Introduction to Pictures fromthe Worldwide Friendship
Picture Exchange Program

WORLD CHILDREN'SPICTURE CONTEST

Farm（Austria）
Cows and other livestock are grazing freely on lushpastures at the foot of the verdant Alps. The cowherd
shown taking a rest is wearing the folk dress that was
the working attire of people in the mountains: anAlpine hat and a distinctive jacket and pants.

My Village（Belgium）

This picture painted in beautiful colors is reminiscentin some ways of the work of the early 20th-century
Swiss painter Paul Klee. It provides a sense ofEurope s culture of ﬁne art, which forms the backdrop
to the creation of such pictures.

A Small Farm（Denmark）
Denmark is renowned as a country with a thriving
agricultural and livestock sector. This picture of a horsepulling a cart that is carrying animal feed or crops
shows a tranquil rural landscape before the advent ofmodern mechanized farming techniques.

Drummers（Republic of Sri Lanka）
The rhythm of this horizontal double-ended drum isessential to traditional Sri Lankan music. The method
used to create contrasts of color through heavy outlines,
such as the people beating the double-ended drums inthis picture, is linked to the technique of batik.

Festival（Taiwan）
Taiwan s lion dances are very brightly coloredcompared to Japan s. Colorful lion dances like the one
shown in this picture can still be seen today. Children spaintings show not only how times change, but also
how things remain unchanged through the generations.

Woodcutters（Malaysia）

Malaysia s lush tropical rainforests are also a treasure trove oftimber resources. This picture shows indigenous woodcutters
chopping down trees by hand, rather than mass felling usingmachines. The serious environmental destruction that we see
today had not yet progressed at that stage.

The IE-NO-HIKARI Association, a member of the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA) Group,
was established to contribute to the cultural enhancement of rural communities through publishingand cultural activities, based on the cooperative spirit.
The Worldwide Friendship Picture Exchange Program was launched in 1954 to mark the 30th
anniversary of the magazine
and ran until 1980. Its objective was to foster international friendship through the exchange of pictures between children overseas and the children ofagricultural cooperative members in Japan.
The pictures submitted from across the globe were exhibited throughout Japan, attracting highpraise from every quarter. Through the relevant cooperatives, the submissions by children overseas
were donated to Japanese schools that had produced prizewinning entries, while the pictures byJapanese children were sent abroad. The pictures were compiled into a book called. In 1993, the program was renamed the World Children s Picture Contest and it
still continues today.
Professor Takuya Kaneda of Otsuma Women s University is highly knowledgeable about artproduced by children overseas and has been kind enough to provide a commentary on some of thepictures submitted.
We hope that the many children who saw these pictures not only looked at the familiar scenes ofnature and agriculture, but also took them as an opportunity to expand their horizons on the world
and cultivate a spirit of cooperation and friendship.
IE-NO-HIKARI Association

Welcome, Friends Around the World（Soviet Union）
The socialist regime of the former Soviet Union
collapsed in 1991. The title of this picture and thevarious national ﬂags ﬂying on the boat that it shows
seem to symbolize the ideal country that the Soviet
Union was trying to achieve through socialism.

A Walk（South Africa）
The people out for a walk shown in this picture are all
blue-eyed and white-skinned. It was not until 1994 thatapartheid̶South Africa s policy of racial segregation,
which discriminated between white and non-white
people̶was abolished.

Blind Manʼs Buﬀ

Procession of Prayer（France）
Even in France, where most children today enjoy playing
games on screens, there was a time when games such as
blind man s buﬀ were popular. As well as the game itself,
the design of the clothes worn by the children in thispicture provides a sense of changing times.

（West Germany）
After World War II, Germany was split into twocountries: West Germany and the socialist state of
East Germany. This picture was sent from West
Germany. It was in 1990 that the Berlin Wall came
down and Germany was reuniﬁed.

Party at HomeA Bustling Town

（Czechoslovakia）
Czechoslovakia was a socialist country until in 1993,
when it separated into two countries: the Czech Republicand Slovakia. This picture provides a very real sense ofthe high quality of all the pictures submitted from theformer socialist states of Eastern Europe.

Broken Down Car（Nigeria）
It was only in 1999 that a democratic administration took
power in Nigeria after years of civil war. This picture
was painted during the turbulent pre-democratization
period, but conveys a sense of daily life at a time when
the country had begun to modernize.

（Syria）
Looking at the people coming and going in the bazaar fullof various items shown in this picture, we can see thatmany of the people̶men and women alike̶are wearing
folk dress. Syria, which was once a modern, peacefulcountry, is now beset by the turmoil of a civil war.

Musician（India）

This picture shows a musician playing the tabla, atraditional folk instrument. India has achieved
stunning economic development in some respects inrecent years, but traditional music of this kind still
survives in the Indian lifestyle of today.

A Village

Harvesting（Afghanistan）
Invaded by the Soviet army in the 1970s, then ruled by theTaliban, Afghanistan has experienced turbulent times over
the years. Amid this turmoil, the number of nomads, whomove from place to place and live in black tents such as theone shown in this picture, has fallen sharply in recent years.

（South Korea）
The joy of the autumn harvest amid the golden ears ofrice is a timeless experience, but the passage of time canbe seen in the scarecrows and in the children helping
with the rice harvest, which were common sights in therural landscape in Japan, as well, a few decades ago.

FestivalHouses in the Sunshine（Soviet Union）
Shown in this picture is the Volga River, which ﬂows
through a city that was called Stalingrad, but which
was renamed Volgograd after the river in 1961, due tocriticism of Stalin. The change in the city s namehighlights a part of history.

（USA）
The style of this picture is reminiscent of the paintings ofDutch-born artist Willem de Kooning, who became one of
the leading exponents of action painting, which took the US
by storm in the 1950s and 1960s. We can see how great aninterest the leaders at that time had in contemporary art.

Fairy Tale:
Working（Uruguay）
Since 1955, the South American country of Uruguay has
experienced ongoing economic stagnation and political turmoil.
The workers engaged in welding shown in this picture evoke asense of the social momentum for industrialization and a shift awayfrom the country s primary focus on livestock farming at that time.

（Kazakh Republic）
Until it became the Republic of Kazakhstan upon gaining independence in 1991, the Kazakh Republic was one of the republics thatmade up the former Soviet Union. The Kazakh people havepassed down through the generations a traditional hunting
method for capturing foxes and other animals using golden eagles.