This year’s Kinugasa Art Village Festival, hosted by Ritsumeikan University, offered a truly immersive cultural experience by blending traditional Japanese art with cutting-edge digital technology. Held in Kyoto, June 1, 2025 — under the theme “A day to enjoy Kyoto and art using all five senses,” the festival also marked the 125th anniversary of the university, making the event particularly special.
One of the standout attractions was an interactive sticker-making experience developed in collaboration with Roland DG and Antigro Designer, featuring the innovative Sticker Builder customization tool. The project allowed festival-goers to create personalized stickers by merging their own portraits with the figure of Minamoto no Yorimitsu from the historic Japanese picture scroll Shutendōji, which was digitally restored by the university’s Art Research Center (ARC).
The process was fast, user-friendly, and highly engaging. Participants scanned a QR code with their mobile devices to access Sticker Builder, uploaded a photo of themselves (or a friend—or even a pet), and watched as the tool automatically extracted the face and placed it into a custom-designed template. Users could then apply filters, add text, and finalize their design. The personalized artwork was instantly transformed into a print-ready file, cut and printed on-site using the Roland VersaSTUDIO BN2-20 eco-solvent printer/cutter—giving everyone a unique, take-home souvenir. During this one-day event, over 300 individual stickers were designed by the participants and printed on-site.
The project exemplified the festival’s mission to bridge tradition with innovation, making classical Japanese art accessible in fun, modern ways. It was especially popular with younger visitors, families, and international guests, all of whom could engage creatively while learning about Japan’s cultural heritage.
This initiative was made possible through the support of Ritsumeikan University’s Art Research Center (ARC), a pioneering institute in the field of digital humanities. Since its establishment in 1998, the ARC has played a crucial role in preserving and sharing Japanese cultural assets through advanced digital archiving and interdisciplinary research. Recognized by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the ARC operates as the International Joint Digital Archiving Center for Japanese Art & Culture.
The 2025 edition of the Kinugasa Art Village Festival reaffirmed that technology can do more than just preserve the past—it can breathe new life into cultural traditions, inviting people of all ages to experience history through interactive creativity. Thanks to the collaboration between academia, industry, and design, this project stood out as a shining example of how the arts can thrive in the digital age.