The Journey of LIFE Orchestra

Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan — TEAM EXPO 2025 Program / Co-creation Challenge

The TEAM EXPO 2025 Program, in which this initiative participates, is a participatory program operated by the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition.

LIFE® INOCHI with
Super Kids Orchestra Project

Saturday, February 6, 2027
Galaxcity Nishiarai Cultural Hall

From the Expo to the next stage.
A concert of film and live music that brings us into contact with life.

LIFE Orchestra celebrates the wonder of life
through an experience that moves us profoundly.

Connecting HEARTS through ART
From Koyasan to the Expo, and on to the world.

We live in a time when the world is changing profoundly. Our awareness shapes the future, our society, our families, and ourselves.

Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan created opportunities for people to reflect together on the future through the theme of life. LIFE Orchestra also brought film and live music to its stage.

Next, on Saturday, February 6, 2027, we come to Galaxcity Nishiarai Cultural Hall. Doors open at 15:00; the performance begins at 15:30. The film “LIFE INOCHI” will resonate with a live performance by the Super Kids Orchestra.

Tickets are scheduled to go on sale on Wednesday, November 11, 2026. For the latest performance and ticket information, please visit the official page via “Performance Details” above.

Everyone was born from their mother’s womb. Returning to that shared beginning, we hope to keep creating opportunities around the world to feel the origins and connections of life.

Profoundly moving experiences
can change the world.

For that to happen, deeply moving experiences matter.

We believe an experience so powerful that it makes the heart tremble—an experience of awe—can lead to profound awareness and, in turn, action. LIFE Orchestra was created to bring such deeply moving experiences into being.

On September 27, 2025, “LIFE INOCHI with Super Kids Orchestra” was presented at EXPO Hall, Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan.

An experience in which film and live music become one travels from the Expo to the next community. On February 6, 2027, the journey continues with a performance at Galaxcity Nishiarai Cultural Hall.

Explore our Expo activities →

Event Record | 2023.11.3

Venue: Reimeikan, Koyasan University

Doors open 13:45; performance begins 14:30; ends around 16:00

Advance unreserved seating: Adults ¥3,000; students ¥1,500

Advance premium seating: ¥5,000; center rows 1–5

Supporter ticket: ¥3,000

For those who cannot attend on the day but would like to support the event

Preschool children will be seated on the second floor.

Children under 3 who do not require a seat attend free.

All ticket types cost an additional ¥500 on the day. Please purchase them at the venue.

Crowds are expected during the autumn foliage season.

We recommend allowing plenty of time for your journey.

If you plan to stay on Koyasan the night before,

please contact us to discuss arrangements and costs.

Temple Lodging Association

0736-56-2616

Program

program

Awakening Through Art

“LIFE INOCHI & the INOCHI Exhibition” will unfold with live music by the Super Kids Orchestra, live singing, and live narration.

The art film “LIFE INOCHI” is an experiential work that invites awareness—awakening—through art.

By re-experiencing the journey that brought us into being from a cosmic perspective, the work opens the way to new awareness.

Screened at the IPS International Planetarium Conference, Europe’s largest fulldome festival, and the World Women’s Conference in India, among other events, it has moved audiences to tears in Japan and around the world.

During the Grand Dharma Assembly commemorating the 1,250th anniversary of Kobo Daishi Kukai’s birth in 2023, LIFE INOCHI screenings and the INOCHI Exhibition were held for two months in the special Okuden room of World Heritage Kongobuji. Through the film, the feeling of being one with the universe becomes tangible and accessible.

Digital INOCHI Exhibition

Collaborative works by Lennart Nilsson, the Swedish photographer described as a living national treasure, and artists Masahiko Hashimoto and Sayaka Hashimoto.

As a special program marking the 1,250th anniversary of Kobo Daishi Kukai’s birth,

it was held in the normally private Okuden of World Heritage Kongobuji,

and moved many visitors from different countries to tears.

The photograph shows the INOCHI Exhibition held in the Okuden.

These works will be projected on a large screen in a digital INOCHI Exhibition,

accompanied by the Super Kids Orchestra.

Awakening Through the Power of Art

Like the Diamond Realm, the taiko drumming of Mr. Matsumura, leader of the Wadaiko Matsumura-gumi, resonates in the soul.

LIFE INOCHI invites us into the Womb Realm, carried by the pure, beautiful tones of the Super Kids Orchestra and the vocal resonance of its director, Masahiko Hashimoto.

Through the power of art, we become one with the universe.

We experience these sounds not only with our ears, but through our skin and our whole bodies. Moved through all five senses, we experience an awakening from within.

Enter a realm beyond mystery.

No artist could create it.

Encounter the beauty of your own life.

It is a world beyond the realm of mystery.

Opening remarks

(近藤本淳)

Honjyun Kondou

Executive Officer, Kongobu-ji Head Temple; Director of General Affairs, Koyasan Shingon Buddhism

Participants

Masahiko Hashimoto

Hashimoto Masahiko

Artist

An artist who seeks to create a society brimming with vitality through the many expressive possibilities of art. His work received the Youth Worker Supporter Award at the Youth Power Awards, presented by the Japan Youth Leaders Association to outstanding educators. His art film LIFE® INOCHI — Re-experience Birth has gained international recognition through screenings at the IPS International Planetarium Society Conference, Europe’s largest fulldome festival, and the closing session of the International Women’s Conference in India. In Japan, his activities have included Izumo Taisha, Izanagi Jingu, and Kumano Hongu Taisha, as well as the development of art programs with national universities. In 2023, he held the first LIFE INOCHI Exhibition at the World Heritage Site of Koyasan, as part of the grand commemorative services marking 1,250 years since the birth of Kobo Daishi.

Sayaka Hashimoto

Hashimoto Sayaka

Artist / Producer

Artist and producer / Standing Director, Asian Women Leaders Forum

A producer, creative director, and lyricist who creates art for a future in which every individual life can shine, connecting people through the power of art across borders, generations, and ethnicities. Through the Asian Women Leaders Forum, she promotes international cultural exchange. She is the author of Otanjo Omedeto — What the Encounters of Life Teach Us (Chuohoki Publishing) and has created and produced LIFE INOCHI and the INOCHI Exhibition.

(大谷麻由美)

Otani Mayumi

Conductor

After graduating from the Faculty of Commerce and Economics at Kinki University and working for seven years, she enrolled in the conducting program at Kyoto City University of Arts, studying with Nobutaka Masui and Rika Tanino. While at university, she attended the Kurt Masur Music Week conducting seminar and received instruction from Masur. She received the Kyoto Mayor’s Award upon graduation. She then studied conducting in the postgraduate program at Ueno Gakuen University, under Tatsuya Shimono and Masahiko Okochi. In 2015, she passed the audition for the Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Arts Foundation’s conducting fellowship, a program supporting young conductors, and furthered her training with the Kioi Sinfonietta Tokyo (now the Kioi Hall Chamber Orchestra Tokyo), the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, and other ensembles.
She made her debut at a special concert of the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra in 2016, conducting John Cage’s Thirty Pieces for Five Orchestras alongside Junichi Hirokami, Ken Takaseki, Tatsuya Shimono, and others. She has since returned to the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra and appeared at the Miyazaki International Music Festival. She coached the Kyoto Junior Orchestra from 2010, while still a student, through 2015, and again in 2020 and 2021.

(上條瑞穂)

Kamijo Mizuho

Pianist

After graduating from Osaka College of Music, she began performing in the Kansai region, influenced by soul and jazz. She moved to the United States and graduated from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Jazz Composition. She has performed and recorded with numerous artists, including Chie Ayado’s gospel band and pop singer aiko. In 2006, she formed the club-jazz band jaz’presso, which debuted with the Avex Group in 2007 with its first album, .jp. The band released its second album, Eerie Dance, in May 2008.

In 2010, she formed a hip-hop jazz piano trio focused primarily on original compositions.

She produced the MIZUHO Piano Trio mini-album Clap Clap. The colors of French music, which influenced her in childhood, continue to shape her piano playing, characterized by evocative expression and a powerful, percussive touch.

In 2011, she composed and produced Colors — Kizuna, a song supporting people affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Bringing together 28 professional vocalists active in Kansai, the song continues to be sung at school graduation ceremonies and by choirs and gospel ensembles.

Artists she has performed with

Skip Martin (Kool & the Gang), Claude McKnight (TAKE 6), Greg Kelly (director of the New York Broadway production MAMA, I Want to Sing), aiko, Hana*Hana, Chie Ayado, Chikuzen Sato, SINON, Tadashi Hirosawa, and others

(大八木伸幸)

Oyagi Nobuyuk

Arrangements

Special guest

(松村公彦)

KImihiko Matsumura

Taiko drums

Leader of the wadaiko ensemble Matsumuragumi. His performances have received acclaim in Australia, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, and South Korea. He received the Kobe City Cultural Encouragement Award in 2001 and the Hyogo Prefecture Arts Encouragement Award in 2003.

Member of the Kobe Musicians Association and the Hyogo Prefecture Council for the Promotion of Musical Activities. Recipient of the Kobe City Culture Award in 2020.

Performed by the Super Kids Orchestra

The Super Kids Orchestra, one of Japan’s finest youth ensembles and especially close to Yutaka Sado’s heart, gives musical expression to life.

The orchestra began its activities in 2003. Children from elementary through high school are selected by audition from across Japan and take part in a wide range of activities under the direction and guidance of internationally renowned conductor Yutaka Sado. In addition to concerts at the Hyogo Performing Arts Center, its high-quality performances, including the “Vitamins for the Heart” project in Tohoku and Kumamoto, have attracted attention nationwide.

Message of support

Yutaka Sado — Conductor

The Super Kids Orchestra was founded two years before the Hyogo Performing Arts Center opened in 2005, as a program launched in advance of the center itself. I believed that connecting a theater with the next generation was an important challenge. My idea was to engage wholeheartedly through music with talented children selected by audition, creating a summer holiday they would always remember. For the past 20 years, we have thrown ourselves into making music every summer. As it was originally a preliminary program, there were no plans for it to continue after the theater opened in 2005. But our supporters understood my strong wish to keep it going, allowing us to continue for 20 years. I am deeply grateful to everyone who has supported us. The children in that first intake are now in their mid-thirties. It makes me truly happy to see our alumni flourishing in so many different fields, carrying the summers they spent with us as a great treasure in their hearts.

This year, once again, we will give everything we have to bring you the SKO sound I have loved for 20 years!

Yutaka Sado, Artistic Director, Hyogo Performing Arts Center

Premium and unreserved seating — ticket sales

Electronic tickets here

Unreserved seating — ticket sales

Paper tickets will be available from September 3 at the following locations.

Tickets can be purchased in person.

Juzuya Shirobei (near Kongobu-ji, beside the Kiyo Bank Koyasan branch)

771 Koyasan, Koya-cho, Ito-gun, Wakayama 648-0211, Japan

Koyasan Shukubo Association

Central Information Center / Second floor of the Nakanohashi Information Center near Okunoin

Venue

Matsushita Auditorium Reimeikan

Parking information

▫️ Heavy traffic is expected on the day of the event.

Please check parking information on the Koyasan website or other official sources and allow plenty of time for your journey.

Parking map here

▫️ For information on temporary parking areas and related notices, please visit the website of Kongobu-ji, the head temple of Koyasan Shingon Buddhism.

If you are considering an overnight stay, contact the Shukubo Association to discuss your budget and other requirements.

They can introduce temple lodgings with vacancies.

Temple Lodging Association

0736-56-2616

We accept no liability for accidents, injuries, or other problems related to this event.

Purchased tickets are nonrefundable.

Please participate with an understanding of these conditions. Thank you for your cooperation.

Organizer: Feel&Sense, General Incorporated Association

Supported by: Kongobu-ji, Head Temple of Koyasan Shingon Buddhism; Koya Town; Wakayama Prefecture

Japan Association for the World Exposition

With the cooperation of: Hyogo Performing Arts Center; creativehybrid; NMG Recording Studio; M-Tech Ltd.; Juzuya Shirobei; Koyasan Shukubo Association; FM Hashimoto 81.6

Sponsored by: Woomist