About the artwork

As I walked through Echigo-Tsumari’s beautiful scenery and reflected on this land the lives of the people who inhabit it, I was inspired to create a place that would symbolize the eternal cycle of birth, death, and regeneration. Inside the ellipse (13m×10m), cobblestones are piled to create a gently sloping curve. Some of the stones are inscribed with names; each name is of the most important person in the life of someone who lives in Echigo-Tsumari. The cobblestones evoke various images in those viewing them: human souls perhaps, or people who have gathered together to live in a certain spot, for example. Continuously flowing water purifies them for regeneration. Placing cobblestones with the names inscribed facedown preserves, deep in the memories of people who participated here, recollections of their collaborative effort to set the stones in the soil, even when the names on the stones disappear. Moreover, those who stand here will find a place to meditate on life and death. The four chairs placed around the work represent their presence.