PRESS RELEASE May 2017

Media contact: press@odawara-af.com For general inquiry: info@odawara-af.com

ODAWARA ART FOUNDATION

ENOURA OBSERVATORY OPENS TO THE PUBLIC

FROM OCTOBER 9, 2017

Odawara Art Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of its new home, the

Enoura Observatory. After more than 10 years of planning, preparation and

construction this multidisciplinary arts facility will open to the public on October 9 this

year.

The Enoura site, situated on a hilly citrus grove in the Kataura district of Odawara, offers breathtaking panoramic views of the Bay of Sagami. The facility was envisioned by contemporary artist Hiroshi Sugimoto as a forum for disseminating art and culture both within Japan and to the world and will comprise a gallery space, two stages, a tea house, and other features that make the entire premise into a truly magnificent landscape.

The foundation will exhibit a selection of Sugimoto’s artworks in the 100-meter gallery and present events and programs on the outside Stone Stage and Optical Glass Stage. The Odawara Art Foundation looks forward to welcoming many guests to the Enoura Observatory.

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Concept

Throughout human history, art has embodied the pinnacle of our mental and spiritual

evolution.

When we first became self-aware beings, art commemorated this awakening in cave

paintings.

Later, art went on to manifest the forms of the divine, and splendidly symbolize the

might of kings.

Today, as we stand at a critical point in our evolution, art has lost its onetime clarity of

purpose. What should art today express? We cannot answer this question simply, but

what we can do is return to the wellspring of human consciousness, explore its sources,

and chart the course it has followed thus far.

This is the mission the Odawara Art Foundation had in mind when we designed Enoura

Observatory.

At the dawn of history, when the ancients first gained self-awareness, their first step

was to search for and identify the place they occupied within the vastness of the starry

firmament. This search for meaning and identity was also the primal force behind art.

The winter solstice, when new life is reborn; the summer solstice, when the great

pendulum of the seasons swings back again; the spring and autumn equinoxes,

milestones at the midpoint between extremes. I believe that if we turn once more to

our ancient observation of the heavens, we will find glimmers that point the way to

our future.

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Founder, Odawara Art Foundation

About Hiroshi Sugimoto

Hiroshi Sugimoto’s signature practice spans the mediums of performing arts, photography, sculpture, installation and architecture. His art deals with history and temporal existence through a variety of subject matters He explores issues surrounding time, empiricism, and metaphysics that bridge eastern and western ideologies while examining the nature of perception and the origins of consciousness.

Sugimoto was born in Tokyo in 1948 and moved to the U.S.A. in 1970. He has lived in New York City since 1974. In 2008, he founded the New Material Research Laboratory, an architectural design office, and in 2009 he established the Odawara Art Foundation.

Sugimoto was awarded Mainichi Art Award in 1988, Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography in 2001, the 21st Praemium Imperiale in 2009, Medal with Purple Ribbon by the Japanese government in 2010, and conferred the Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (The Order of Arts and Letters) by the French government in 2013.

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Enoura Observatory

<Overview of Facilities>

Site Address: 362-1 Enoura, Odawara, Kanagawa, Japan Owned by: Odawara Art Foundation

Main purposes: Host cultural events, exhibitions and performances

Concept by: Hiroshi Sugimoto

Designed and supervised by: New Material Research Laboratory

Detailed design and contract administration by: Tomoyuki Sakakida Architect and

Associates Co., Ltd.

Constructed by: Kajima Corporation

Special support by: Japan Society, NY

<Visitors’ Info>

Open: Thursday - Tuesday

Closed: Wednesday

Visiting hours: Three entrance times a day from April to October / 10:00, 13:00, 16:00

Two entrance times a day from November to March / 11:00, 14:00

A limited number of guests will be allowed admittance at each entrance time. Each visit

is for a maximum of 2 hours.

The Observatory sits on 60,000 square meters of land. Only 10,000 square meters is

developed land while the remaining 50,000 square meters is forest and farmland. For

visitors to better experience the site and capture the feeling of the pre-modern era, we

decided to limit the number of visitors admitted at a time. It is estimated that each

person will enjoy approximately 760 square meters of personal space while exploring

the site.

All visits to the Enoura Observatory are by appointment only. Reservations can be made

through the foundation’s website (http://www.odawara-af.com) after July 20, 2017.

Admission: 3,240 yen

*There will be no discount price for groups.

*Due to the unique nature of the premises and for safety reasons, visitors must be

twelve years or older. We thank you for your understanding.

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Upcoming schedule for 2017:

After July 1 Start accepting requests for media and interview requests on site by appointment

Thursday, July 20 Enoura Observatory will begin accepting advanced online reservations for the general public

Friday, October 6 Press preview at Enoura Observatory (tentative)

Monday, October 9 Enoura Observatory’s first day open to the public (reservations required)

More information can be found on the foundation’s website.

Upcoming Exhibition:

At the time of Enoura Observatory’s opening in October, 2017, works from Hiroshi

Sugimoto’s Seascape series will be on view in the Summer Solstice Observation Gallery.

Caribbean Sea, Jamaica, 1980 Sea of Japan, Oki, 1987 Boden Sea, Utwill, 1993

<Access>

By train: The nearest train stations are Nebukawa Station or Manazuru Station (both on JR

Tokaido Main Line)

1) Nebukawa Station on JR Tokaido Main Line

Plans are being made for a shuttle bus to run between the station and the

Observatory, which will take approximately 7 minutes. For those who prefer to

go by foot, it takes 40-45 minutes up a mountain road. However, it is highly

recommended that visitors use the shuttle bus or taxi.

2) Manazuru Station on JR Tokaido Main Line

It is approximately 12 minutes by taxi from the

station to the Observatory.

By car:

Parking is limited. Please book a parking spot when making a reservation for your visit.

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Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Thoughts on Odawara

I owe a lot to Odawara. For one thing, my earliest childhood memory is of the sea, seen

from the window of the Shonan train running on the old Tokaido line from Atami to

Odawara. When the train came out of the twin tunnels, there was the vast Pacific Ocean,

extending away to a sharp horizon line that snapped my eyes wide open. In that moment

I also awoke to the fact that I was me, and that I was here on this earth.

I am fond of asking “What if…” about history. What if the Tokugawa shogunate had

selected Odawara as its base of power instead of Edo? When the Tokugawa clan moved to

the Kanto region around 1600 after the downfall of Odawara Castle at the hands of

Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1590, it seems that Odawara, formerly the seat of power of Kanto’s

most powerful and prominent clan, the Hojo clan, would have been the most attractive

site for the Tokugawa shogunate’s own castle. However, the first shogun, Ieyasu, chose

Edo, then just a sleepy hamlet, no doubt because he wanted a clean slate for urban

development. I am sure, however, that Odawara must have been a tempting option for

Ieyasu, as there was already a magnificent castle there for the taking. If he had chosen it,

today Odawara would be the capital of Japan, a thicket of skyscrapers rivaling Manhattan

or Hong Kong, and what we call “Tokyo” would be nothing more than the middling,

provincial bayside city of Edo. Personally, I am glad that Ieyasu made the decision he did.

Had Odawara become the capital, its marvelous natural scenery would be utterly ruined,

and I would not have had that primal encounter with the ocean as my first memory.

As if guided by an unseen hand, I was drawn to this place of memories. In a sprawling

mikan citrus grove in Enoura, I established the Odawara Art Foundation with the aim of

conveying the essence of Japanese culture to a wider audience. While Odawara was

passed over in favor of Tokyo as the site of Japan’s capital, Odawara has the potential to

be the capital of communication of our culture to the world. This is because the unique

character of Japanese culture, a continuous legacy dating back to the prehistoric Jomon

period, has been the art of living in harmony with nature. The Japanese people

developed a unique culture incorporating the worship of myriad deities and spirits of the

natural realm. In today’s grim world of rampant materialism and consumerism, when so

much of this natural splendor has been destroyed, it is the revival of these ancient

Japanese traditions that we need most.

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Architectural Overview by Hiroshi Sugimoto

Backing onto the Hakone Mountains and overlooking Sagami Bay, the picturesque

Enoura district of Odawara is an important natural heritage site. The Odawara Art

Foundation’s complex, entitled Enoura Observatory, comprises multiple structures: an

art gallery, a stone stage, an optical glass stage, a tea house, a garden, several gates

and an offices block. Each of the structures incorporates traditional Japanese building

styles and methods, bringing them to life to provide visitors with an overview of

Japan’s architectural history. The mission of the complex is to revive traditional building

methods which are in danger of being lost and to pass them on to future generations.

Meigetsu Gate (“Full Moon Gate”)

The Meigetsu Gate was originally constructed

in the Muromachi period (1336 – 1573) to

serve as the front gate of the Meigetsuin

Temple of the Kenchō-ji branch of the Rinzai

sect in Kamakura. When the gate was damaged

in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, it

passed to Ōgi Rodō, a sukiya-style architect and

a master of the tea ceremony, who dismantled it. He subsequently rebuilt it as the gate

for the Roppongi mansion of Makoshi Kyōhei, the head of Dai Nippon Brewery (the

precursor company of present-day Sapporo Beer and Asahi Beer). In 1945, the Aoyama

mansion of Kaichirō Nezu, a tea-ceremony associate of Makoshi’s, was badly damaged

in an American air raid and its main gate was destroyed. Makoshi presented the

Meigetsu Gate to the Nezu family and it was once again dismantled and transported to

serve as the front gate of the Nezu Museum. In 2006, the Nezu Museum was rebuilt,

and the gate was later given to the Odawara Art Foundation, which restored and rebuilt

it on the Enoura Observatory site.

The gate preserves the forms of the Zen style of building from the Muromachi period

and the structure retains mostly the original materials. At the same time as establishing

and operating his own architectural firm in the Meiji period (1868 – 1912), Ōgi Rodō

was also a connoisseur who collected works of art and had his own perspective on the

tea ceremony. He is the Japanese architect whom I respect the most.

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Winter Solstice Observation Tunnel and Optical Glass Stage

The winter solstice is the day with the

shortest period of daylight all year. It also

marks the end of one year and the start of

another. Ancient cultures around the world

celebrated the winter solstice as a turning

point in the cycle of death and rebirth. Early

humans’ awareness of the movements of

the sun and the change of the seasons was

one of the factors leading to the development of consciousness. My goal in conceiving

of this particular structure was to reconnect people, visually and mentally, to the

oldest of human memories.

On the morning of the winter solstice, the sun rises from Sagami Bay, sending its light

through the 70-meter tunnel to illuminate a group of large stones at the other end. The

optical glass stage, which stands alongside the tunnel, catches the light on its cut edges

and glows, appearing to float on its wooden kakezukuri frame above the sea.

Summer Solstice Observation Gallery

One hundred meters above sea level

stands a gallery that is one hundred meters

long. The structure is architecturally

ambitious: a one-hundred-meter long

structural wall is covered in Ōya stone with

its peeling, speckled skin; the opposing wall

is made of glass windows — 37 large

panes side by side with no visible support

— for a completely column-free space. The last twelve meters of the gallery jut out

toward the sea and double as a viewing platform.

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Stone Stage

shiba meaning “grass.”)

The origins of performing arts in Japan go back to the

ancient legend of Ama-no-Iwato. According to this

legend, Ame-no-uzume (the dawn goddess) danced in

order to lure forth Ameterasu-ōmikami (the sun

goddess), who was hiding in a cave. In a performance

that continues to the present day, this episode is

recreated in a votive dance performed on a grass-

covered stage during the On-Matsuri festival at the

Kasuga Taisha Shrine in Nara, when the divine spirits

cross from the Kasuga Wakamiya-jinja Shrine at night.

(The Japanese word for theatrical performance

—shibai—is supposed to have its origins in the word

The design of the stone stage is based on the dimensions of a Noh stage. It is

constructed mainly out of the many rocks dug up when the site was being prepared for

development. Just a few meters below the surface here is hard bedrock, and located

nearby are the Nebukawa and Komatsu stone quarries. At the each of the stage’s four

corners are large stones which were excavated in the neighborhood and originally

destined for the walls of Edo Castle. From the chisel marks on them, it looks as though

they were quarried in the early years of the Edo period (1603 – 1868) and then

abandoned. For the hashigakari, or bridgeway, leading to the stage we used a single

23-ton stone slab. It is a piece of Takine stone that I came across by chance in Kawauchi

in Fukushima prefecture while scouring Japan for rocks and stones.

The axis of the stone bridgeway aligns with the axis of the sun rising from Sagami Bay

at the spring and autumn equinox. My conception was for the Noh plays to start just

before dawn as the murk of night is giving way to daylight and for the principal actors

of the second part of the play to return to the underworld as the sun rises directly

behind the stage.

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Uchōten (“Listen-to-the-Rain”) Teahouse

the slightest deviation.

The Japanese word honkadori refers to the practice of

using a quotation from a classic old poem as the basis

for creating a new work of art. The Uchōten teahouse is

a quotation-and-reinterpretation of the Taian teahouse,

which is thought to have been designed by Sen no Rikyū.

Taian is regarded as a perfect expression of the simple

and modest style of tea ceremony (wabi-cha) that Rikyū

favored. Light comes through small windows into a tiny

two tatami-mat room to create an extraordinary space.

Whatever wood was most easily available was used

rather than anything rare and precious, while the walls

were made of cheap mud plaster. Rikyū deliberately

created a rustic sanctuary deep within the mountains. I

copied the dimensions of the Taian teahouse without

Tenshōan, another teahouse attributed to Rikyū, once stood here in Enoura, the home

of the Odawara Art Foundation. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi lay siege to Odawara Castle

in 1590 as part of his campaign to eliminate the Hōjō clan, he is supposed to have

ordered Rikyū to build the teahouse to boost the morale of his generals. That was just

one year before Sen no Rikyū committed ritual suicide.

I decided to incorporate local materials into my teahouse. With great care, we

removed the rusty corrugated iron roof from a local stone barn for storing tangerines

to use as the teahouse roof. If Rikyū were alive now, a rusty piece of corrugated iron

strikes me as precisely the kind of material he would turn to. When it rains, you can

hear the raindrops falling from the heavens and drumming on the iron roof: hence the

tearoom’s name of U-chō-ten (“rain-listen-heaven”). At dawn on the vernal and

autumn equinoxes, the sun shines through the nijiriguchi crawl door. The step of

optical glass in front of the crawl door also glows when it catches the sunlight on its cut

edges.

The Old Naraya Gate

This gate used to stand outside a detached villa belonging to Naraya, a celebrated

traditional inn in the Miyanoshita area of Hakone. The inn shut down in 2001, and

years later the municipality of Hakone presented the gate to the Odawara Art

Foundation. It is believed to date from around the time of the Great Kanto Earthquake

(1923), meaning either the late Taishō or early Shōwa period. After the Second World

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War, the politicians Konoe Fumimaro and Sasaki Sōichi wrote some of the early drafts

of the new Japanese constitution in the Naraya villa, which subsequently became the

summer getaway of former prime minister Kishi Nobusuke.

Passing through the Old Naraya Gate leads guests to Uchōten Teahouse.

Stone Torii Gate

This gate is modeled on a stone torii gate in Odachi in

Yamagata prefecture which is designated an Important

Cultural Asset because it is an exemplar of the old

style of torii design. There are wedge marks to evoke

the pre-medieval period and an old stone sarcophagus

lid is used as the stepping-stone beneath the gate.

The Garden

The garden design is based on the principles of the

Sakuteiki (“Records of Garden Making”) written by

Tachibana no Toshitsuna in the late Heian period (794 –

1185). I spent more than a decade collecting various

magnificent stone ornaments for the garden dating

from the Kofun period (250 – 538 AD) to modern times,

some dug up from archeological sites and some handed

down the generations. The key ones are listed below.

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◎ Middle gate stone step in front of the teahouse: Stone sarcophagus lid from

Nara region, Kofun period (250 – 538)

◎ Cornerstone from Gangōji Temple: Excavated in Nara (2005), Tenpyō period (729

– 749)

◎ “Tree of life” marble relief: From trading company façade in Venice, 12th – 13th

century

◎ 5-ring pagoda: Kunisaki peninsula, Kamakura period (1185 –1333)

◎ Iron pagoda: Nara, Kamakura period (1185 –1333)

◎ 13-story pagoda: Uchiyamaeikyūji Temple, Nanbokuchō period (1336 –1392)

◎ Iron lantern: Uchiyamaeikyūji Temple, Momoyama period (1573 –1600)

◎ Cornerstone from Kyoto Gojō-Ōhashi bridge: Murano Tōgo, Hiensō, Momoyama

period (1573 –1600)

◎ Stone tsukubai washbasin, Nanboku carved seal: Asukaishi, Momoyama period

(1573 –1600)

◎ Cornerstone from Togetsukyō bridge: Arashiyama, Kyoto, Momoyama – Edo

periods (1573 – 1868)

◎ Guidepost: “Right for Kōya. Left for Yoshino.”: Hashimoto city, Momoyama – Edo

periods (1573 – 1868)

◎ Kyoto tramway paving stone: Kyoto, Meiji – Shōwa (1868 – 1989)

When it comes to how I place the stones, I simultaneously follow the medieval

traditions and my own original “Sugimoto” style.

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(1) Optical Glass Stage © Odawara Art Foundation

(2) Summer Solstice Observation Gallery © Odawara Art Foundation (3) The tip of the Summer Solstice Observation Gallery © Odawara Art Foundation (4) Winter Solstice Observation Tunnel © Odawara Art Foundation

(5) Meigetsu Gate and a foundation stone of Kyoto Gojō-Ōhashi bridge © Odawara Art Foundation (6) Seascape, Sea of Japan, Oki (1987 / gelatin silver print) by Hiroshi Sugimoto © Courtesy of Gallery Koyanagi

<Regulation to use images>

・The above images can be used only when illustrating an article to introducing Enoura Observatory. Permission to

use the above images is required and requests must be made in advance. ・Appropriate credits must accompany the images.

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<Privacy policy> Odawara Art Foundation collects personal information only for its own use and to share information on its activities. OAF will not provide personal information to a third party without prior consent.

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About Odawara Art Foundation

Founded on December 22, 2009

Authorized as Public Interest Incorporated Foundation on April 1, 2011

<Mission>

The Foundation produces and promotes theater ranging from classical theater arts to

avant-garde stage art, and preserves, exhibits, surveys, and researches art objects and

other items from prehistoric to contemporary, so as to convey traditional performing

arts to younger generations and contribute to the vitality and development of

contemporary art. By promoting the arts and culture in a manner that transcends

period and genre, the Foundation seeks to contribute to the advancement of Japanese

culture while adopting an international perspective.

<About Our Logo by Hiroshi Sugimoto>

Geometry began with our awareness of the circle and the triangle. If you stand on high

ground and gaze at the horizon, what appears to be a straight line is, in fact, a segment

from a long arc. If you stand on a mountaintop in a remote island and follow the

horizon with your eyes, you realize that its end reconnects with its beginning. This is

how people realized that the limit of their field of vision is described by a circle. The

sun and the stars at night are describing circles as well. The moment that people

became conscious of the circle was also the moment that they realized they had

consciousness. It was the moment they made the leap from animal to human.

Once the circle had made its way into human consciousness, it was followed by the

triangle. That is linked to our consciousness of distance. Using the distance between

two known points, humankind could calculate the distance to a third point. Here are

the origins of triangulation: now people could measure the land upon which they lived

and navigate the seas by the stars.

The triangle was used as the so-called dragon scale element in ancient Japanese coats

of arms. Dragons appear as symbols of chaos in myths from every part of the world.

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The story of the eight-headed, eight-tailed dragon Yamata no Orochi is a famous

Japanese legend. Whoever vanquishes the chaos and establishes order proves his

right to rule. Thus, when Susa-no-Ō slays the dragon Orochi, one of the three symbols

of imperial rule, the Herb-Quelling Great Sword, emerges from its split body.

My concept for the logo of the Odawara Art Foundation was to combine the letters O

and A, the first letters of “Odawara” and “Art.” The resulting mark is simultaneously

Western and Japanese, since it can be read both as letters from the alphabet, while

resembling an ancient Japanese design. When humankind first acquired language,

speech supposedly started with vowel sounds: “Oh!” to express surprise and “Ah!” to

express admiration. That makes “OA” a very apt symbol for the beginnings of

language.

Lastly, it was in 1590 that the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi crushed the local Odawara

Hōjō clan, one of Japan’s powerful warrior clans. Their coat of arms was made up of

three dragon scales.

I designed the Odawara Art Foundation logo to symbolize the multiple layers of

human memory stretching all the way back to ancient times.

<Activities>

1. Both classical and contemporary theater arts shall be produced and staged in the

natural surroundings of the Enoura Observatory.

2 Art and other objects from ancient to contemporary, from the Sugimoto

Collection and other sources, shall be preserved and exhibited.

3. Academic conferences, seminars, etc. shall be planned and convened, with the goal

of surveying, researching, popularizing, and promoting the arts and culture across a

wide range of periods and genres from ancient to contemporary and including

visual art, traditional architecture, gardens, and other forms of spatial design.

Upcoming Projects:

August 2017 Sugimoto Bunraku Onnagoroshi Abura no Jigoku (The Woman-Killer and the Hell of Oil) at Setagaya Public Theater (Tokyo)

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Past Projects:

February 2017 Special Preview of New Noh Production: Rikyu – Enoura at Noh Theater, MOA Museum of Art (Shizuoka)

November 2016 Reading Play: Carnal Voice at Sogetsu Hall (Tokyo)

November 2015 Haru no Tayori (Spring Letter) from “Noh: Sugamozuka” at OWL SPOT Toshima Performing Arts Center (Tokyo)

October 2015 Seiji Tsurusawa x Hiroshi Sugimoto Shancha Shami: Music of the Shamisen at Setagaya Public Theater (Tokyo)

August 2014 SANBASO at 2014 Singapore International Festival of Arts at Victoria Theatre (Singapore)

March 2014 Sugimoto Bunraku “Kannon Pilgrimage” from The Sonezaki Love Suicides at Setagaya Public Theatre (Tokyo) and Festival Hall (Osaka)

September-October 2013 European Tour of Sugimoto Bunraku “Kannon Pilgrimage” from The Sonezaki Love Suicides in Madrid, Rome and Paris April 2013 SANBASO, divine dance -Mansai Nomura + Hiroshi Sugimoto at Sakura Hall, Shibuya Cultural Center Owada (Tokyo)

March 2013 SANBASO, divine dance -Mansai Nomura + Hiroshi Sugimoto at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York)

September 2011 Kami hisomi iki - Our Magic Hour by Mansaku Nomura + Mansai Nomura + Hiroshi Sugimoto at Kanagawa Arts Theatre (Kanagawa) as part of Yokohama Triennale 2011

August 2011 Sugimoto Bunraku Sonezaki Shinju (“Kannon Pilgrimage” from The Sonezaki Love Suicides) at Kanagawa Arts Theatre (Kanagawa)

October 2009 Performance to celebrate the opening of Izu Photo Museum Ningyo Joruri Bunraku Puppet Play Futari Sanbaso at Izu Photo Museum (Shizuoka)

March 2009 Performance to celebrate the establishment of Odawara Art Foundation “A Break-up Letter” from Sophie Calle’s Take Care of Yourself at Gallery Koyanagi (Tokyo)

* Odawara Art Foundation has loaned artworks from the Foundation's collection to both national and international institutions for numerous exhibitions.