安野谷昌穂 / Anotani Masaho

Venue: Kyu Itoya

《Pure Land of Benevolence and Severity》 2025

About Works: [Curatorial Comment]

The exhibition venue, once the residence of those who ran the adjacent store front, has expanded horizontally over the years through repeated additions, its structure spreading outward like pieces of fabric stitched together. At the entrance, a work composed of garments and drawn-on textiles that Anotani has been adding to since 2012 is installed, forming a quiet dialogue with this living space that has endured through the town’s cycles of growth and decline.
In the room where Western-style flooring and tatami floors are connected, two new works created for the exhibition, Pure Land of Benevolence and Severity: Red and Black are displayed. The base fabric, developed in collaboration with Watanabe Textile, a factory based in Fujiyoshida, features a soft gradient that evokes the region’s clear sky. Onto this surface, Anotani has meticulously attached, using a punching needle, a range of motifs and forms derived from the natural environment extending upwards until Mount Fuji’s treeline as well as human-like shapes and patterns inspired by the town
Anotani describes the work as his interpretation of the mountain’s dual nature—its benevolence and severity, paradise and infernal realms, and life and death, held in inseparable relation—an understanding rooted in local mountain beliefs. The resulting imagery reads like a mental landscape encountered on the path toward the mountain. His process of hand-felting offcuts of locally produced necktie fabric “as if playing a drum,” as he describes it, reintroduces into this long-uninhabited house a rhythm reminiscent of the looms that once sustained the area.
In the tatami living room, recent related works and a hanging scroll inspired by his research into the region are installed. On sunny days, warm light enters the space, allowing visitors to sense the tempo of daily life that once unfolded in this home.

[Artist Statement]

Having long been interested in mountain worship and Shugendō (Japanese mountain asceticism), I began this work by reflecting on the presence of Mount Fuji.
Following the history, everyday life, textile industry, and Fujikō (Fuji worship) faith of Fujiyoshida felt like tracing a perspective rooted in the land itself.
Mount Fuji is often associated with happiness or the Pure Land, seemingly the opposite of the hell imagery found in Tateyama worship in Toyama Prefecture. Yet, like Hokusai’s Red Fuji and Black Fuji, it embodies both gentleness and severity as one.
The Jukai (Sea of Trees) I entered for research was filled with the raw power of nature, not a place of comfort for humans.
Life and death were truly two sides of the same reality.

Today, guided tours make climbing Fuji relatively easy—even buses reach partway up the mountain. In the past, simply setting out required strength, funds, and determination, and only a small number of people could reach the summit after a harsh journey. The Pure Land may seem closer now, yet not necessarily so. Each era carries its own steep paths. Heaven and hell exist within the present we inhabit, and becoming aware of them is never simple.
By aligning Fuji—where paradise and hell coexist—with our own lives, I envisioned the long path toward the Jōdo, the Pure Land.

Artist Profile: 安野谷昌穂 / Anotani Masaho
Born in 1991. Drawing from the vital information that drifts through everyday life—social phenomena, observations and sensations encountered in nature—Masaho Anotani projects these experiences inward, allowing spontaneous reflexive reactions to emerge from within. His practice revolves around capturing and materializing the impressions of this multilayered inner world. Anotani’s work spans painting, drawing, collage, performance, poetry, and photography, embracing all methods as means to express the totality of existence. His collaborative projects include Plantation (2024 S/S) and COMME des GARÇONS SHIRT (2016–17 A/W). Publications include STEIDL – WERK No. 23: MASAHO ANOTANI “DEFORMED”. His forthcoming book DEMO Future Book—his first in nearly a decade—will be released in July 2025.

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