EXHIBITIONS

Nobuyuki Fujiwara explores the allure of living forms, using them as motifs to create delicate yet dynamic glass sculptures. His fascination with glass stems from sensing light’s power to transform environments and pursuing the possibilities of light-filled spaces. Throughout his long career, he has repeatedly explored and challenged the potential of glass expression, striving to transform these concepts into symbolic forms. This exhibition presents a group of works created from this practice, displayed in a way that resonates with the space of Toeizan Kan’ei-ji Temple. The Omonma Plant Series, begun around 2009, is a collection inspired by the vitality of plants native to Omonma, a location in Toride City, Ibaraki Prefecture, near the Tone River Basin, where his studio is located. Fujiwara intently senses the life cycle within nature to uniquely combine and reconstruct fragmentary images of plants. These sculptural forms—embodying both the images of “water” and “plants” inherent in glass— are reconfigured at Kan’ei-ji Temple, celebrating its 400th anniversary, where a new spatial vision will be created.   Special Cooperation: Toeizan Kan’ei-ji Temple Cooperation: Tokyo University of the Arts

Junichi Mori’s methods of expression are diverse, using sculpture, ceramics, photography, and oil painting to create works brimming with tension, where light and shadow delicately intertwine. Up until now, he has created a series of works based on Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings of water flow and hair, using materials such as marble and boxwood, in addition to pieces themed around the atomic bombing of his hometown, Nagasaki. For this project held at Shibusawa Family Mausoleum Toeizan Kan’ei-ji Temple, Mori will present the latest work from his sculpture series Astral shadow, which he began in spring 2025. The series’ origins are said to lie in Alberto Giacometti’s polyhedral sculpture Cube (Le cube) (1933–34) and his drawing Moon-Happening (Lunaire) (c. 1933). Mori created several polyhedrons in an attempt to decipher the meaning of the form of Cube (Le cube). In the process of continually working on them without finding any clues, Astral shadow–First Layer/Cube (top photo) unexpectedly emerged. According to the artist, the “stars” referred to in these works are akin to the mask-like entity floating in darkness depicted by Giacometti in his work Moon-Happening (Lunaire). For this event, Mori created seven new pieces based on his own experiences with stars. These works were created in hope that “something connecting each figure (like a constellation) would emerge.”     Special Cooperation: Toeizan Kan’ei-ji Temple Cooperation: Tokyo University of the Arts

This project is an attempt to grasp the structure of the city from the perspective of its physical and conceptual “gaps,” and to utilize these small spaces between buildings as places for presenting artworks or as artworks themselves. This is a legendary project that Masato Nakamura, along with his artist initiative commandN, carried out in 1999. For the biennale, sculptures by artists that mimic potted plants will seemingly thread these gaps of back alleys together to enrich the city’s marginal spaces.   Sponsor: Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.   Milk Souko The Coconuts, Manyo Grass in Wild Ascent: Plantation series, 2025, conceptual image (CG)   Artists and Works Sumiko Iwaoka Gar(e)den   In my daily life, I find beauty in the posters, lettering, and traces of street art on signboards, and in the way they gradually fade over time. These surfaces bear the marks of human actions and sometimes possess a charm that evokes art history. Their colors can resemble abstract paintings, and the layered acts of pasting, painting, peeling, and erasing recall the technique of décollage—unconsciously creating a single image. While some may see this as mere “dirt,” if such signboards were displayed in a museum, people might observe them with care and even find beauty in them. For this project, I place planters in the city with real flowers, accompanied by signboards whose worn surfaces are meticulously recreated in paint. Through this, I aim to express traces of action and unconscious layering using the medium of paint. I hope this small intervention, blending into the urban environment, will bring passersby a quiet sense of unease and a moment of discovery. Junya Kataoka+Rie Iwatake Work Plan   A Back Alley That Breathes   The potted plants sway, thin wires resonate. Their vibrating outlines trace the unseen shape of the wind, announcing the city’s breath. Yoshiaki Kuribara I saw a KAWAUSO♡   Once, the Japanese river otter (Nihon Kawauso) lived along the waterways of Japan, beloved by people, but it has since disappeared. Believed to be extinct, it now survives only in our memories, as a species lost from this world. This work embodies the idea of an “unexpected encounter” — imagining what it would be like if, in the very heart of the city at Nihonbashi-Muromachi, near the Nihonbashi River, an otter were to suddenly appear from between the plantings. Through ceramic sculpture, the work seeks to summon the presence of nature hidden within the city, aiming for an imagined encounter with a life that has vanished. When one unexpectedly meets the gaze of this small being, the everyday scenery of the city becomes imbued with stories that stretch from the present, back through Edo, and further into the past. I hope it offers an opportunity to reflect on our future, living together with nature. 6lines studio + Yoshiharu Tsukamoto Ie haniwa of Nihonbashi   Urban development has resulted in transparent skyscrapers. Standing in the alleys within the town blocks, this place is relatively low and dark, and the area of Nihonbashi seems as if it has sunk to the depths of the earth. Nihonbashi has flourished as a hub of people and goods, which has continued to develop during the Meiji era. However, experiencing the destruction around the last war, its historical appearance has changed significantly. Every place has its own path to where it is today, and it is impossible to describe its current state without that path. It is no longer possible to see the streetscape that was once called “the best in Japan,” but we can still find many gaps there created by the Edo land division existing even today, as it survives beyond human time. We are recalling the past by creating ceramic pieces in the shape of the buildings that once made up Nihonbashi and arranging them in various gaps in the town. Koko Terauchi The “What if” Stone   We casually place shiny small stone objects in the corners of parks and alleys, beside flowerpots, and in small stone hangouts. They look like “just stones,” but they have a shape and texture that is somehow intriguing, drawing in the viewer’s gaze to make them suddenly think, “Could it be…?” “This could be a fossil of the eye of a Triceratops.” This is the kind of artwork that gives room for imagination, reminding us of our childhood fantasies and idle conversations. Shoko Toda Bounce back, eyes and buds   “Tokyo, Nihonbashi, the bread shop on Garigari Mountain, and Tsuneko-san climbing the stairs, ko-cho, ko-cho” (from a Japanese nursery rhyme). The hands and arms have become the streetscape of Nihonbashi. Between the fingers are alleys. In the small alleys, potted plants grow together like downy hair. Upon closer inspection, eyes are emerging. Like pores glowing with moisture, they seem to gaze intently at us. To help nurture the downy hair, let us erect supports and cover them with netting. By cherishing the sprouts, we can see far into the distance. What can be seen from there? Where does this staircase of arms lead? Milk Souko The Coconuts Manyo Grass in Wild Ascent, conceptual image (CG), 2025   Manyo Grass in Wild Ascent, The Untamed Fields: Plantation I (Countless grasses surge forth; the fields bow to none) Manyo Grass in Wild Ascent, Beyond the Walled Bounds: Plantation II
(Countless grasses surge forth; breaking free from the walled colony)   This work seeks to transpose the very existence of an alley into the form of a small potted plant. It gathers the miscellaneous forms and layered histories that linger in the backstreets of downtown and reassembles them within a single pot, revealing a cross-section of the city that resists any unifying frame. The pot interweaves restoration techniques such as kintsugi (gold joinery), kasugai-tsugi (staple joinery), and yobitsugi (patch joinery), suturing together fragments of ceramic, concrete, stone, plastic, and more. This mingling of materials and methods places fragments from different cultures and eras side by side, and moreover captures aspects of the city that slip through hegemonically prescribed orders of vision—moments found in the rhythms, modulations, and subtle fluctuations of cobblestones and louvers; the shadows beneath overpasses; or the drip edges that frame buildings. The mixed planting brings together ornamental imports, native species, their hybrids, and even plants commonly called weeds. In the midst of competition, they display brief moments of coexistence, embodying the untamed wildness of a living back alley—remaining resistant to domestication. Osamu Mori Power chord – Praying hands, 2025   Power chord – Praying hands   In the stalactites formed over vast spans of time through gravity and other forces, I recognized the shape of prayer. The gesture of bringing the hands together in prayer appears across many religions. I recall, as a child, often gathering “energy” in my palms, imagining I might release a Kamehameha or Hadouken. Like this stone, if given enough time, I feel that intentions too can take form. In a temizu-bachi—stone water basins found in the city, whose shape evokes rocks hollowed by the force of water—I will install a work carved from stalactites that themselves were formed over long years by water’s steady hand.

The work titled Listening to Stone, which at first glance appears to be a large stone block, involves placing your head into a hole carved into a stone to listen to the sounds produced by wind and those in the surrounding environment as they resonate within the stone. The experience will likely vary depending on where the work is placed and the circumstances surrounding it. The title of this work also evokes sculptor Isamu Noguchi’s view that when one faces a natural stone, the stone begins to speak. Meanwhile, Kurokawa is an artist who creates sculptures, performances, music, and more, focusing on the relationship between objects, environments, and the body. In this work, a sculpture—a form of art that is often only viewable from the outside—becomes an experience where viewers can enter its interior and listen intently. Moving between these two states, visitors will find a moment to reconsider the environment in which we live. For this art festival, works will be installed at two distinct locations: the grounds of Kan’ei-ji Temple and the site of a former ice shop in the heart of Kanda. Additionally, at the “hole” in the Reclining Buddha Stone (already existing, which the artist discovered) within the garden of Kan’ei-ji Temple’s Kaizando (Ryodaishi), you can similarly place your head inside to listen to the sounds.   A related event, “Workshop “Percussions in the City” will also be held.   Special Cooperation: Toeizan Kan’ei-ji Temple Cooperation: Tokyo University of the Arts * Gaku Kurokawa is one of the participating artists in the Billboard Architecture Project.

Juri Akiyama creates works that traverse painting and sculpture, using beeswax as her primary material while engaging with its historical, cultural, and philosophical background. For the festival, she takes on an exhibition that responds to a site’s history through the billboard architecture of Kakuchi Konpo, notable for its striking mortar decoration. After the Great Kanto Earthquake, artist Tomoyoshi Murayama discovered a space for avant-garde ornamentation in the makeshift shacks that emerged in Tokyo. During the reconstruction period, wooden buildings appeared with their facades covered in non-combustible materials like copper plates, mortar, and tiles, featuring a variety of decoration. Years later, architectural historian Terunobu Fujimori named these buildings “billboard architecture.” These appear to have inherited the generous ornamentation and modest quality of the shacks. After that, Tokyo was reduced to a wasteland again by war, and following soaring land prices, buildings have now come to be regarded as mere “superstructures” atop the land. Meanwhile, looking within the realm of buildings, art in Japanese architectural history evolved from temporary forms like folding screens and sliding door paintings to securing its own domain through the creation of the tokonoma alcove. “Temporary, Permanent, Foundation.” For this exhibition, Akiyama expresses this fluid or creative relationship using beeswax, a material long symbolic of superficiality and impermanence. The venue is both a precious surviving example of billboard architecture and a space that once embodied the ambiguous boundary of “preparing to depart” or “being here yet already gone,” associated with the packaging industry.   Cooperation: Kakuchi Konpo * Juri Akiyama is one of the participating artists in the Billboard Architecture Project.