About the artwork

A group of Jomon frame-shaped vessels were excavated at Tsunan. People have carried on the knowledge of ancient skills and transmitted them to the future. The palms of the local people tell us of their bountifull knowledge, and we feel the energy of their activities. I made a bamboo garden in the back of the Tsunan Town Museum of History and exhibited a work which is a collection of clay plates of mold of hands. There were about 480 plates. White clay, red clay, and ground combined with sand taken from the Shinano River were mixed, put into wooden patterns, and imprinted with handprints over a design of rope on the surface. The local residents produced the hand mold one by one. The local residents played a major role in creating this artwork by using their hands. The molds were dried for two months, and most of the local residents and I were involved in the manufacturing of clay plates by controlled burn in the field. In this art project, every process was made by hand in collaboration with the local residents, starting from the workshop on rope-making in the Jomon Era to the installation. I was reminded that “original landscape exists since there is man” and there is “beautifull scenery” because there is a “man” through the production of this work.