[Activity Report] This Year’s "Sampo University" Programs Concluded

Ahead of the official exhibition period of October 17 – December 14, “Sampo University” explored the question “What is walking?” through a series of lectures and fieldwork sessions.

“Sampo University” began with Creative Director and Tokyo Biennale Citizens’ Committee Co-Representative Kazuko Koike, together with curatorial members Susumu Namikawa and Min Nishihara, who examined how the act of “walking” could be connected to different themes, genres, and academic disciplines.

Hidenobu Jinnai (Professor Emeritus, Hosei Uiversity; Director, Chuo City Chuo Historical Museum)

In the following three lectures, we welcomed guests specializing in literature, topography, and geography—Hiromichi Hosoma, Norihisa Minagawa, and Naoki Oshiro—who led us into a deep inquiry into how we see and how we walk the city of Tokyo.

From left: Naoki Oshiro (Professor of Cultural Geography, Meiji University Faculty of Letters), Norihisa Minagawa (President, Tokyo Suribachi Society), Hiromichi Hosoma (Professor, Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Waseda University)

Their embodied methodologies of urban walking offered significant insights for the artistic expressions of “walking” across this Biennale. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all our guest speakers.

Fieldwork: “Special Off-Campus Lectures of Sampo University”

Continuing from last year’s pre-actions, the field excursions were led by Professors Shunya Yoshimi and Hidenobu Jinnai, who guided participants through tours tracing Tokyo’s layered histories and geographies.
Professor Jinnai’s tour led us from Nihonbashi through Hatchobori, Akashi, and Tsukudajima, where we experienced Edo’s foundational urban culture and the richness—and transformations—of waterfront culture from the modern era to today.
Professor Yoshimi’s tour began in Ueno and traversed the University of Tokyo area, Kasuga, Koishikawa, Kohinata, and Sekiguchi—crossing numerous ridgelines and valleys.
It was a physically demanding route, almost like a triathlon, yet an extraordinary journey that allowed us to feel the dynamism of Tokyo’s undulating terrain through our own bodies.

Completion of the 2025 Program

With this, all programs for this year have been successfully completed.

We extend our deepest appreciation to Dean Shunya Yoshimi and Vice Dean Hidenobu Jinnai, who throughout the year offered inspiring perspectives on the city of Tokyo and continually illuminated its inherent魅力 and its hopeful visions for the future.

We are equally grateful to all participants who joined our lectures and fieldwork sessions, walking through Tokyo from their own perspectives and enriching “Sampo University” with their curiosity, discoveries, and shared learning.

On Walking and Creation

Walking is a quiet act of resistance to the linear, goal-oriented time—marked by the desire for “faster / higher / stronger”—that modern capitalism has imposed upon us.

To step into a narrow side street, to turn, meander, pause, observe, climb, descend, stumble, and discover—is to read the city anew through its layered traces of history, and to sense the signs that point toward the future.

Creation emerges from the very process of walking.

This is why art itself is a form of walking
By refusing the shortest distance to an answer and instead choosing to wander off the main path, we open ourselves to discoveries and acts of creation that lead us into the future.
Such wandering—such generative detours—is both the essence of art and the essence of walking.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to everyone who participated, to all the professors who generously supported the program, and to all those who helped make this initiative possible.
Through the convergence of each person’s steps and perspectives, “Sanpo University” became a truly rich and meaningful place of learning.
We look forward to meeting you again—somewhere, on another walk.

Tokyo Biennale 2025
“Sanpo University” Program Team