This introduction to the special issue “Performance, Projection,Provocation! Relational Creativity in Contemporary Japan” presents ahistory of group-based creative practice in Japan, from the amateur endeavors ofsākuru (circles) to the professional creativity of internationalproduction companies. The special issue applies the concept of“relational creativity” to a series of case studies to betterunderstand how creative practices shape relationships and other social forms,institutional and less institutional.

Reading, writing, and literary engagements are often assumed to be solitary practices, but looking at the places where books are sold and discussed, and amateur literature written, reveals the relational side to this creative engagement. This article presents an ethnographic study of haiku composition in Booktown Jimbōchō in Tokyo, Japan, an area known for its literary bookstores, to explore how the social practices of literature unfold. Sketching the social life of a bar in Jimbōchō, I explore collaborative creativity through an ethnographic study of a bi-monthly haiku meeting that takes place in this social space.

Examining Olympic opening and closing ceremonies from the perspective of relational creativity, this article analyzes the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics’ opening ceremony and the 2016 Rio Games’ Japanese closing ceremony—both experimented with transitory meanings exploring alternative representations of Japan. We consider them as cases of relational creativity; the Nagano opening ceremony explored the fusion of local religious traditions and Western influences, while the Rio closing ceremony experimented with meanings of urban cosmopolitanism, consumerism, as well as cultural and social inclusivity.

Events such the Great East Japan Earthquake or 3.11 force us to rethink our ways of life in relation to nature. Even in the midst of disasters, people have the desire to create and to express themselves—as does nature. How can we understand relational creativity in the aftermath of such disasters, and how might creative works assist recovery processes? This article focusses on the “Lost Homes” Scale Model Restoration Project. The project, initiated and led by architect Osamu Tsukihashi of Kobe University and his students, is a collaborative community project with residents in the disaster region as well as with students and professors of architecture across Japan.

Virtual YouTubers, also known as VTubers, are entertainers who use two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) computer-generated characters to create entertaining virtual content online. This article explores a group project called the “MetaBirthday,” in which VTubers and their followers collaborated to write lyrics, compose music, design stage outfits, and shoot a music video. Through semistructured interviews with the group’s participants and close reading of their published textual material, this article interrogates how VTubers harness virtual and physical spaces to create a sense of mutual benefit, inspiration, and satisfaction in tension with the everyday realities of these spaces.