UENO CULTURE & CREATIVITY HUB

The JR East Group has positioned JR Ueno Station as a “UENO CULTURE & CREATIVITY HUB” expanding its role as a place that connects people, communities, and regions through culture. On June 16, 2026, following the station’s first major renovation in approximately 20 years, the new stage for this initiative was unveiled. Fukao Film Institute was responsible for the concept development, planning, and production of an hourly animation for “UENO CANVAS,” a 23-meter-wide digital display. The work is based on “UENO FREEDOM COLOR,” a color palette developed by SPREAD and Polar Inc. through a contemporary reinterpretation of Genichiro Inokuma’s iconic mural Freedom (1951). The project began with the idea that freedom is not simply the absence of order, but a state in which different rules can coexist in harmony. The animation brings together forms with distinct colors, shapes, and systems of movement, allowing each to retain its individuality while sharing the same visual space. Each form follows its own rules, yet at times expands beyond them. Through these movements, the work expresses two conditions of freedom: the ability for differences to remain intact while existing together, and the possibility of a future that is not determined in a single way. Together, they reflect Ueno as a place where diverse people and cultures intersect. Rather than treating the hourly signal as a cue that synchronizes everyone to the same time, we conceived it as a small celebration of the different rhythms and movements that coexist within the station at a single moment. The animation is shown every hour from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.