WORKS

The Yoshima-Goto Islands, connected by the Seto Ohashi Bridge, were originally a continuous landmass. However, during the early Holocene transgression, the lowlands were submerged, and the hilly areas separated into islands. Subsequently, climate change and human actions such as land reclamation have transformed the topography and landscape of the Seto Inland Sea over the long term and in stages. This work focuses on the geohistorical time of the Seto Inland Sea formed since the end of the last glacial period, and is an installation that reconstructs this process within the interior space of a house built on the beach, using sand, video, and variable water volume. By creating a diorama of the Seto Inland Sea topography approximately 10,000 years ago, when seawater did not exist, inside an old Western-style house and actually introducing water, the temporal progression from the transgression to the present day is visualized spatially and physically. Furthermore, through repeated interviews with the island's residents, the long-term geological history underlying this landscape, along with the life history of the families who developed the island, is layered upon each other, creating an experience in which viewers perceive the current landscape as a single cross-section of the vast temporal structure of the Seto Inland Sea.

 On Shamijima Island, surrounded by spring seaside plants such as camellias and akebia, we enter a Western-style house that belonged to a Kobe furniture merchant and had been vacant for 30 years. Suddenly, we find ourselves in a dark room, with the four seasons of Sakaide's Ogoe and Goshidai slowly projected onto the front wall. Water flows on the floor at our feet, and the rapids

 The waves of the inland sea come in and out slowly, yet dynamically.

 The walls flickered in places, and the chairs, lamps, piano, three-sided mirror, phonograph, etc. that were there...

 It seems these were left behind here.

 Looking at it from the other side, the floor has stone-like bumps, which are Hitsuishijima, Iwakurojima, Yoshima, and Sa

 I realized they were islands like Yashima. Yes, these are the islands where people once sought sanukite.

 During the time when people migrated from the mainland to Shikoku, seawater flowed in from the open sea, creating the island.

 Then you realize it's a diorama depicting the world of Setouchi. An overwhelming power.

 Music by Umitaro Abe, lighting by Yasuhito Suzuki, and set design by Takuya Kamiike.

 Of course, the work is by Yoshitaka Nanjo, and they were very popular last year at the Suzu Theater.

 As part of the museum team, when we look at it carefully, we see a magnificent epic poem.

 It seems I'm inside.

 In another room, fossilized teeth of Naumann elephants evoke the world of 30,000 years ago.

 Furthermore, the burial mounds and their shells that were found when they dug in this area were from when they were fishing in groups.

 It evokes the past. On the other side of the three-sided mirror, the western shore is reminiscent of the Manyoshu era.

 The Crinum lilies, which also appear in the collection, are in bloom. A record is spinning and music is playing.

 It also conveys the feeling of the modern owners of the Taisho and Showa eras who lived in this shamanistic Western-style house.

 It was wonderful. I think it's fair to call it one of Nanjo's masterpieces. (Fram Kitagawa)