Step Into Takashi Kuribayashi’s Steam-Filled Underground Installation
Bathing suits encouraged.
On the outskirts of Otsunomiya, Japan, Takashi Kuribayashi is redefining the boundaries between contemporary art and wellbeing. For Oya Genkiro No.6, his most recent permanent installation, the experiential artist invites to visitors to let loose in thick clouds of herbal steam and become part of the work itself.
At first glance, Genkiro rises like the remnants of an ancient tree with its towering 59-foot form sculpted from local hinoki planks. Step closer and a narrow hallway of mirrors emerges. Moving further, a multi-storied, glass-lined core reveals itself, thick plums of a herbal steam envelop visitors in an immersive sensory ritual.
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Heat, scent and weight of the air shift awareness inward, turning movement into meditation. “The experience is not a sauna, but rather an ‘experiential art installation’,” the artist notes on the website. In spa fashion, swimsuits, towels and sandals are encouraged, yet the piece aims to foster historical, sensorial and perceptual engagement with the locality, history and body.
The name Genkiro fuses the words for “nuclear reactor” (genshiro) and “healthy” (genki) as a nod to the grim history of the Fukushima disaster, just one neighborhood over. While in one context, steam may signal an oncoming nuclear meltdown; in another, Kuribayashi brings focus to its restorative and healing properties. Rather than merely observed, Genkiro is lived, blurring the boundary between comfort and disorientation, reflection and renewal.
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Oya Genkiro No. 6 is currently open. Head to the official website for more information on the piece and how to book a reservation.
Oya Genkiro No. 6
909-11 Oya-cho,
Utsunomiya City,
Tochigi Prefecture
