Sakura Festival At Phoenix Marketcity, Pune

Sakura or cherry blossoms, though it represents the impermanent nature of life but also shows the beauty of the flowers and the pleasantness it spreads around. Cherry blossoms in Buddhist path, tells about meditation, honesty, principles & integrity. A short lived tress & its flower teach us how to live life to the fullest in short span of time. Though, Sakura is the festival mainly celebrated in Japan and popular across the globe. Tourist’s set their calendar as per Sakura forecast if whenever they wish to explore Japan.

This year (2022) as we are celebrating 70th year of establishment of Indo Japan Diplomatic Relations, we tried to bring the culture and tradition of Japan in India. Indo Japan Business council joined hands with Phoenix Marketcity to create an authentic Sakura set-up which can be deeply felt by people of Pune city. Further to our efforts we came-up with various activities, programs or a cultural/traditional event which has the power to transit the people to Japan.

The Sakura Festival was started with authentic “Tea Ceremony” which was hosted by Ms. Kazuko Barisic on inaugural day that is April 3, 2022. The Japanese tea was well enjoyed by local visitors to mall. They not only tasted but also feel the aroma of tea. Few people were surprised after a sip of tea as they always thought of bitter taste. Ms. Kazuto also conducted “Furoshiki” which we can say a “Japanese Art of Wrapping”. We never knew that a simple piece of cloth can be utilized in so many different ways of wrapping. This is purely the art which Japanese people are master at. The program was held at April 9, 2022. On that day many Punekar’s learn the art of wrapping a gift under the layer of cloth which can be more precious to the recipient of that.

The fever of Sakura was not over with this but it started un-wrapping the secret performances it stored for long. There comes the Gala night on April 16, 2022. The evening was started with a mesmerizing performance of Mr. Takahiro Arai, who played one of the toughest instruments, Santoor for his audience. Takahiro Arai is a Japanese Citizen, living in Mumbai for the past 14 years and learning Santoor Instrument under the tutelage of his Guru, the renowned Santoor Maestro – Pt. Shivkumar Sharma.

After Takahiro, the stage was graced by Ms. Hiroko Sarah & her collaborator IBEX who lead the night to tune on dancing mode. Hiroko Sarah is from Tokyo, Japan and now lives in Mumbai. She works as a multilingual Singer-songwriter (Japanese, Hindi & English) on solo and collaboration projects with other artists in India and Japan. She also works as a professional trained Indian Classical Kathak dancer while her stage partner while Ibex is from Mumbai, India and has grown creating Hip Hop, Chill Japanese Hip Hop & Reggae-Dancehall music with a versatile style that arguably places him as the most competitive rapper. The audience witnessed the combination of Japanese & Hindi original songs from these two talents. Later, the time came when deal of the day was announced.

Yes, a very own Rapper Big deal took over the stage for the night. Odisha born Samir Rishu Mohanty aka Rapper - Big Deal, was born to a Japanese mother and an Indian father. He was keen on being a rapper ever since American rapper Eminem hit the charts with his song “8 Mile”, inspiring legions of fans across the world. Samir started rapping at the age of 17 inspired by the rawness and the sheer power of freedom of expression; he began to pen down his own thoughts in the form of rhymes. His lyric predominantly focuses on uplifting lives and inspiring people to overcome everyday struggles. He has even collaborated with industry stalvarts such as Sunidhi Chauhan, Sneha Khanwalkar, HardKaur, Adnan Sami as well as worked on the Bollywood movie & “Detective Byomkesh Bakshy”.

Our festival was ended on May 8, 2022 with a demo session & exhibition on Ikebana which was organized Ikenobo Ikebana Pune Chapter. Ikebana is an art of arranging flower which is another form of art mastered by Japanese.

IJBC tried to give a glimpse of Cherry Blossom and how people enjoy this season in Japan. A tour was short but worth to live amid Covid-19 restrictions. IJBC is glad that more than Lakhs of footfall recorded in each and every event and considered it a curtain raiser for our most ambitious annual event Konnichiwa Pune 2022.

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