Title

Kamui Mintara (Playground of the Gods)

Artist

Toko, Nuburi

Date

1990

Medium

wood

Type

totem

Dimensions

12.5m height x 88m width x 51m depth

Further Information

Playground.pdf

Owner

City of Burnaby

Accession Number

PA2014.2

Location

800 Burnaby Mountain Pkwy

Category

City of Burnaby Public Art Collection

Collection

Public Art

Lat/Long

49.283217,-122.935543

View in Google Maps

http://www.google.com/maps?q=49.283217,-122.935543

A monument of wooden sculptures created by Ainu sculptor Nuburi Toko and his son Shusei Toko in 1989, Kamui Mintara (Playground of the Gods) commemorates twenty-five years of goodwill between the sister cities of Kushiro, Japan and Burnaby, Canada. Completed in 1990, the work conveys the Ainu’s belief that the Gods come to Earth in the form of animals to live together with the people. The Japanese Ainu share cultural similarities to West Coast First Nations, and the positions of totems and animals, particularly the Orca and the Owl, express the east-west connection between Kushiro and Burnaby. Artist’s Statement: “It is because I am the Ainu myself and a man that I carve. I do want you to understand through my carvings the ways of thinking, living, and ideas of the Ainu people who have been living with their Gods, and loved peace, living things, human beings, and nature. Carving is my language and Yukara (ancestry). It is a poem of love.”

Nuburi Toko was a world renowned Japanese wood-sculptor. He and his son, Shusei Toko, are modern sculptors of the Ainu—aboriginal people of Japan who inhabit the northern island of Hokkaido. Nuburi’s sculptures are wide-ranging; his early work in the 1980s involves great abstract pieces reminiscent of Constantin Brancusi and Henry Moore, while his later work involves the image of spirits as found throughout nature.