Tokyo a la Mode. Web Magazine for Japanese Fashion and Urban Culture

Merry Project

By Bobby /Dec 10, 2007
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When you smile, it makes you feel good.  And when you smile at someone else, it makes them feel good.  So doesn’t it make sense that we should all smile some more?

The Merry Project is an ambitious effort to photograph people all around the world smiling.  It started in Japan in 1999 and today the project has captured over 20,000 smiles from 23 countries.  Since then, the project has carried over to various exhibitions and charity events. 

You can see many of the images on their website in the Merry archive.  Underneath each picture is a handwritten note answering the question, “What is merry for you?”

Here is the Merry Project mission statement:

"What is MERRY for you?”
We’ve been asking this simple question to people all over the world
and collecting their smiles and messages.

MERRY PROJECT is a communication-art project to spread the wave of
MERRY under the theme of “Smile is a universal language”.

We believe each person that participates in MERRY minds and cares for
the Earth in their smiles and their messages will link to each other across global borders.

I contacted Asuza, a girl who works on the Merry Project, and asked her some questions about it:

Why was the Merry Project started?
In the spring of 1999, Koji Mizutani snapped pictures of three girls on a bus journey in the United States.  He felt their positive will and happiness from their natural expressions. This is the ultimate happiness, he realized.

What do you think the project has accomplished in the past eight years?
During exhibition, photo shooting, or talking with someone who is interested in the Merry Project, I feel we’ve accomplished our objective.
Many people gave us messages like, “You’ve changed my way of thinking about things,” and “You made me Merry!”

What do you do for the Merry Project?
Actually I’m one of those people who was helped by the project.  I was in a depressed state when I found the project.  Mr. Mizutani took a picture of me smiling in Harajuku.  When I saw my photo, I couldn’t believe my eyes.　In the photo I was grinning from ear to ear.  Because I didn’t know that I can smile, I thought I’ve already lost how to smile and how to keep a merry mind.  After that, I started to work for the project.  I just work as an assistant for shooting and did desk work in the beginning.  But I became a chief editor after Mr. Mizutani recognized my sense and what a good job I was doing.  Now I work as a press agent and adviser.

How can people get involved with the Merry Project?
We’ve got a system like SNS (social networking site) in our website named Merry U!
This is a beta version, that’s why still it has bugs…
The easy way to get in touch with us is to join our MySpace group.  It just started, but I will improve it and keep posting information on future projects.

For more information on the Merry Project, visit their website at www.merryproject.com.  And don’t forget to keep smiling!