan’s culture and the continuity of life through this universal relationship.

Purchase available via Amazon

The post 34th Hayama Art Festival Exhibition appeared first on 「親子の日」Oyako Day.

Sunday, April 26, 2026 — starting at 3:00 p.m.

Theme: Present to the Future

Guest: Yumiko Minegishi | Representative Director, Yushin General Incorporated Association

The 45th Oyako Day Online Talk Live welcomes Yumiko Minegishi, who has spent 35 years engaged in nature experience programs, the management and instruction of nature schools, and the training of educators. Through her independently developed Yushin Method, she promotes activities that connect local nature, people, and culture.

What hints for the future might emerge through Minegishi’s connection with Oyako Day?

Profile:

For 35 years, Minegishi has worked in nature-based experiential learning, nature school management, and educator training. She developed the original Yushin Method, later expanding it into corporate training, early childhood education, and family education.

After establishing her organization in 2010, she began offering hands-on sensory programs for urban families, with approximately 1,500 participants in 2024 alone. She is also involved in inquiry-based learning programs using zoos and museums.

Since 2021, she has led the Kanda Ai Association, dedicating her efforts to preserving and passing on local cultural traditions.

Yushin General Incorporated Association
https://yushin.or.jp/

Kanda Ai Association (currently applying for NPO status)
https://team-kanda-ai.jp/

Kanda Ai Association (currently applying for NPO status)
https://team-kanda-ai.jp/

45th Oyako Day Online Talk Live
Sunday, April 26, 2026 — 3:00 p.m.

The post 45th Oyako Day Online Talk Live appeared first on 「親子の日」Oyako Day.

The heroine of this film is Mabel, a college student. She chooses to become a beaver not out of environmental duty, nor from some grand creed of animal rights. No, her reason is more personal, more urgent than that: she learns that the beloved forest where she made treasured memories with her grandmother is about to disappear beneath a highway construction project.

This is the crucial point. The engine of this movie is not the abstract banner of “saving nature,” but something painfully concrete and small: memories of her grandmother. The sort of thing everyone probably carries somewhere inside them—that place, that smell, that person’s voice. It is nostalgia of that kind that hurls one young woman into a beaver robot. That the story begins from something so human gives the film its dignity.

Mabel, an ardent animal lover, uses a device invented by scientists that transfers human consciousness into robotic animals, and “hops” into a beaver model. At first she bursts with delight as she interacts with the creatures of the forest. But soon she is confronted with the severe laws of nature.

The animal kingdom, despite all its fluffy appearances, runs on the merciless logic of eat or be eaten. The romantic image Mabel had projected onto the forest is quickly chewed to pieces by reality’s sharp teeth.

But then the film takes one more admirable step forward. It refuses the easy comfort of self-righteousness. Believing unilaterally that you are right is dangerous. Mabel realizes she, too, understood nothing about the animals. Through regret, failure, and repeated mistakes, she tries to build relationships with them on equal footing. There is learning there. There is growth. She discovers firsthand how perilous it is to think that anything is justified so long as it is done “for the forest.”

Director Daniel Chong has said he drew inspiration from Isao Takahata’s Pom Poko (ah, memories!). You can feel it. The film squarely depicts the friction between humanity and nature, yet refuses to condemn either side as pure villain. That honesty toward complexity gives the story its depth.

The memories of Grandma are the film’s point of departure—but, in truth, also its destination. When people try to protect a cherished place, they often realize that what they are really trying to preserve is the relationship that place once held. What Mabel ultimately learns is not a methodology for conservation, but the patient persistence required to understand the other side.

That, perhaps, is something inherited from Grandma too.

複数の批評家がピクサーにとっての「原点回帰」と評した本作。笑いと冒険の皮を借りながら、その核心には、誰かへの愛から始まる小さな行動が世界をどう変えうるかという、古くて新しい問いが静かに宿っている。ピクサーの面目躍如と言えるだろう。

The post The Forest Was Made of Grandma’s Voice — A Review of “When I Become a Beaver” appeared first on 「親子の日」Oyako Day.

Munakatado, a bakery in Okinawa.

Their bread has a taste like something naturally born—almost like a “child of nature.”

Carefully baked with respect for ingredients and the power of fermentation, their bread connects families and communities, and is passed on to the future.

It feels as though nature, family, and time are all baked into each loaf.

We have had a close relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Munakata for some time, and on several occasions, we have photographed parent-and-child portraits with them for Okinawa Oyako Day.

During those visits, the warmth of their family and the atmosphere they share left a lasting impression, and we were able to spend truly joyful time in Okinawa.

In the way Munakatado carries out their daily work, we sense something deeply connected to what Oyako Daycherishes—

“the continuity of life” and “what we pass on to the future.”

In this session, while listening to the couple’s stories and daily practices, we hope to reflect together on the theme:

“Present to the Future.”

This will be an online event, open to everyone.

We warmly invite you to join us.

44th Oyako Day Online Talk Live
Tuesday, March 31, 2026 — 12:30 p.m.

The post 44th Oyako Day Online Talk Live appeared first on 「親子の日」Oyako Day.

THE SCOOTERS is a band Bruce met soon after arriving in Japan.

Among its members, he was especially drawn to the character of Lucy, the tenor saxophonist, which led him to create a photo series titled “I Love Lucy,” with her as the central figure.

This photograph was taken in 1984 in Harumi, Chuo Ward, before the area underwent redevelopment.

Last year, THE SCOOTERS released a new album for the first time in 30 years—and its cover featured one of Bruce’s photographs from the “I Love Lucy” series taken three decades ago.

Yesterday, Lucy and the band’s vocalist, Beauty, came to visit the venue of the Isshiki Beach Art Exhibition, currently being held at Shiosai Park in Hayama.

After viewing the exhibition, we took a walk around Hayama, enjoying a day soothed by the sounds and scents of the sea.

https://www.webvanda.com/2025/10/listen.html

#葉山
#しおさい公園
#一色ビーチアート展
#THE_SCOOTERS
#スクーターズ
#TokyoMotown
#晴海
#1984
#BruceOsborn

The post Bruce Osborn — Recent Updates appeared first on 「親子の日」Oyako Day.

Once again, Bruce Osborn, the originator of Oyako Day, will participate as one of the artists living in Hayama.

Visitors to the venue will receive a special commemorative pin badge as a gift.

The exhibition takes place in the beautiful Shiosai Park, located next to the Hayama Imperial Villa.

We hope you’ll come by and enjoy the event.

https://www.hayama-npo.or.jp/news/6813

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Sunday, February 22, 2026 — starting at 1:00 p.m.

Theme: Present to the Future

Guest: Naoki Sakai

Concepter | President & CEO, Water Design Co., Ltd. | Chairman of the Board, Speedy Co., Ltd. | Advisor to multiple companies

The 43rd Oyako Day Online Talk Live welcomes Naoki Sakai, a concept creator who wears many hats — President & CEO of Water Design Co., Ltd., Chairman of Speedy Co., Ltd., and advisor to numerous other companies.

As the concept creator behind iconic products such as Nissan’s Be-1 (1987), PAO, Figaro, RASHEEN, and Olympus’s O-Product, Sakai has brought timeless designs into the world.

Armed with the power of “concept,” he has moved freely through the complexities of modern society.

What will be his next move?

The post Online Talk Live – Vol.43 appeared first on 「親子の日」Oyako Day.

The first Oyako Day Online Talk of 2026 will welcome Tetsu Nakamura, who has supported Oyako Day in many ways—most notably through Abiko no Oyako Day. He will share his passionate vision and aspirations for Oyako Day 2026.

The talk will be moderated by Satoshi Seki, editor, producer, and member of the Oyako Day Promotion Committee.

Photographer Bruce Osborn and Yoshiko Inoue, Representative of the Oyako Day Promotion Committee, will also join the discussion.

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