Visitors flock to view the annual Okiten art exhibition in Urasoe Art Museum.

The island’s best-known annual arts exhibition, Okiten, gets under way Sunday at the Urasoe City Gymnasium, featuring hundreds of works in a variety of creative disciplines.

Advance Admission to the Okiten, which runs through April 6th, is ¥900 for adults and ¥400 for children.  Tickets at the door are ¥1,000 for adults and ¥500 for kids.  The Okiten runs daily 10 a.m. ~ 6 p.m., with last entry at 5:30 p.m.

Okiten features every genre of fine art that is produced within Okinawa and is a good place to gauge latest trends.

Okiten, sponsored by Okinawa Times, is one of the biggest comprehensive fine-arts exhibitions in Okinawa prefecture. This is the 66^th Okiten exhibition.  Various prizes, including an Associate member prize, Okiten prize, and Encouragement prize, are to be selected from the works applied for in seven sections and 11 technical genres. This time, there were 1,099 pieces from 913 people handed in, from which 631 pieces from 589 people will be on display for the public to enjoy. There will be paintings, lithograph, sculptures, graphic designs, pictures, Japanese calligraphy and arts and crafts. This is the major art exhibition to decorate the rainy Okinawa spring season.

Visitors will see some traditional and many modern styles of work while touring the many aisles of the huge sports center used to house the many works for the two-week stint.  This is the largest art event in Okinawa and thousands of visitors come each year to spend a good afternoon appreciating the creations.  It is a great event to get out and enjoy the island before the summer fun begins.

To get to Urasoe Art Museum, take Highway 330 to Urasoe City, and look for the big shisa face on the main building.  There is free parking available and attendants to guide visitors to the event.

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