World Art Utopia

Straw gorilla by Musashino Art University students, Wara Art Festival 2017, Niigata, Japan

A giant gorilla made of bundled golden rice straw crouches on bare ground in a grassy park under a blue sky, with a wooded mountain behind it. Its mouth gapes open around long fangs of coiled straw rope, and its huge right hand, the fingers made of thick coils of straw rope, curls around the front of about eight young people posing against its chest. Two of them wear wide-brimmed straw hats, another a white sun hat, one woman wears a red T-shirt, and a young man with a camera sits on a coil of straw at the right.
Artwork FileNiigata · Japan
Gone2017

The straw
gorilla

Musashino Art University students and local residents · “Gorilla” (ゴリラ), Wara Art Festival 2017 · Uwasekigata Park, Niigata

Photo as published on Street Art Utopia

  • #WaraArt
  • #WaraArtFestival
  • #わらアートまつり
  • #MusashinoArtUniversity
  • #UwasekigataPark
  • #Nishikan
  • #Niigata

A gorilla far taller than a person, made of rice straw tied onto a wooden frame, crouched in Uwasekigata Park in Nishikan ward, Niigata, in autumn 2017. Musashino Art University students and local residents finished it for the Wara Art Festival on 2–3 September 2017. It was one of five animals on that year’s theme “10×獣” (“10 × beasts”) and was on show until 1 November 2017.

4 things to know

  1. Made from the leftovers of the rice harvestWara is rice straw: what is left after the grains are threshed out. Niigata is a rice-growing region, and the festival turns the straw left after the autumn harvest into giant sculptures. Usual uses are animal feed, roofing and soil improvement. Modern Farmer · Spoon & Tamago
  2. Ten years, so twice the size2017 was the festival’s 10th anniversary. The theme was “10×獣” (“10 × beasts”), and the city says the five animals included the lion, “one of the largest works ever” (過去最大級). Spoon & Tamago and Time Out Tokyo both wrote that the animals were twice as big as in earlier years. Niigata City · Spoon & Tamago · Time Out Tokyo
  3. Woven mats on a wooden skeletonThe city describes how the works are made. Students design each animal with sketches and a model. Local farmers weave the straw into “toba” mats, about 5 metres long and 50 cm wide. A local firm builds a timber frame, plastic pipes give it curves, and the mats are tied tight to the wood and pipes so they can stand wind and rain. Fine parts, such as a shark’s teeth, are wrapped in straw rope. Niigata City, construction process
  4. A professor and a hot-spring villageWara art began in 2006 with an exchange between the former village of Iwamuro, known for its hot springs, and Professor Shingo Miyajima of Musashino Art University in Tokyo. The city has run the Wara Art Festival since 2008, and has shown the works in Uwasekigata Park since 2009. Nishikan feature · Niigata City

Check-in guide

📍
Uwasekigata Park (上堰潟公園), Matsunoo 1, Nishikan ward, Niigata City, at the foot of Mount Kakuda (Niigata City, Nishikan tourism site).
⏳
The gorilla is no longer there. It was shown from September to 1 November 2017 (Niigata City). The park shows a new set of straw works every year; in 2026 the festival runs 29 August to 31 October (Niigata City).
🧭
The Maps button uses OpenStreetMap’s point for the park, which is large, with a lagoon, a lawn and a 2 km walking path. The city’s own map link centres on almost the same spot.
🚌
The park has two car parks (112 and 60 spaces). In 2026 the Nishikan sightseeing loop bus stops at Uwasekigata Park, one minute’s walk away, on weekends and holidays until 31 October (Niigata City).
Open in Maps2017 works (city page)

Sightings

  1. 20172–3 Sep

    Festival days; five works finished

  2. 20172 Oct

    Spoon & Tamago photo

  3. 201710 Oct

    Modern Farmer photo

  4. 201711 Oct

    Time Out names the gorilla

  5. 20171 Nov

    Display ends (city)

Every stamp links to the dated source.

On the record

Niigata City, Nishikan ward18 December 2017 (last updated)

平成29年度 わらアート作品 (2017 wara art works)

「作品は平成29年9月から11月1日までの約2ヶ月間展示され、多くの方から鑑賞されました。」

“The works were displayed for about two months, from September to 1 November 2017, and were seen by many people.” The official page shows the gorilla among the five 2017 works.

Read

Nishikan (Niigata City tourism site)Undated feature on the 2021 festival

災い転じて福来れ！「わらアート」がつなぐ地域の未来 (Misfortune into fortune: the community future that wara art connects)

「わらアートのはじまりは、温泉地としても知られる旧岩室村とムサビの宮島慎吾教授との交流から。」

“Wara art began with an exchange between the former village of Iwamuro, also known as a hot-spring town, and Professor Shingo Miyajima of Musabi [Musashino Art University].”

Read

Spoon & Tamago2 October 2017

Rice Straw Animal Sculptures from the 2017 Wara Art Festival

“The festivities have ended but the sculptures are on display through October 31, 2017.”

The post shows the gorilla, the other four animals and one of them inside scaffolding during the build.

Read

Modern Farmer10 October 2017

Check Out These Wara Art Sculptures from Japan

“Wara, as rice straw is called in Japan, is what’s leftover after the rice grains have been threshed out”

By Andrew Amelinckx, with the gorilla among the photos, credited to the Niigata Wara Art Festival. Smithsonian Magazine ran the same article the same day (Smithsonian).

Read

Time Out Tokyo11 October 2017

The straw animals at Wara Art Festival in Niigata this year are twice as big

“There’s a lion, gorilla, bull, crocodile and rhinoceros.”

Time Out Tokyo’s editors, writing in the last weeks of the 2017 display.

Read

The facts

Makers
Musashino Art University students with local residents (Niigata City). Individual names for the gorilla are not given by any source we found Checked
Title
“ゴリラ” (Gorilla), as listed on the city’s 2017 works page; one of five works on the theme “10×獣” with a lion, bull, rhino and crocodile Checked
Not to confuse
The festival’s 2011 works included a “マウンテンゴリラ” (Mountain Gorilla), a different, closed-mouthed figure standing on long arms. The open-mouthed gorilla in our photo matches the 2017 image in the festival gallery (Nishikan gallery) Checked
Festival
Wara Art Festival (わらアートまつり) 2017, organised by Niigata City; festival days 2–3 September 2017 (Niigata City, festival history) Checked
Display end
Niigata City: until 1 November 2017. Spoon & Tamago and Modern Farmer: until 31 October; Time Out: “until the end of October”. We follow the city page, written after the display ended Conflicting
Festival start
The city and Spoon & Tamago date the first wara art to 2006 and the first festival to 2008; Time Out also gives 2008 (“was created in 2008 when the farmers engaged” the university) but leaves out the 2006 start; the city’s account of a village–university exchange is the fuller one Checked
Place
Uwasekigata Park, Matsunoo 1, Nishikan ward, Niigata (Niigata City); park point from OpenStreetMap Checked
Spot in park
No source gives where in the park the gorilla stood Unconfirmed
Material
Rice straw woven into mats and straw rope, tied to a timber frame shaped with plastic pipes; this is the city’s general method, not a record for this work Reported
Size
No source gives the gorilla’s height or weight; in the photos it towers over the people beside it Unconfirmed
Photo
Photographer not known. The festival’s photo gallery on the Nishikan site has a different group photo at the gorilla, captioned as the students who made the works (Nishikan gallery); whether our photo shows the same group is not confirmed Unconfirmed
Status
Shown until 1 November 2017; the city page, updated in December 2017, speaks of the display in the past tense. No source describes the dismantling itself, and each year’s festival shows new works Checked

Related

All sources (10)

This sculpture

The festival and the method

The place

Artwork File · Last checked 4 October 2026 · Certainty labels follow How We Verify Art · All Artwork Files