Open Call for ZAO EXPO’22

【Application Overview】
Togatta Hot-Spring is located at the foot of Mt. Zao, which was opened before the Edo period.
It has undergone various developments over its more than 400 years of history.
This small hot spring resort is characterized by being both a tourist destination and a place
where local residents live, a town where life and tourism coexist.
The COVID-19, which was occurred in 2019, has brought out the exclusivity and closeness
that are often associated with the countryside, and such aspects have been highlighted
in the last two years.
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However, the culture that has been created from the opening of the baths to the present day
has been brought in and nurtured by travellers, hasn’t it?
A hot spring, a therapeutic bath, “Kokeshi” by a woodworker, a lodging town to visit Zao, a flourishing flower town, and culture, industry, and business accompanying it are born, and it reaches to the present.
If we trace back the roots of the people who are indigenous to this area,
we can see that they were also travellers.
At the EXPO, we will reconsider the nature of the community in the countryside by realizing that
“culture is something that is created within the land” and that
“neither outside nor inside has anything to do with it”.

【deadline】 January 31, 2022

【web】https://www.tr044.org/zaoexpo2022