Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan
Invigorating
Lives!
There are currently no events listed.
Life Dances, Life Sings, Life Unfolds
Let’s tune in to the explosive light of diverse life that lies within each of us (creativity),
and to the raw, instinctual song of life that rises up from deep within our bodies.
From before to beyond the Expo, connect with diverse worlds,
sparking a great transformation in learning and play across the globe.
This is a journey to explore a future of co-creation,
a democratization of creativity,
where the diverse value of all beings and things,
and the overflowing brilliance of each individual’s life, burst forth,
connecting the world through the joy of creation
toward a playful, hope-filled, inclusive future.
In 2025, at the Playground of Life: Jellyfish Pavilion in Yumeshima,
be a part of this historic collective.
Life — is that exciting.
About the Jellyfish Pavilion
Thematic Project
Producer
Sachiko Nakajima
Musician, Mathematics Researcher
and STEAM Educator
Sachiko Nakajima
In the thematic project “Invigorating Lives,” we are exploring the future of play, learning, and work with the goal of achieving the democratization of creativity.
Bringing the joy of creation, where science and technology, creation and mathematics, art and the humanities intersect, to everyone!
We warmly invite you to visit the Jellyfish Pavilion,
a space filled with playful vibrations and music for the five senses,
and become one of the Jellyfish companions!
Invigorating LivesA journey to findexcitementthat invigorates lives
Jellyfish Pavilion
Exhibition
Listen to Myself
This is a space where you can immerse your whole body in sound, sensing it from every direction including the subtle vibrations of the "Roots of Life." Fresh and vivid sounds from across Japan and the world resonate throughout the room: the Aeolian harp played by the wind, ultrasonic calls of bats, the rush of water, the reverberation of Vietnamese gongs, and more. We invite you to experience these sounds fully with your entire being. (Sound sources provided in collaboration with YANAGISAWA Eisuke)
Celebrate Myself
Embark on a “Journey of Life” together with the jellyfish. This participatory, immersive 360° visual and auditory experience takes you from the origins of life through vast oceans, lands, and skies. Along the way, masks presented with the cooperation of the National Museum of Ethnology accompany you as you encounter inspiring festivals and traditional performing arts from Japan and around the world. In the finale, you join a diverse community of jellyfish companions walking, dancing, and invigorating life together.
Tree of Creation
Rising at the center of the "Vibrations of Life," the "Tree of Creation" symbolizes the creativity inside all beings and all forms of life. Composed of more than 4,600 Yoshino cedar blocks, carefully joined so they can one day be easily dismantled, the structure takes shape through a slime mold–inspired algorithm, forming the complex, vibrating patterns of a jellyfish membrane.
Co-Kurage
An interactive exhibit where visitors respond to “inquiries” linked to the eight symbolic colors of the jellyfish Pavilion. Guests write their thoughts and feelings on strips of cloth, which are then displayed on the "Tree of Creation," multiplying and growing throughout the Expo. The fabric of "Co-Kurage" is intricately woven from discarded, colorful LAN cables, transformed into a beautiful new tapestry of connection.
Middle Jellyfish: Umi-tsuki
An art installation created through the collaboration of artist NAGASAKA Mago, producer NAKAJIMA, and many others. Participants drew their dreams and wishes for the future on collected PET bottles, which were then connected to form a large jellyfish. Workshops were held in Agbogbloshie, a slum in Ghana, as well as in Cambodia and schools across Japan. The piece is illuminated by solar power, while piano music by NAGASAKA and NAKAJIMA, together with the lively sounds of Ghana, flow down from its center.
Kaku-Mei
A work where mathematics, life, and art intersect, created from 910 equilateral triangles lit from behind by nearly 15,000 LEDs. The Kaku-Mei produces mysterious sounds alongside patterns generated from mathematical formulas known as reaction–diffusion equations, which create organic life-like motifs. The installation responds to the movements of visitors and can also perform in harmony with the "Tree of Creation."
On-shoku
A tactile instrument that responds with sound, light, and vibration when you touch or press its soft, slimy, gel tabletop surface. Visitors can play together with others around them, and their performance can even influence the heartbeat of the "Tree of Creation." Playing "On-shoku" gives you the feeling of becoming one with the entire Jellyfish Pavilion.
Gochamaze Orchestra
A musical playground using Augmented Reality (AR) with the concept that “Everyone is a musician, everything is a seed of music.” When you hold up cards illustrated with instruments, animals, festivals, and more, images leap from the monitor, sounds begin to flow, and the screen transforms as if by magic. An improvised, mixed-up jam session starts right before your eyes.
Piano of Hope
The "Piano of Hope" is a CFX street piano wrapped with artwork of about 900 jellyfish drawn by children from across Japan and around the world, ranging in age from 0 to 120. Many children who are hospitalized and unable to visit the Expo also took part, so fragments of everyone’s creativity are included here.
Revived Organ
The "Revived Organ" was created from dismantled parts of unwanted personal computers collected from homes and workplaces across Japan. Keyboards, memory sticks, circuit boards, CPUs, monitors, and cables all come together to form this instrument, where even the cooling fans of old PCs have been transformed into organ pipes. By collecting these discarded objects, they are "Revived" and given new life.
Rejoicing Wall
The "Rejoicing Wall" was created from tiles made by children, teachers, people with disabilities, residents of nursing homes, and many others, both across Japan and the world. Each tile carries reflections on “Life” and “Invigorating Lives.” Connected together through the Collaborative Tile Project, they form the wall that now watches over the Jellyfish Pavilion.
Jellyfish Pavilion
Architectural
Concept
The pavilion’s concept is based on the jellyfish: play that flows freely.
It expresses the allure of something that cannot be fully explained in words, like the mystery of a drifting jellyfish, symbolizing life and creativity.
The Jellyfish Pavilion, born from overlapping thoughts and hopes toward life and the future, each shaped by diverse individualities, will continue to grow through its activities during the Expo, evolving into a space where people’s creativity flourishes ever more deeply.
Signature Events
At the Jellyfish Pavilion, we will host a wide range of events to connect diverse worlds through the opportunity of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan. In addition to workshops and Theme Week events, our Signature Events will include:
Gomi Festival (May 3, Gallery WEST)
World Play and Learn Summit (August 6–10, EXPO Messe “WASSE”)
World Life Band (July 20, 24, and August 6 at Inochi Park or the Jellyfish Pavilion)
Please come and join!
Toward an Inclusive Society
Social YURUYURU!
At the Jellyfish Pavilion, we aim to stir the world, not to homogenize it, but to shake it gently through embracing diverse traits and characteristics. We aim to create a society where each and every life shines in their own unique way and collaboratively creates the future. This is the democratization of creativity.
The Jellyfish Pavilion is committed to this vision through a variety of initiatives and messages. Even our logo was created from this movement as a symbolic expression of inclusivity and creativity.
Join us! Let's all become KURAGE (Jellyfish) Muddlers (Stirrers)!
We are ALL MINORITIES!!!
Festivals and Local Performing
Arts Around the World
Unlike commercial music and entertainment, festivals and local performing arts serve as inclusive spaces where lives of all kinds, crossing generations and social positions, can participate. These are forms of music and celebration passed down through generations, not only involving humans but resonating in harmony with forests, land, rice fields, rivers, and the sea.
The Jellyfish Pavilion's Roots of Life honors these traditions by introducing a selection of 17 domestic and 4 international festivals and folk performances, including those of the Ainu people. Many of them also appear in the immersive 360° visual and audio experience “Celebrate Myself”, a core expression of the Jellyfish Pavilion’s celebration of life.
and Folk Entertainment
KURAGE (Jellyfish) Project
LOGO Story
The symbol of the "Kurage" (Jellyfish) Project was created through the many ideas and creative process of the Kurage team.
One day, a diverse group of people gathered, got covered in paint, and played in an improvised, music-filled celebration. From the mural created that day, the team began envisioning a space unique to the Jellyfish Pavilion under the theme of “Anonymous Creators,” reflecting the spirit of co-creation. This process embodies our core message: "The joy of creation for everyone!"
The symbol features eight distinctive colors, each carrying its own meaning, which represent the inclusive, creative energy of the Jellyfish Pavilion.
NEWS & TOPICS
Latest Information on the Jellyfish Pavilion
