GYRE GALLERY｜I-shoku-shoku-ju — “Plants Become the Home That Protects Life and the Food That Sustains It”

A story of plants sustaining life.
The trail of two journeys recording
the memory of the land and dialogues with artisans.

The exhibition “I-shoku-shoku-ju: Plants become the home that protects life and the food that sustains it,” held at GYRE in Omotesando. We planned and produced the special pages for this exhibition, which ran across three installments. Plants become the home that protects life, and the food that sustains it. To convey that abundant theme, we wove together the stories of the “land” and the “people” behind the exhibition. The first installment, “Hemp”; the second, “Straw”; the third, “Rice.” Tracing the roots of each, Yuri Nomura and others traveled to visit artisans across Japan — Tochigi, Ehime, Kobe, Kochi, and Ayabe in Kyoto. What we designed was not mere information delivery, but an experience that lets you feel, just as they did, the air of each place, the warmth of handwork, and the temperature of the words exchanged. Photographs and video capturing beautiful scenery and people’s gentle expressions — we wove them together and, like a single travelogue, quietly recorded the memory of the journeys. We aimed for a gentle, quiet site that connects the viewing experience in the gallery with the original landscapes of Japan’s climate and daily life.