In March 2019 Moominvalley Park opened its doors to all Moomin-minded people around the world in Hanno, Saitama, near Tokyo in Japan. The park will be re-opened on June 4th after being closed for a little while due to the pandemic – and celebrated with a dreamy, beautiful installation made of umbrellas.
Moominvalley Park, the long-awaited, magical new Moominvalley Park opened in Hanno, in the Saitama prefecture, on the outskirts of Tokyo one year ago. Hannō is a small city surrounded by adventurous mountains and calming rivers, located just a 40 minute train trip away from the busy streets of Tokyo.
To celebrate the first year of bringing Moominous joy to Moomin fans, the entrance road to the park has been decorated with a beautiful installation of umbrellas that makes the experience of visiting the park even more magical.
The installation is called “Forest, Lake and Umbrella”, and it begins at the gate of the Metsä Village area, which is a hub for Finnish design, food and drinks and a part of the area that includes the Moominvalley Park.
Made of the astonishing amount of 1000 umbrellas in different shades of a rainbow, the umbrellas cast beautiful coloured shadows onto the footpath beneath, surrounded by a lush forest.
Masari Suzuki is the designer of the umbrella installation. “Umbrellas are usually used to not to get wet in the rain. In this installation umbrellas are used as decoration, and I hope people will see the beauty and the fun in these items. I hope people will come to the park to experience and see the beautiful and fun umbrella exhibition”, he says.
The entrance display will be in place until July 5th and the lake side umbrella sky, placed closer to the Moominvalley Park, will run until August 4th.
Take a look at the installation through video: