Digital Garage is a leading technology conglomerate based in Tokyo and San Francisco, focusing on Fintech/Adtech and investing globally. Digital Garage celebrates its 25th anniversary at the annual event, THE NEW CONTEXT CONFERENCE, on the theme “Earthshot Whole Earth 2021@Tokyo”, an homage to Stewart Brand, who is known for his “Whole Earth Catalog”.
Now in its 21st year, the latest edition of the conference took place on August 11 and featured talks on the subject of “Half Century Since Whole Earth Catalog: Shaping the Future with Technology”. It was broadcast simultaneously to worldwide audiences and was hosted by Kaoru Hayashi (Representative Director, President Executive Officer and Group CEO, Digital Garage) and Joichi Ito (Board of Directors member and Co-Founder, Digital Garage), with speakers including Stewart Brand, Taro Kono (Minister in charge of Administrative Reform), Takuya Hirai (Minister for Digital Transformation), Mitsuhiro Takemura (Founder, Takemura Juku), Mr. Shinjiro Koizumi (Minister in charge of Climate Change, Minister of the Environment), and Ms. Audrey Tan (Digital Minister of Taiwan) participated online.
THE NEW CONTEXT CONFERENCE 2021
Miwa Komatsu also attended as a speaker at the event, talking about her work “NEXT MANDALA – Home of Soul”, which she painted at Sambo-in Temple in Koyasan.*
She live painted the “eyes”, which represent the soul of the work. A video of Komatsu painting the triangles that flank the Mandala at the Digital Garage headquarters conference hall “Dragon Gate” two days prior to the event was featured, as well as showing the process of making the Mandala painting in Koyasan. In the session that followed, Zenryu Hidaka (Head Priest of Toji Temple) took the stage as a guest and talked with Kaoru Hayashi and Joichi Ito about the anecdotes that led to the commissioning of the work. Hidaka said that “NEXT MANDALA – Home of Soul”, beautifully depicts all living things and resonates with the teachings of Kukai, the founder of Shingon Buddhism.
* Komatsu’s concept of “Yamato Power (Great Harmonization)” is the ancient Japanese way of harmonizing various elements (culture, nature, humanity, and all living things).
For Komatsu, live painting is not a performance but a ritual.
At her live paintings, she wears a white Hakama and meditates. Meditation channels the energy of her whereabouts, the people who live there, its nature, guardian gods, and divine spirits are all incorporated into her work.
“NEXT MANDALA – Home of Soul” is a painting of a mandala and two pairs of dragons watching the earth from the heavens, created using the energy of the universe that Komatsu channeled through meditation.
It conveys that we are shifting from “Great Acceleration” to “Great Harmonization.”
