Tamashima, Okayama Prefecture, is a town where the tea ceremony culture takes root in people’s lives.
The tea ceremony culture of this town has started more than 200 years ago, it is said that there were 400 tea rooms in the town at its peak, and it has been confirmed that about 40 tea rooms remain today. It is rare that there are so many tea rooms in such a small area even in Japan.
in 2019, an art exhibition “Tea Room and Contemporary Art” was held in Tamasima by utilizing Entsuji Temple, where one of the Okayama’s four biggest tea parties, Ryokancha Party is held, and some of the remaining tea rooms in the town.
A story about light of Soro-tei
This Soro-tei is also one of the tea rooms remaining in Tamashima.
It was built more than 120 years ago in the style of Yabunouchi school. The basic principle of the Yabunouchi style is to have seven lighting windows in a tea room. At first, this tea room was also built based on that rule, but due to extenuating circumstances, Nijiriguchi (crawl-in entrance) a major feature of tea room was demolished, and now there are only six lighting windows.
So this time, I reproduced the Nijiriguchi with a lighting art and restored the lost seventh light.
Wood, LED light, Silicone, Cloth
2019
A story about something familiar or distant
A project conducted with the cooperation of the students of Tamashima High School Tea Ceremony Club.
The students used a to scan 3D data of tea utensils which are usually used in the tea ceremony club, and I printed out the tea utensils from the data with a 3D printer. We held a tea ceremony using the 3D tea utensils, shot time-lapse videos with a smartphone app again, focusing on the host and customer sides, and produced some video works. The 3D tea utensils and the video works were exhibited in the image of a tea ceremony.
