On October 16, 2015, the opening ceremony and reception party for Shibukaru Matsuri

hosted by PARCO was held at Shibuya PARCO.

Shibukaru Matsuri is annual cultural festival and 2015 it marks its 5th anniversary. Featuring

unique female creators with the slogan “If girls gather, they can change the world?!”,

Shibukaru Matsuri has a lot of exhibitions and live performance stages set up around

Shibuya PARCO. The epicenter of Shibukaru Matsuri is Shibuya however, there are

Shibukaru Matsuri exhibitions happening all over Japan at PARCOs located in areas such as

Ikebukuro, Nagoya, and Fukuoka and festivities continue until October 25, 2015.

PARCO is a chain of fashionable department stores located across Japan, and known for

featuring various elements of pop culture. Social TV station 2.5D is located in Shibuya

PARCO and Nico Nico Honsha is at P’PARCO in Ikebukuro. PARCO is at the cutting edge of

exciting Japanese pop culture and often collaborates with talented female artists.

Here are pictures from some of the exhibitions at Shibuya PARCO. The main exhibition

“TOKYO Shibukaru Land” is on 3rd floor of Shibuya PARCO part 1. Photography, drawings,

videos, and art installations are exhibited there. Of particular interest is the work “otome

journal” , by Kei Kobayashi and Ayumi Iguchi.

Otome journal is the name of the format they made. They have been exchanging otome

(girlish) works with each other since they were students, and within the format they

challenge their creative senses. Most of the works were 2 dimensional since they started the

exchanges, but for the Shibukaru exhibition they created several 3D works. It must be

interesting if the format “otome journal” become popular the communication tool among

girls someday.

Another interesting work was a video featuring Ai Shinozaki by art unit MOTI. The title of

the video is “I don’t mind if you look at my breasts while I’m looking somewhere else”. Ai is

watching you with her eyes most of the time which gives you a few moments to peek at her

breasts. But if you want to look her breasts more, what would you do? Choose your own

adventure! Unfortunately photos were not allowed but, it definitely worth watching!

Outside the Shibuya PARCO building, the opening ceremony was held, starting with

TEMPURA KIDZ. They gave an energetic performance that cleared up the light rain.

They performed six songs including “LOLLiPOP” and “Happy Natsu Matsuri”. Although

TEMPURA KIDZ might be much younger than the visitors of Shibukaru Matsuri (mostly

females in their 20-30’s), they showed girls’ powerfulness, cheerfulness, and positive

attitude to the audience.

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Zunne from JC-WC, the special unit of Miss iD 2014 Grand Prix winner Jun Aonami and solo

idol Rinne Yoshida was next. They performed their 2 songs: “14 Sai no Oshiete” from their

film “Joshi no Jiken wa Taitei Toilet de Okirunoda” and the coupling song “Matsuwa”, a

cover song of the legendary J-pop unit Aming. They finished with another performance of

“14 Sai no Oshiete” again to close. In contrast to TEMPURA KIDZ, Zunne from JC-WC are a

calmer and more introspective type of artist. They have less movements in their dance, and

Jun Aonami sings with a very gentle voice (Rinnne has a stronger voice). However, strength

comes in many forms and the transition from TEMPRA KIDZ to Zunne from JC-WC was quite

poignant.

Each group had 40 minutes to perform, which was too long for Zunne from JC-WC since

they only have 2 songs. Then Rinne Yoshida, filled the rest of the time with songs from her

solo career.

Ai Shinozaki, who has been primarily known for being a gravure idol, appeared on the stage

with a sexy yukata on. Having launched her career as a solo singer in April of 2015 and

perfoming at events such as GIRLS DON’T CRY event hosted by 2.5D, Ai showed a bitter

smile when she started performing “Rainy Blue” since it’s a song about after the rain, as the

rain had started falling again. Many people may love her for her sexy looks but her singing

talent is also worth taking notice of. We vow to keep following her career as a singer, not

just gravure idol!

The last performer was Kiyoshi Ryujin 25. Shibukaru Matsuri is a festival that features

female artists but, the main person of the group Kiyoshi Ryujin is male. You might think that

this is contrary to the concept of the event but, as one of the hottest up-and-coming idol

groups and having a large female fanbase, Kiyoshi Ryujin 25 was a welcome addition to

Shibukaru Matsuri.

Starting with “Love Boxing”, the audience got excited and lots of colorful cyalumes could be

seen glowing in the crowd. Following with “A・B・C Ja Gutto Konai!!” and “Hard boiled ni

Aishite Yaruze♡”, the rain began to pour down on the audience but, the situation seemed

perfect with “hard-boiled” concept. They performed their killer tunes “Call Me Baby”and “Mr.

PLAY BOY…♡”, ended with “Will♡You♡Marry♡Me?”.

Shibukaru Matsuri will be held until October 25th and there are still many events,

exhibitions, and live performances to experience. The details are available on the Shibukaru

Matsuri official website (but only in Japanese). Find your favorite Shibuya culture there!