This audio is generated by AI, so pronunciation and expressions may not be fully accurate. The narration is only in English.
In August 2021, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games finally opened after a one-year delay. Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Opening Ceremony told a moving story through dance: each person's uniqueness was portrayed as an airplane, with a small, one-winged plane at its heart. Played by 13-year-old Wago Yui, this determined little plane discovers it can fly.
For Moriyama, the team's top priority was making sure everyone gave their all and enjoyed the experience. The Opening Ceremony came together thanks to General Director Worry Kinoshita—who also directed the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Opening Ceremony—along with the artists and performers, Accessibility Director Kurisu Yoshie, and Access Coordinator Hirooka Kaori, who made sure information and communication worked for people with disabilities.
From the auditions, what struck Moriyama most was the performers' genuine desire to express themselves.
Moriyama realized just how many people were searching for a place where they could truly shine. The team decided to make the Paralympic Opening Ceremony that place—where everyone could shine their brightest—and he believes that shared sense of purpose made it work.
The legacy of "creating a place where everyone can shine through expression" led to Moriyama's new stage work, TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN. Just days after the Opening Ceremony, he drew a train—an image that would later become the production's main visual.
Moriyama felt the team shared a sense that the impact of the Opening Ceremony should not end there. Reflecting on that time, he said he quickly came up with his next idea as he thought about what he could do as a creator to keep that connection alive.
The inspiration came from Wago's euphonium performance during her audition for the Opening Ceremony. Even though it took place online, Moriyama was deeply moved.
Seeing Wago's small frame handle such a large instrument moved Moriyama deeply. The way her breath transformed into sound through the euphonium sparked an image: regardless of disability, we all breathe as long as we're alive—and just as a steam locomotive runs on steam, TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN runs on the breath and emotions of everyone involved, a reflection of the shared vitality that connects us all.
Moriyama shares his thoughts on continuing the legacy of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Opening Ceremony:
"Carrying on a legacy doesn't mean just repeating what came before," Moriyama explains. "It's about moving forward, facing new challenges, hitting new walls, and pushing through. It's a new journey—one where you change with every encounter."
That idea also comes through in the title TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN. Repeating "TRAIN" suggests cars connected in a line, evoking the image of people linked together in a circle. It also reflects how the legacy continues—from the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony to the present, and now to this new stage.
In TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN, Moriyama explores a new approach to accessibility—one that goes beyond traditional methods of making information available to people with disabilities. At the heart of the production is the concept of musica, a form of musical expression.
Moriyama explains that musica once meant more than what we call music today—it encompassed poetry, language, and dance. Through this production, he hopes audiences will experience "sound" in their own way, not just through what they hear but through their own sensibilities.
Rather than offering support to convey a single "correct" interpretation defined by the creators, the piece is designed with diverse audiences in mind—people of all abilities and backgrounds—so that everyone can experience and enjoy their own sense of musica.
The production is also part of the cultural program for the Tokyo 2025 World Athletics Championships and Tokyo 2025 Deaflympics—an international "Olympics for Deaf people"—which aims to promote an inclusive society through arts and culture.
The production pays special attention to audiences who are hard of hearing. One approach is signed music—a visual form of musical expression based on sign language.
Poet Sasa-Marie, who is hard of hearing, joined the production to help explore new ways of expressing "sound" from a world without hearing—something different from signed songs or dance set to music. For Moriyama, having creators with that perspective opens up forms of expression the team could never reach on their own.
The production also offers a range of accessibility features, including audio guides, subtitles, hearing loop seating that delivers clear sound for people using hearing aids, and wheelchair-accessible seating.
"I hope we can reach a point where people with disabilities are creating and expressing themselves so naturally that we don't even think about the word 'diversity' anymore," Moriyama says.
Moriyama started dancing at 21. His journey took him from theater and musicals to contemporary dance, and eventually to Noh. As an artist working across the world, how does he see Tokyo?
For Moriyama, Tokyo's appeal lies in its abundance—of things, people, and energy. Everything overlaps and collides in a dense, constantly shifting space. While he draws inspiration from nature like the sun and earth, he also sees humans crowding together as another form of nature—animals in their own habitat.
Moriyama sees Tokyo's dense streets and towering buildings—the city's "forest"—as part of nature itself. With so many people, things, and emotions swirling together, Tokyo offers artists an endless source of inspiration.
For Moriyama, expressing Japanese sensitivity and physicality within Tokyo's "forest" while searching for a new Japan feels essential to his work. He wants to keep watching Tokyo evolve, enjoying how the old and new exist side by side in constant transformation.
As he speaks, he hints that "today's Tokyo" might become his next creative theme.
At the Paralympic Opening Ceremony, performers with disabilities transformed their differences into strengths, shining as they performed. TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN carries that legacy forward, reaching for an even broader range of expression. We asked Moriyama what a space for expression means to him.
"The Japanese word for expression, hyogen, literally means bringing what's inside to the surface," Moriyama says. "It's about revealing what's in your heart—through dance, song, art, words, or even a look on your face. Maybe 'shining' means letting what's inside you meet something beyond yourself."
For Moriyama, expression is not just for artists—everyone can experience the joy of creating and the pleasure of receiving it. True to his idea of "setting everyone's train of expression in motion," he continues pursuing a freedom of expression that transcends diversity.
