A mosaic recreating "The Great Wave Off Kanagawa," an iconic woodblock print by Japanese ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, has been certified by Guinness World Records for the largest number of photographs used to make the artwork.
Preschoolers, primary school students and junior high school students from Kameoka were among children nationwide who sent 40,954 photos to organizers of the project.
The children were photographed holding up paper cards on which they had written their own personal aspirations, with the photos arranged like tiles to form the mosaic.
The event to create the mosaic was organized by the Tokyo-based Kokorozashi Art Project and was co-sponsored by Kameoka City.
Organizers asked for photos to be submitted in the hope of starting a "big wave toward world peace."
A total of 3,141 Kameoka nursery school children and elementary and junior high school students took part in the project and their pictures were arranged on a computer.
A ceremony was held at Galleria Kameoka on May 5 to hand over to Kokorozashi Art Project a certificate recognizing the work as a Guinness World Record.
The mosaic as a digital photo collection of vows and oaths was approved by Guinness World Records on Dec. 29 last year.
The mosaic was printed on a two-by-three meter piece of cloth and unveiled at the site of the certification ceremony. Participants in the project approached the work and searched for their own image in the waves.
Hikaru Deguchi, chairman of the Kokorozashi Art Project, drew applause as he accepted the certificate from the Guinness World Records certifying officer at the ceremony.
A female junior high school student who wrote about her hopes of becoming a schoolteacher, said, "To become connected with so many people I don't know through the mosaic was touching."
Organizers are considering making the mosaic into a ceramic tablet and displaying it at Kyoto's Sanga Stadium Kyocera.
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