Yukuhashi City is located on the island of Kyushu in the eastern part Fukuoka Prefecture, facing the Seto Inland Sea. It has a population of 73,000 people. In olden times it flourished as a nexus between the Asian continent, Kyushu, and Nara, which was the capital of Japan, and boasted a rich culture.

The YUKUHASHI BIENNALE is an international public sculpture exhibition whose purpose is to solicit and display sculpture representing figures of significance in world history. By displaying award-winning statues in familiar public sites in the city, it is hoped that they will serve as reminders of man’s illustrious past and make Yukuhashi a cultural center where people can live culturally rich lives. With this in mind, the Biennale was inaugurated in 2017.

The YUKUHASHI BIENNALE is characterized by the fact that submissions must consists solely of figurative sculpture. Today, with the boundaries of the art of sculpture growing ever broader, the YUKUHASHI BIENNALE is an attempt to focus once again on the human figure with its long prehistoric history and reassess its value and possibilities as a means of expression.

While the theme of the 1st and 2nd YUKUHASHI BIENNALE was a historical figure who contributed to the development of civilization, a particular historical figure was not stipulated. For the 3rd Biennale, however, we would like to name a specific figure as the theme. That person, the centennial of whose death will be celebrated in 2020, was born and raised in Yukuhashi and was an extraordinary contributor to the West’s understanding of Japan. His name is Suematsu Kenchō (1855–1920).

While Suematsu is chiefly known for his political activities as Home Minister in the cabinet of Itō Hirobumi, he also left a rich cultural legacy—beginning with his history of the Meiji Restoration called Bōchō kaiten-shi (History of Chōshū’s Dramatic Resurgence) and including the first English translation of The Tale of Genji and his Japanese rendering into Japanese of William Anderson’s groundbreaking The Pictorial Arts of Japan. Thus Suematsu was important not only politically but also in the fields of art and literature. He played an important role in laying the foundation for Japan as a modern state in international society.

Though a remarkably talented man with a broad international perspective, Suematsu is not a name that is widely known today. On the other hand, however, his achievements during the Meiji period were extraordinary. He could be called one of the great influencers of the period. YUKUHASHI BIENNALE 2021 thus calls for submissions that give substantial, imaginative form to this unique individual.
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