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SOUL NEXUS

SHOSEIAN（KYOTO, July 2025）

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Monday, July 14th, 2025 - Sunday, July 20th
Hours: 12:00 -18:00
Closed: Friday, July 18th

Opening: Monday, July 14th (Mon) 17:00 -19:00
Talking Event ：July 16th (Wed) 16:00 -17:00

Venue: Shosei-an
Address:19-2, Koyama Nakamizo-cho, Kita-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto 603-8156
︎ About a 5-minute walk from Kuramaguchi Station on the Karasuma Line of the Kyoto Municipal Subway

FAX: 075-432-4875
Email: kawamura.nohgakusha@gmail.com

cooperation : TEZUKAYAMA GALLERY

「SOUL NEXUS」

"Noh masks are never masks, but instead representations of the performer's inner self, and that is why they are called faces (omote)." This explanation left a deep impression on me when I met with Mr. Haruhisa Kawamura after attending his performance of Seiganji at the Kyoto Kanze Noh Theater in March of this year. He also told me about the characteristics of the decorations on the costumes worn during the performance. "At first glance, they look like the same pattern repeated over and over again, but in fact, the colors used are slightly different, which portrays an expanse" — which is why when we look at the actual costumes, we notice that the arrangement of colors is indeed exquisitely different from part to part, and that there are a great number of variations hidden in the design. Even within a limited number of colors and fixed patterns, we can enjoy all sorts of different combinations. This process is surely the foundation of the finely-honed stylistic beauty of Noh, and I felt as though Mr. Kawamura had taught me an important clue for connecting with the expanse of the world beyond our perception.

On this occasion, I was invited to exhibit at Shoseian, Mr. Kawamura's rehearsal hall. For me, seeing how my works would heave in such a sacred space, so different from the spaces where I usually exhibit, represented an experiment filled with unknown variables. I believe that it was also a very significant decision for Mr. Kawamura to allow access to this important location and for himself to face both tradition and new challenges. I feel that this is, without exaggeration, an opportunity to bear the heavy responsibility of questioning the nature of tradition and culture and their meaning in the 21st century.

Although tradition and modernity may appear to be incompatible at first glance, there is an argument that both the traditional art that is Noh and contemporary art are "generally difficult to understand". In contemporary art, it is necessary, at a minimum, to bear in mind the course of the history of art known as context, and contemporary art is such that one can understand the intent and novelty behind a work by knowing this common language. Just like how one will face difficulties abroad if one cannot speak English, there may well be similar barriers in the world of Noh, such as the fact that its language (the rules of Noh) is not publicly known. However, I believe that both Noh and contemporary art deal with issues of divine possession and the spirit and the soul, or perhaps the expansion of new human senses. I believe their abstruseness is evidence that Noh performers and artists are staking their lives as they face their respective art forms in a place where human beings cannot easily enter.

There is also a famous saying, "If you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." One will constantly have their nature questioned as they face the invisible expanse, whether as an artist or a viewer. Creating and exhibiting represent opportunities to question one's existence. I am deeply grateful to Mr. Kawamura for affording me this tremendous opportunity, and at the same time, I am feeling more excited and nervous than usual about the prospect of confronting both the traditional and the contemporary.

Mitsumasa KADOTA (June 2025)

︎ Related Events 1

"NOH" THEATER PERFORMANCE: YORIMASA

Mr. Haruhisa Kawamura's performance of "Yorimasa" will be held at the Kyoto Kanze Kaikan on Thursday, July 17th from 6:00 pm. If you would like to attend, please apply below.

Application: https://nohgakusha.sakura.ne.jp/event/

July 17th (Thu) 18:00 -20:45
(Doors open/6:00pm Start/6:45pm,~End/8:45pm)

Venue: Kyoto Kanze Hall
44 Okazaki Enshoji-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto City

Performance Contents:

Part 1
Commentary: About Noh, Kawamura Haruhisa
Noh costume dressing: Kawamura Naoko

Part 2
(Half Noh) Yorimasa

The spirit of Yorimasa, Kawamura Haruhisa
Traveling monk, Arimatsu Ryoichi

︎ Related event 2

Visiting Byodo-in Temple and Yorimasa's historic site in Uji

From 10:30 on Friday, July 18th, we will be holding a tour to visit Byodo-in Temple and Yorimasa's historic site with a commentary by Mr. Haruhisa Kawamura. If you would like to participate, please apply and contact us below. (※The exhibition will be closed on this day due to a tour)

Applications and inquiries: Nohgakusha Co., Ltd.
Email: kawamura.nohgakusha@gmail.com

July 18th (Friday) 10:30-14:30

Participation fee: 12,000 yen per person *Includes admission to Byodoin and Ho-o-do and meal

Number of participants: Limited to 24 people

<Schedule>

10:30 Meet at Keihan Uji Station
10:45 Byodo-in

Yorimasa's Grave Listen to the Noh song "Yorimasa"
Ogino-Shiba The place where Yorimasa committed suicide
Hou-o-do The Pure Land world
Houshokan Museum

12:15 Meal (Kyoto cuisine Tatsumiya)
13:30 Stroll along the river

Watch a passage from the Noh play "Uki-fune" from the Uji Juyo-cho while looking at the scenery

13:45 Uji Shrine
14:00 Ujikami Shrine
14:30 Tsuen Chaya (in front of Keihan Uji Station) *Free to leave here