: iyoto whetstones - structured by the earth

©Tomoe Shinohara / DOGO ART 2023

Hotel Kowakuen Haruka

1-1 Dogosagidanicho, Matsuyama, Ehime 13:00 ~ 20:00
Tomoe Shinohara

Tomoe Shinohara(STUDEO)

structured by the earth iyoto whetstones

Concept

Focusing on Iyoto whetstone, which has been a specialty of Ehime Prefecture (Iyo no kuni) since ancient times, the project aims to rebrand Iyoto whetstone by examining its functions and the appeal of natural whetstone from a macro to micro perspective. At the Hotel Kowakuen Haruka, Iyoto whetstone will be explained with illustrations, and actual whetstones will be displayed, and leaflets containing such information will be distributed to further increase awareness of Iyoto whetstone. Reevaluating the Iyoto whetstone also means reaffirming the richness of Ehime's land. We hope this project will raise awareness of Iyo whetstone among local people and those outside of the prefecture, and eventually provide a clue to the revitalization of the whetstone industry. The project also works on a product to communicate Iyoto whetstone, a stone plate. We challenge it during the event.

Production Cooperation：Senzangama / Sekishindo
Photo：Machico Horiuchi
Writer：Junko Shimizu(Jumbo Editorial Base)
Producer・Design：STUDEO

地球が生んだプロダクト 伊予砥

Photo：Machico Horiuchi

Tomoe Shinohara(STUDEO)

Designer/Artist.
She debuted as a singer in 1995. Along with her activities in the media, she has continued her creative activities as a designer, and has worked on stage costumes for artists, including the Yumi Matsutoya concert tour and the Arashi Dome Concert. In 2020, she established the creative studio "STUDEO" with her husband and art director, Tatsuki Ikezawa. Since then, as a team, they have aimed to work in one integrated process from concept building of brand strategy, communication design, visual development, and space design. In 2022, the leather kimono they designed and directed won the 101st New York ADC Award (Silver and Bronze) and Tokyo ADC Award.

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Trace the story

©Ayako Kuno / DOGO ART 2023

Trace the story

Ayako Kuno

The Dogo district has been a favorite of the great and the learned, with folklore and anecdotes left behind since ancient times. Walking through the area, Ms. Kuno got the impression that the past and the present coexist, and she mapped the path of the hot spring water that flows beneath the town. Based on this, she created "route," and a series of other 7 works using characteristic motifs that color the local story, such as camellias, yudama, and hot water pipes, and meticulously designed metal parts shaped from wax as prototypes. The work is designed to evoke a sense of dignity that reflects the accumulation of history, as well as the vitality and hope for the continuity and development of things. The work itself is parasitic on the traditional craftwork of the region where the hotel is located, adding a sense of movement and freshness to both.

辿る

©Ayako Kuno / DOGO ART 2023

route

The town is just the right size for a stroll with a map in hand, and I felt that it is a place that provides visitors with a place to feel and think about the flow of time. I focused on the shape of the roads, land, and buildings in the Dogo district, where the Dogo Onsen Honkan and various other cultural and lodging facilities are located, and visualized the flow of hot spring water (piping), which cannot usually be seen directly.
transform-drop-

©Ayako Kuno / DOGO ART 2023

transform-drop-

Yudama, the symbol of Dogo, is said to be based on the droplets of hot spring water, the bubbles of hot spring water that rise to the surface when it boils, and the ripples of boiling water. It can be found everywhere: on the roof tiles of the Dogo Onsen Honkan, on nail covers, on streetlamps, and on pillars and signboards in the shopping arcade. It represents the freely expressed and changing appearance of Yudama.

transform-pipe-

The temperature of the spring water, which is drawn from the 18 sources currently available, ranges from 20 to 55 degrees Celsius. The temperature is maintained at an appropriate level of about 42 degrees by blending the spring water with the source. It has achieved "flowing from the source" with no heating and no water. It supplies as much as 2,000 tons of hot spring water per day. The image of a hot water pipe, which is essential for transporting hot water to each facility but rarely seen, was used to express the growth of the hot spring.
Continue for a long time

©Ayako Kuno / DOGO ART 2023

Continue for a long time

It has been repeatedly relocated, extended, and reconstructed over the years, and is a very complex architectural form consisting mainly of four buildings combined together. It has existed as a symbol of Dogo Onsen, adapting to the development of Dogo Onsen while incorporating the techniques of the time. The roof of the Dogo Onsen Honkan is covered with Kikuma tiles, which feature the unique color and luster of smoked silver, and represent a building that is being upgraded while maintaining its original appearance as conservation and repair work progresses.
connect

©Ayako Kuno / DOGO ART 2023

connect

It appeared in Natsume Soseki's novel "Botchan" as a "train like a matchbox," and came to be called the "botchan train" because the main character, Botchan, rode it. The train was modeled after a steam locomotive that was in service for 67 years from 1888, shortly after the Iyo Railway (now Iyo Tetsudo Group) was opened. The locomotives served as a means of transportation for the citizens of Matsuyama and contributed to the improvement of the local economy, industry, and culture. The steam locomotive featured in the Iyo Railway Electricity 50 Year Book published in 1936 was used as the material for the model. The motif of a botchan train restored with a diesel locomotive depicts the transition of time, nostalgia for the past, and improvements made to meet the needs of the times.
Flower that never withers

©Ayako Kuno / DOGO ART 2023

Flower that never withers

The camellia, the city flower of Matsuyama City, has long been familiar to the people of Matsuyama. There are many haiku and anecdotes about camellias. Near Yugama Yakushi in Dogo Park, there is a cluster of camellia named Nikitatsu, a variety of camellia. The camellia, which will never wither, will be exhibited together with a vase made of Tobe ware, a traditional craft born in Tobe Town, to be enjoyed at any time of the year.
water ripples

©Ayako Kuno / DOGO ART 2023

water ripples

Heron applied her injured shin to the hot springs that gushed out from between the rocks every day, and the injured shin quickly recovered and flew far away. There is a legend that when people who saw him took a bath in the hot spring, their injuries and illnesses were cured instantly. Egret, who discovered Dogo Onsen, is scattered throughout the Dogo Onsen Honkan as decoration. On top of the watery Tobe ware, the image of the ripples of water that appear when heron moves on the surface of the water is expressed.

Weaving

Namuamidabutsu, a representative phrase of Ippen Shonin, the founder of the Jishu sect of Buddhism, who was born at Hogonji temple in Dogo, and the characteristic handwriting of Shiki Masaoka, who read haiku characters at Hogonji temple when he and Soseki Natsume went to Dogo to study together, are treated as forms. Soseki Natsume also mentioned Hogonji temple in his novel "Botchan". The presence of letters can be recalled in any age, and they allow us to imagine a scene. The combination of the letters themselves and books expresses the character of Dogo, a place where words and letters are everywhere in the city, and where one can ponder.

※Please contact us if you would like to purchase the artwork.
Ayako Kuno

Graduated from Musashino Art University, Department of Industrial Arts and Crafts in 2008, and completed a master's degree in metal casting at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 2010. The lost-wax process is a method of replacing a precise shape made of wax with metal, and it has both a hard and heavy metal texture as well as a detailed and elaborate expression. While she is a craftsperson who is willing to go to great lengths, her concept of encapsulating the city in her microscopic works of art transcends the realm of crafts and opens up new possibilities.
In 2017/2022, she was chosen at the Kanazawa World Crafts Competition (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa/Ishikawa).
Since the Covid-19 disaster, she has been less active in the city and has begun to look more closely at the environment that surrounds her and expresses nature and other aspects of her work.

Ayako Kuno
Hotel Kowakuen Haruka
Address
1-1 Dogosagidanicho, Matsuyama, Ehime
business hours
13:00 ~ 20:00
※Subject to change depending on the situation
HP
https://www.kowakuen.com/