Toshiro Kimura's 'Nodate' and Marugame Delusion Food Stalls to be Held in Marugame City, Kagawa

The Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art (MIMOCA) has been continuously holding a project since fiscal 2025, featuring "Nodate" (open-air tea gathering) by potter and artist Toshiro Kimura, and "Delusion Food Stalls," where local residents become project members and bring their "premonition of charm" to the streets. Through this project, local residents, Toshiro Kimura, Marugame City Civic Exchange Activity Center Marutas, and MIMOCA interact with each other. We would appreciate it if you could cover the process leading up to the events on November 23 (Mon/Holiday) and 29 (Sun) and broadcast it through your media.

Organizer: Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, MIMOCA Art Promotion Foundation
Co-organizer: Marugame City Civic Exchange Activity Center Marutas

Overview

What is Toshiro Kimura's "Nodate"?
Nodate is a term for enjoying matcha (powdered green tea) outdoors, but in Toshiro Kimura's "Nodate", it starts with making the tea bowl for enjoying matcha. Toshiro Kimura appears in various places such as street corners, mountains, and beaches, pulling a handcart loaded with unglazed tea bowls, a pottery kiln, and a complete set of tea utensils. Participants paint the tea bowls on the spot, bake them using a method called "Raku-yaki", and enjoy matcha in their self-made bowls "in the landscape of that place, that day, and that time."

The location of "Nodate" is discovered through repeated "strolls" with the participants. While walking through castles, ports, and shopping streets in Marugame City, they search for premonitions of attractive landscapes and new encounters with residents.

Toshiro Kimura
Born in Niigata Prefecture in 1967, resides in Kyoto Prefecture. Studied ceramics at the Kyoto City University of Arts Graduate School of Art. Since 1995, he has been holding the mobile ceramic matcha stall "Nodate" across the country. He entertains participants in "the most charming" costumes, creating once-in-a-lifetime landscapes and interactions in alleys, vacant lots, and parks. In Marugame, Nodate was held in shopping streets and the museum's gate plaza in 2001 and 2003.

What is "Marugame Delusion Food Stalls"?
Project members gathered from various places centering on Marugame City will develop "Delusion Food Stalls," an attempt to bring "premonitions of charm for themselves" to the towns and streets along with Toshiro Kimura's "Nodate". It can be anything from what can be done with a single Furoshiki (wrapping cloth) to something huge, or even just one's own body. At the MIMOCA anniversary event held in November 2025, two members tried "Delusion Food Stalls" on a trial basis. Their respective "things they want to try" and "things they find attractive" were realized as stalls, such as a stall where the owner, who loves living creatures, exhibited photos taken and insects raised, and a matcha stall where the owner, who is practicing tea ceremony, welcomed visitors with their family. On November 23 (Mon/Holiday) and 29 (Sun), multiple such stalls will appear in the town of Marugame, and the "Marugame Delusion Food Stalls" will be born as a landscape unique to that day and place.

Introduction of "Delusion Food Stall" sketches
Towards the realization of the "Marugame Delusion Food Stalls," members sketch stalls triggered by the scenery they encountered during strolling sessions and present them at the "Delusion Food Stall Presentation Tournament." Various "Delusion Food Stall" ideas have been born so far, such as the "Mobile Sunny Lettuce Farm" (an experience of immediately harvesting and eating vegetables on the spot) and the "Pinecone Dome" (building a hut with pinecones).

The appeal of this project

1. The landscape of "Nodate" layered in Marugame
Following 2001, 2003, and 2025, "Nodate" will be held in Marugame again this year. At the "Nodate" held at the gate plaza on the MIMOCA anniversary last year, Toshiro Kimura and members welcomed visitors, and a special landscape unique to that day emerged. This 4th "Nodate" will be an opportunity to evoke someone's memory, and for those who encounter it for the first time, it will be an experience full of surprise that makes them involuntarily stop their feet. Please pay attention to the landscape of "Nodate" appearing in the town and the moments of interaction born only on that day and in that place.

2. A project deployed in the town
The gathered members, mediated by the Marugame City Civic Exchange Activity Center Marutas and MIMOCA, starting from "What is the premonition of charm for me?", deepen their concepts towards the realization of "Nodate and Marugame Delusion Food Stalls" in November while repeatedly holding dialogues with Toshiro Kimura and various members. A feature of this project is that the members proceed with the examination and negotiation of the venue and the relationship building with the community.

Also, the long-term closure period accompanying the facility renovation of MIMOCA