Paris, September 5 {No. 2000-77} - A 9-day event devoted to Japanese culture will take place at UNESCO Headquarters, September 21 to 29, under the title of "Heian Beauty" (Heian means peace in Japanese). Organised as part of the ongoing celebration of the International Year for the Culture of Peace and in the run-up to the United Nations Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations (2001), the event will feature the inauguration of the newly restored Japanese garden, a kimono show and exhibition.

UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura and Masashi Kojima, President of the National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan (NFUAJ), will open the event on September 21 at 6.30 p.m. in the Japanese Garden at the Organization's Headquarters. "Heian Beauty" is organised by UNESCO, with NFUAJ, Japan's ministries of culture and foreign affairs, the Japanese Embassy to France, the Permanent Delegation of Japan to UNESCO, Japan's National Commission for UNESCO, the Cultural Foundation for Promoting the National Costume of Japan and the Hakubi Kyoto Kimono School.

Created in 1958 by the Japanese-American sculptor, architect and landscape designer Isamu Noguchi, UNESCO's Japanese garden, the "Garden of Peace", is being inaugurated after comprehensive restoration by the Japanese master gardener Toemon Sano, who will take part in the ceremony. The restoration was rendered necessary by the impoverishment of the soil and changes in the garden's environment. It was sponsored by NFUAJ, the Cultural Foundation for Promoting the National Costume of Japan and the Commemorative Association for the Japan World Exposition (1970).

The 1,700 square metre garden - with its cherry and plum trees, magnolias and bamboo, a stream, a pond, and grassy mounds - once again offers the visitor a spiritual and aesthetic experience through its idealised and stylised representation of the world. It forms a unique microcosm, dotted by sculptural stones brought over from Japan. On the occasion of the Fête des Jardins de Paris, the Peace Garden will exceptionally be open to the public during the weekend, on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 September (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.).

Also on the evening of September 21, at 7 p.m., a Kimono Exhibition retracing more than 1000 years of the history of the kimono, from the Heian period (794 to 1185) to the present, will be opened in the Salle Miro.

At 7.30 p.m. there will be a one-hour show of juni-hitoe, kimonos worn since the 12th century by empresses and princesses in important court ceremonies. These kimonos are made of the finest fabrics, using the most delicate dyes and highest quality embroideries and incrustations. Both exhibition and show have been organised in co-operation with the Cultural Foundation for Promoting the National Costume and with the sponsorship of the Hakubi Kyoto Kimono School.