Yamagata Biennale
The last public bathhouse in Yamagata Prefecture closed down in December 2017, leaving the prefecture without a single sento.
It was in that context that the room “New Sakurada Bathhouse,” a virtual re-creation of a lost bathhouse, was planned.
It is one segment of “One Hundred Stories Like a Mountain,” held during the Yamagata Biennale at Tohoku University of Art & Design.
“New Sakurada Bathhouse” was conceived by Hiroyuki Aoyama and Yukiko Hata. Works by both were exhibited on site.
Hiroyuki Aoyama’s piece “Bathhouse Painting ‘Yamagata Trip'” features a large, striking rendering of “milk,” an essential companion to any bathhouse experience. Symbolic motifs of Yamagata are scattered throughout the work.
Yukiko Hata’s work “New Yamagata Yu” is deeply rooted in local history.
The bride riding a horse in a bridal procession echoes the recently revived “Mukasari procession”; the fallen lover’s lower body that appears midway is the aircraft carrier Akagi, which took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor; and the commander is Chuichi Nagumo, born in Minamiokitama District (present-day Yonezawa City).
In the wide space, traditional bathhouse paintings — the kind you see inside a sento — are on view, and you can even climb into a drum-can bath to look at the works.
The washing area is set with mirrors, wash basins, and a bathroom scale, and in one corner bottles of milk and coffee-milk are displayed. The whole space feels like a re-creation of old Showa-era nostalgia.
The bathhouse — a thing of the old world — was reborn here as something fresh, as if newly born.
I felt the energy of art reaching into our daily habits, holding a power to change something.
I sensed a possibility that how something is presented can transform its very value.
Overview
Yamagata Biennale
One Hundred Stories Like a Mountain
Dates: September 1 (Sat) – September 24 (Mon, holiday), 2018
*Open only on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays during the period
Exhibition hours: 10:00–17:00
Venue: Tohoku University of Art & Design campus
*Information desk on the 1st floor of the main building
Curators: Natsunosuke Mise, Akio Miyamoto
Art direction: Satoshi Suzuki + Tsukasa Koseki (Suginoshita Isho-shitsu)
Editing: Aya Nakajima (Real Local Yamagata)
