OUR STORY
The journey of the heart, before this circle began.
A SINGLE SHEET
01
A drawing of nothing but white lines. We sent it out into the world, quietly, without expecting an answer.
THE FIRST COLOR
02
The first sheet came back from a child in Malaysia.
The paper I had sent out with nothing but white lines was filled with that child’s colors. No model to copy, no skilful or clumsy — a color that was only theirs.
I had not expected any answer at all, and I looked at that one sheet for a long time. I thought I had sent color out into the world; it was I who received color first.
This is where it began. Malaysia was inside the range I had pictured as “where it can reach.” A voice from outside that range — that comes a little later.
THE STORY
03
Let me be honest. When I first imagined this walk, I had no intention of opening it to the world.
Japan and Malaysia. A few countries at most. That felt realistic. That felt "safe." There were reasons enough — the language barrier, the burden of running it, the limits of responsibility.
"I should only do what I can handle" — it sounded so reasonable. But looking back, it was only an excuse. In truth, out of my own fear, I had drawn arbitrary borders across the world.
The one who broke that line was a single message that arrived from Iran.
A MESSAGE FROM IRAN
“Can we take part from Iran, too?”
The sender was a mother in Iran who teaches drawing to children. She has a daughter of twelve who has been sending her art out into the world since she was six. And her message went on:
"In today's Iran, so full of stress, the time children spend drawing is the greatest, brightest gift. It heals small hearts, and lets them draw hope again. That is the kind of gift it is."
I could not move for a while, there in front of that one line. While saying “I want to deliver a world full of love and joy,” I had been looking only at the part of the world that was convenient for me — and had nearly taken from them even the light of coloring. Burning with shame, all I could send back to her was this:
“Please tell the children: your colors have the power to heal the world.”
She promised to tell them, “with love.” And then she wrote this:
“When we open a door to one heart, we are naturally opening a door to the world. Art knows no borders — it knows only sincerity, love and light.”
Those words became my new compass. To let people in Iran take part, there was only one way: open it to the whole world. That same day, I decided to open the door to the world.
Perhaps I was not the only one drawing borders. All of us, unknowingly, had closed ourselves off — and let precious connections come undone.
To spin the fraying threads together once more. To share, once more, the warmth we had almost lost.
OKAGESAMA
04
Somewhere along the way, we forgot. The food on your table was grown by someone you have never met. The clothes you wear today were made by hands you have never touched.
Your "today" exists — entirely — because of someone else.
When we forget this, the world quietly begins to lose its color.
In Japanese, there is a word that cannot be fully translated into any other language: okagesama.
It means — I am here now because of someone else. Without realizing it, we live supported by the strength of countless people. So in Japan, when something goes well, rather than saying "because I worked hard," we have valued saying "okagesama de" — thanks to you, thanks to others.
Within this word lives a value held dearer than competition. It is connection.
Because someone exists, I exist. Because I exist, yet another someone exists. Within that endless connection, we live.
This is a place where people all over the world bring their own colors.
One person's color alone cannot complete this work. But as many colors gather, little by little it becomes the "color of humanity."
Because of someone, we exist.
And together, we color the world.
YOUR COLOR
05
To weave the world, no special talent or great power is needed. All it takes is your "color."
Your one color becomes a single thread that shapes the world. That feeling reaches someone's heart, and slowly, the world begins to change.
It does not have to be a perfect picture. Just add your color to this circle of colors, as one thread.
LIGHT YOUR FEELING
Recall the "okagesama" within you. Lay the warmth of that feeling over the line-art. That is all.
TURN MEMORY INTO COLOR
What colors the world is not paint, but your memory. Color it by hand. From your fingertips, a new connection begins.
SHARE WITH THE WORLD
Your color joins colors from all over the world — a gallery for everyone, beyond country, age and language.
BIG PEACE ART
06
The works gathered here are not mere submissions. Every feeling arriving from around the world is tied into one, spun vividly into "Big Peace Art."
This is not any one person's art. It is a treasure of humanity — created and shared together by you and someone, somewhere in the world.
Even after the festival ends, this memory remains as an unbreakable bond connecting you and the world. Each color overlaps as the presence of someone living somewhere on earth, and together they spin one "color of humanity."
And this work continues — into the future, and into the "everyday."
TO YOU, AT LAST
07
I still remember that message from Iran. "It heals small hearts, and lets them draw hope again —"
The color you chose reaches someone’s heart somewhere in the world, and in time, becomes hope. And in 2027, when colors have gathered from more than thirty countries — there will be one great painting that belongs to no single person, made by all of us together.
And someday, when the colors of the whole world have gathered — there, a single great story is born: one that belongs to no single person, created by humanity together.
The world is waiting for your color.
This is not a competition. There is no right color, no wrong color. There is only your color.
