Amazarashi is a major Japanese rock band meaning the “rain of daily suffering” in Japanese. Our goal is to create their online concert for their fans who lives in 2020, suffering from the natural disaster called COVID-19, and give them the strength to face tomorrow.

Natural disasters, wars, famines, pandemics. Throughout Japan’s long history, its people have constructed many great Buddha statues to pray for the strength to overcome hardships. Now, in 2020, without the ability to construct a new Buddha statue, put together a music project with the objective of creating a place where people could pray and gain the strength to endure the COVID-19 pandemic. By using the base of a Buddha statue as the stage of an online concert, we created a place of prayer that people from around the world could gather at.

To create an online concert that invited viewers to join in prayer instead of being a passive observer, we collected people’s thoughts and prayers regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, and placed them before the Buddha statue for purification. We aimed to create a strong engagement by collecting people’s prayers online and assembling them in a physical environment.

We used projection mapping to cast images of heavy rain, fires, wars, pandemics, and other catastrophes that humankind encountered onto the Buddha statue. The Buddha statue, which has long accepted people’s suffering and prayers, became a new symbol of prayer before which amazarashi communicated people’s current plight through song. People’s prayers and laments regarding COVID-19 were collected through Twitter and presented as votive lanterns for purification.

"I listened in prayer." "A true mourning." "Just want I needed." "The best live concert of 2020" - Many hopeful words for tomorrow were spread in social platforms by the fans who saw the concert. Through the use of technology, the interactive online concert was elevated to a religious ceremony, giving people the strength to hold on.