Japanese rock star's art a hit with Taipei mayor at lantern festival

Taipei, Feb. 4 (CNA) Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) enjoyed an evening out with Japanese rock star Teruhiko Kobashi at the 2025 Taipei Lantern Festival on Monday to promote the annual event and showcase the lantern designed by the musician.

Better known as Teru, the vocalist of the Japanese rock band Glay, the artist personally designed the lantern called "A Tree Awaiting Harvest" located in the festival's Zhonghua Road Display Zone.

Chiang and Teru admired the lantern Monday evening as they promoted the festival, which opened Sunday, with Kazuyuki Katayama, the chief representative of the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association's Taipei Office, and the office's deputy representative, Yo Takaba.

Chiang said his administration invited Teru to create a lantern this year because the rock star is not only a musician but a well known artist in his own right.

Accompanying Teru's large-scale art installation is a fresh musical piece he wrote for the display.

According to Teru, he flew to Taiwan twice during the construction of his lantern to check on its progress while on tour with his band playing their 30-year anniversary concerts.

Teru said he put a lot of effort into the lantern and hoped visitors to the Taipei Lantern Festival could feel the blessings he intended to convey on behalf of his hometown of Hakodate in Japan's northern island of Hokkaido.

The four original paintings shown on Teru's "A Tree Awaiting Harvest" are also on display for the duration of the festival inside Zhongshan Hall, the festival's main display zone where the festival's centerpiece, the "Lucky Snake Dou Dou" lantern, is situated.

Taipei's Department of Information and Tourism said it was hoping that the promotion of the festival by an internationally established artist such as Teru on social media would extend the annual celebration overseas to countries like Japan.

While promoting the festival, Chiang, Teru, Katayama and Takaba also visited the historical site in Ximending where the Taiwan branch of Japan's Nishi Honganji Buddhist school and its bell tower were located during Taiwan's Japanese colonial era.

The site is home to two interactive festival experiences, the "Blessing Forest" and "Lucky Light Corridor."

The artist and the three officials wrote auspicious fortunes to hang underneath the lanterns that make up the "Blessing Forest."