Exhibitions
Kawakyu Museum (Hotel Kawakyu)
Jun 01 - Jun 30, 2022
All images courtesy of the artists and Kawakyu Museum × Kinan Art Week
A special exhibition of beta VR and sound art from the ongoing Mikan Collective, a thematic project focusing on local resources, will be on show at the KAWAKYU ART Exhibition 2022.
The theme of this exhibition is ‘Mikan and mythology’. In Japanese mythology, the tachibana, the original species of orange, appears. In Japanese mythology, Kumano is said to be the ‘land of the hard-rooted root’ and the Kumano Hongu Taisha shrine is said to worship the tree god Susanoo. What is a root? What is the myth?
Photo：Manabu Shimoda
Venue：Karaoke Room「Hototogisu (little cuckoo)」Kawakyu Hotel
VR Sobaya Tanabe (VR) Tanabe, CEO of Tanabe Corporation
Tanabe creates various projects and worlds in the Metaverse; has appeared on NHK’s documentary programme No Nare and on the Matsuko’s Room.
AWAYA (Sound Art)
Sound art unit by Masatomo Fukushima and Yumiko Okuno.
Since 2007, they have moved to Nakaheji in the Kumano region, and using the sounds they hear every day in their daily life close to nature as a source of inspiration, they create “sound art works” that express the mysteries of the universe and life hidden in everyday life in a unique sound world. His activities transcend genres. In particular, at the BIWAKO Biennale international art festival, which he has participated in every time since 2010, he continues to transmit his unique world view through both sound installation exhibitions and artistic concerts.
- 2021 KINAN ART WEEK Kohei Maeda ‘Breathing’ music contribution
- 2022 March Release of album ‘WATER FOREST KUMANO’ co-produced with ACOON HIBINO from TAICHIKU ENTERTAINMENT
- 2022 BIWAKO Biennale 2022 Participation in Origin ~ORIGIN~. Scheduled to
Hotel Kawakyu, a project to create a ‘Sukiya of the World’, was launched in 1989, at the height of Japan’s bubble economy.
The hotel, supervised by architect Yuzo Nagata and combining the skills of master craftsmen from China, Europe, Islam and Japan, is said to have cost up to 40 billion, with a total floor area of 26,000 square metres and took two years to build.
The exterior walls are adorned with brilliant ‘Lao Zhong Huang’ lapis lazuli tiles, which are only permitted for use in the Forbidden City in China. Inside, in addition to the floor of intricate Roman mosaic tiles laid by Italian craftsmen and the magnificent 22.5 gold leaf gilt dome ceiling by the French Living National Treasure Goar, the lobby walls are decorated with Byzantine mosaics of a Syrian deer and panther from the 2nd century, as authenticated by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the open air, a six-metre-wide bronze statue of a rabbit by the British sculptor Barry Flanagan is a dream construction, created by artists from all over the world who are highly regarded for their artistic value. Many Japanese masters also participated, including 26 pillars made of pseudo-marble, each costing 100 million yen, by plasterer Akira Kusumi’s Hanasakidan, the hotel entrance eaves finished with Tosa plaster, the Nobunaga fence and ceramic tile walls by potter Motoo Kato, and brick patterns by bricklayer Hikohachiro Takayama. The architecture, which seems to combine techniques and cultures from all over the world, is a magical space where all the works are in harmony.
The museum also houses the owner’s collection of cloisonne ware and ceramics from the early Qing dynasty in China, which the owner bought from all over the world when he founded the museum, as well as works by Dali, Chagall, Yokoyama Taikan and others.
In 1993, the building was awarded the Togo Murano Award for outstanding architectural work and designer. And in 2020, it was recognised as a Guinness World Record™ for gold leaf surface area. Kawakyu Hotel, such a fusion of architecture and art, is opening as the Kawakyu Museum in 2020 with the aim of preserving and passing on its historical value.
