GREEN×EXPO association joins Kyoto Tamba green fair with a Kengo Kuma monument passed down from Kawasaki and Gifu

• On 18 September 2026 the GREEN×EXPO 2027 association announced it had joined the 43rd National Urban Greening Fair in Kyoto Tamba, which opened the same day. The exhibit is a joint effort with Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture and the executive committee of the 38th National “Greenery Conservation” Gathering, set up at Kameoka Hozugawa Park.
• The centrepiece is a monument shaped like a tree growing from the ground. It was designed by architect Kengo Kuma, master architect of the GREEN×EXPO Lab, using a flexible joint system that can be taken apart, moved, stored and reassembled, changing shape to fit each site. Its timber comes from the school forest of Kanagawa Prefectural Yoshidajima High School.
• The monument was first built and shown at the National Urban Greening Kawasaki Fair in autumn 2024, then passed to the Gifu fair, and now to Kyoto. The association says it also plans to display it at the GREEN×EXPO 2027 venue itself.
• The flower beds are set against a backdrop evoking the hills and rice fields of Tamba, under the theme “an uplifting scene of waves of flowers that fill the heart,” which the association says expresses GREEN×EXPO 2027’s idea of “harmony between nature and society.”
• The fair itself, proposed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and hosted by Kyoto Prefecture, Kameoka, Nantan and Kyotamba, together with the Japan Green Space Foundation, runs for 52 days, from 18 September to 8 November 2026.
• Kameoka Hozugawa Park and Kanagawa Prefectural Yoshidajima High School are trip-jp’s own English renderings; the announcement gives no official English names for these.

Our take

What stands out is that the same timber structure has toured three fairs before reaching the Expo. Kawasaki in autumn 2024, then Gifu, Kyoto now, and next the Expo grounds in Yokohama: the flexible joint system that lets it be dismantled and rebuilt is what makes that relay possible, so the monument itself acts out the reuse it stands for.

It also echoes another Expo legacy piece. TSP Taiyo is reusing timber and steel from the Ireland pavilion and the ORA food pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka-Kansai for the Yokohama venue’s main gate and a restaurant, and Kengo Kuma advised on that project too. Inside the venue and out, the same idea of building things meant to be taken apart keeps showing up.

For anyone travelling from the Kansai side, the Kyoto Tamba fair opened on 18 September, half a year before the Expo, and runs until 8 November. Seeing this monument now means recognising the same joinery when it turns up in Yokohama half a year later, I think.

Tips for visitors

• The monument stands at Kameoka Hozugawa Park, the fair’s main venue, about a 5-minute walk from the north exit of JR Kameoka Station.
• From Kyoto Station, the JR Sagano Line (San-in Main Line) rapid service reaches Kameoka Station in about 20 minutes. Admission to Kameoka Hozugawa Park is free.
• The fair runs from 18 September to 8 November 2026. trip-jp has a Japanese-language feature covering the fair’s five venues and how to reach each one by train.
• The announcement does not say how many other exhibits are on display; check the fair’s official site for the latest details.