Historically the Japanese have considered eating as “partaking lives”. This has led to a respect for nature as the source of those lives. However, during the modern progress, there came a period when the natural environment was carelessly destroyed. Today, people have become aware of their arrogance and are starting to seek ways to coexist with nature again. The first visual art installation expresses this emotional history around the food. The next space shows the fields that nurture rice: the most important food for the Japanese. This immersive visual installation also expresses how paddies have been an invaluable ecosystem.

[Prologue] Visual art using calligraphy and painting tells the story of coexistence of nature and people. Treating calligraphy as moving images, it became accessible to people who don’t read Japanese.

[Harmony] Four seasons of the Japanese rice fields are recreated with digital imagery, using the whole room as the medium. Paddies are expressed with a series of waist-high sculptural screens. In spring, Watered paddies with green seedlings attract little creatures; as visitors walk into the screens, sensors detect the movement, and little fish gather around them. In autumn, golden fields are reflected by mirror effect and spread endlessly in all directions, where villagers celebrate harvest.