Tokyo Urban Sculpture: Owl Family

 ふくろう家族

The Aozora Bank (literally the "Blue Sky Bank") has its headquarters in Tokyo's Minami Kudan district, not far from the Nippon Budokan. 

The Aozora Bank is the 1998 reincarnation of the Nippon Credit Bank which became unfeasibly in debt due to the bursting of the Japanese asset bubble in the early 1990s.


The Aozara Bank's headquarters are white, refreshing-looking, and not badly designed, but the most eye-catching thing - once your eyes have actually caught it - is the lifesize bronze sculpture of a tree, complete with a family of owls living in it, by the Japanese sculptor Ryoichi Odutsumi.

Ryoichi Odutsumi was born in Tokyo in 1953, making him now 59 years old, and graduated in sculpture from the Tokyo University of the Arts in 1978. Odutsumi's works are known for their whimsy, which is certainly apparent in this charming work, "Owl Family." created in 2002.

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