With the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics kicking off this week, get yourself in the spirit of the Games with a showcase of sport and art in Nihonbashi. The neighbourhood is celebrating the world’s biggest sporting competition with the Olympic Agora, an exclusive event featuring historical exhibits and impressive contemporary artworks, from July 1 to August 15.
The Olympic Spirit Exhibition features 145 items from previous Olympic Games, including posters, torches, medals, and opening ceremony costumes. It’s located on the third floor of Coredo Muromachi Terrace and is divided into three sections: The Power of History/Culture, The Power of Sport, and The Power of Hope.
The Olympic Spirit Exhibition is free and open from 10am to 8pm daily. Advance reservations online are required, although you might be able to get a walk-in spot on a quiet day. Virtual tours are also available on the exhibition’s website.
Just outside Coredo Muromachi Terrace, you can see ‘The Audience,’ a sculpture by world-renowned French artist Xavier Veilhan that was specially commissioned by the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage. This colourful creation shows five people of different generations, each one in the colour of one of the Olympic rings.
Nearby, there is Podium Memories’ by digital art group Moment Factory. It consists of three screens arranged like an Olympic podium showing clips of victorious moments from the Games. If you stand in front of the artwork and move your legs, the screens will start showing dynamic figures based on your movement.
Head to Mitsukoshimae Station’s underground passage to see a lineup of large Tokyo 2020-inspired noren (traditional Japanese fabric curtains) made by six Olympic and Paralympic athletes including British-American volleyball player Ciara Michel and Slovak track and field athlete Slaven Dizdarevik.
On the first floor of Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower stands a 10m-high replica of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medal. The building is open to visitors every day from 7am to 12:30am.
Finally, in the Fukutoku no Mori plaza across the street from Coredo Muromachi Terrace, ‘Solidarity and Collaboration’ by contemporary artist Makoto Toji is an impressive mesh sculpture of a baton pass in a relay race. The work is even more striking at night, when it’s lit up in different colours.
More information about the Olympic Agora is available on the website.
Based on original reporting by Genya Aoki.
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