Warehouse TERRADA is pleased to announce that they will be hosting the special exhibition of Falling upon the soil by plaster craftsman Syuhei Hasado until February 14th. Hasado’s unique wall art and installations are currently exhibited in massive renovated spaces in one of their warehouses.
The exhibition will concentrate on the country’s traditional sakan plasterwork architectural techniques and express its aesthetic connection with nature, including light, water, and earth. The works for the exhibition will involve a 500 square meter floor venue that will be covered in a layer of soil to highlight Hasado’s point of view like no other.
Sakan plasterwork is a traditional Japanese decoration technique that involves making intricate patterns and designs on the surface of ceilings and walls using a combination of pigments and plaster. This technique is often used in traditional Japanese architecture, like shrines and templates, and is characterized by its precise geometric patterns and use of vibrant colors.
The plaster is applied in thin layers and incised or carved to make the desired design. Sakan plasterwork is also considered a form of art and is highly cherished for its craftsmanship and beauty.
This technique is also used in Japan for approximately 1,300 years. Using natural materials like straw, lime, sand, and earthen soils or clays, those walls are made not by machine but by hand. They are used in chashitsu, buildings where Japanese tea ceremonies are done.
In 2020, sakan was added by UNESCO as an element of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Syuhei Hasado is not just restoring the traditional technique but is also improving it further in the form of amazing designs that are artworks in their own right.
Hasado is known as one of the leading sakan craftsmen in the country, along with many achievements both locally and internationally. His wart art can be found in places like Haneda Airport, Aman Tokyo Hotel, and Peninsula Tokyo Hotel delights visitors from both Japan and overseas. In 2013, he struck a chord with people with his solo exhibition in New York’s Rogue Space Chelsea gallery.
The artist even experimented with doing works that used the stenciling method for that exhibition. He covered the whole 500 square meter space of the venue floor in a layer of soil, along with his creations emerging, dreamlike, from that stratum. Furthermore, the space’s entirety became an installation shaped by his hand.
The exhibition allows visitors to enjoy a personal and up-close experience with light, water, and earth as part of the philosophy of returning to nature, contrasted with the fact that it’s currently held in a warehouse snuggled among closely crowded buildings in urban Tokyo.
Amazingly, it has attracted numerous visitors from the first day of its exhibition, including people involved in the art industry, Japanese culture aficionados, and so much more.
Warehouse TERRADA which has been based in Tennoz for over seventy years, has stored their client’s wine, artworks, valuables, and other precious items. The memory of Tennoz is composed of not just accumulated earth and sand during its long history but also the people’s emotions kept in their items in the warehouses.
According to a representative from Warehouse TERRADA, “As a culture-creating company, it’s a wish rooted in our mission to make the flower of culture bloom beautifully, caring for the memory of the area.
The artisan of the county’s traditional sakan plasterwork, who raised its technique to an art form, Hasado, is also trying to concentrate on people’s roots through the earth. TERRADA empathized with his emotion and decided to have an exclusive exhibition in their venue.
