The 12th Yamaha Children's Seascape Painting Contest Announcement of the Winners

The Japan Marine Sports Promotion Foundation held the final judging of the 12th Annual Yamaha Children's Seascape Painting Contest on Thursday, November 16 At the Communication Plaza of Yamaha Motor Company's headquarters in Iwata, Shizuoka Pref. Here we will announce the winners that were chosen.

This year marked the eleventh year of the contest, which began in 1989. The number of entries has grown steadily over the past 12 years from the 1,558 submitted works in the first year of the contest, to the 8,457 submitted to this, the 12th holding. The total entries for these 12 year's number 64,135! With the listing on the Yamaha Motor Internet home page since 1997, children overseas have also learned about the contest. This year 63 entries were received from counties including Azerbaidjan, Colombia and Indonesia.
All the works by the children displayed such powerful representations of the sea and beaches that all the adults involved in the contest could not help but reconsider the importance of the ocean and our interaction with it.

A panel of eight judges chaired by Mr. Kazuo Kudo, chairman of the artist group Sogenkai and a member of Nitten, evaluated the works.
All submissions underwent a preliminary screening on Nov. 9, at which time two-hundred works each from the upper elementary, lower elementary, and nursery school categories were selected for a total of 600 works. The first stage of the final judging brought that number down to 40 in each category. In the second stage the number was reduced to 16 per category and from these winners were chosen for one Minister of Education Prize, one Minister of Transport Prize, one Director General of the Environment Agency's Prize and one Director General of the Fisheries Agency Prize, as well as two Gold Prizes, three Silver Prizes, three Bronze Prizes, and five Honorable Mentions in each category.

In addition, four individuals who represent supportive and cooperative associations of the contest and who also served on the judging panel each chose a work for a Special Prize. Mr. Satoru Murai chose one of the overseas submissions for a National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan Prize, Mr. Hideki Hata chose an entrant from the upper elementary category for the Japan Fisharina Chairman's Prize. Mr. Yoshiro Hattori selected a work from the lower elementary category for the Japan Game Fishing Association Chairman's Prize and the Yamaha Motor Company Prize went to a contestant from the nursery school category chosen by Mr. Tomoji Kaneko.

The award-winning works will be displayed at Yamaha Motor's Communication Plaza and later at various Yamaha exhibition sites around the country. Also, plans call for the works to be made available to local governments, fishery cooperatives and the like which may wish to borrow the works. The paintings will also be introduced on Yamaha Motor's website (http://www.yamha-motor.co.jp) to communicate the meaning of this contest to a larger audience.

Painter. Chairman of the judges committee for this contest, Chairman of the artist group Sogenkai and a member of the Nitten exhibition.

"I feel the level of the competition has gone up every year. I am glad to see how the children have created works full of the free expressiveness of youth. I also so happy to see quality works coming from children overseas. Lately in the news there has been much attention focused on problem children, and it make me realize that moral education is more important than ever before. For this reason I hope to see this and other contests flourish in the future.

Chairman of the Japan Marina & Beach Association

"Seeing the way the children have painted the dreams and fun and play the sea inspires so vividly has made me renew my conviction that we must do our part to ensure that we preserve the beauty of the sea and the world environment as a whole for them. I was so impressed by the painting from a child from Azerbaidjan that was chosen for the Minister of Transport Prize because of the way that it fit so perfectly my image of a painting of a harbor. I hope that this contest will continue to become more international with lots of entries from overseas.

Chairman of the Japan Fisharina Association

"Although there were many very good paintings in this year's contest, I also felt that there were more works that fell into certain set patters of expression. It may be a reflection of the fact that it is harder for children to get opportunities to go to the sea than in the past. The sea is a place for fisher, as well as a place for marine sports and just restful relaxation. In this sense it is an environment of great and varied potential. I think this contest is very important as an opportunity for children to gain an interest in the sea, and I also believe that we must work to create more and more opportunities like this for children to encounter the sea.

Honorary member of the Kaiyo Recreation Association and the Japan Game Fish Association

"In the nursery school category, I believe that the important thing is how directly and honestly the children express their feelings, and that technical skill in painting is secondary. The works chosen for the Gold Prizes I thought were wonderful for the truly childlike, open quality of expression. I am also very glad to see that these kinds of works are increasing in number each year. In the works from overseas I felt a sense of scale that is rare in Japan. I hope that the children of Japan will gain a more international perspective and that this will be reflected in this contest in the future.

Chairman of the National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan

It seemed to me that many of the paintings showed very careful and perceptive representations of subjects like boats. I felt that I would have liked to see more instinctual expressions in the works. I also felt that the scale of many of the visions was different from that of the entries from overseas. I think that one of the great things about this contest is that it gives children an opportunity to look at the sea with a broad perspective. Serving as a judge this time renewed my appreciation of the importance of encouraging more international exchange not only in words but in painting and music as well.

Guest judge. Atlanta Olympics 470 Class women's sailboat racing Silver Medalist

"It was very interesting for me to see the way the perspectives of the children changed in the different age groups from nursery school to the upper elementary school years. From the free, paint-as-you-feel works of the nursery schoolers the paintings gradually become closer to what we preconceived images of a "painting" as the children get older. It made me feel that if only we could retain that paint-as-you-feel attitude after becoming adults what great paintings it would produce. In the entries from overseas I felt the strong individuality of each child's work and was often surprised by the different perspectives they showed. As a sailboat racer, I cherish the perspective it gives me for viewing nature, and I hope that these children will also continue to value their visions of nature.

Senior General Manager, Pool Operations, Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.

"In times like these when they say that children are suffering psychologically from the low birth rate and smaller families, I hope to see more children growing up with the strength to meet the challenges of the great outdoors. For this reason I think that a contest like this that encourages children to paint the great world of the sea and communicate their ideas is so important. This year there were also many entries from overseas, which makes me hope that as the Internet brings us into closer contact with people around the world we will also see freer perspectives and expressions of the natural world.

Chairman of the Japan Marine Sports Promotion Foundation

"This contest is now in its 12th year and once again the number of entries has increased considerably compared to last year. There were also more entries from overseas, which is another positive trend. I hope to see this year's contest become an even more dynamic one than ever, in a way that it will contribute positively to the environmental problems we face while also encouraging new perspectives in our young people.