Satoyama — Meeting Shinya Kobayashi
My time in Yunotsu is also a time of meeting the people who help give this place its creative life. Among them is Shinya Kobayashi of MUJUN, an artist and local supporter of my AKIYA AIR residency. His work opens a thoughtful conversation about materials, craftsmanship and our relationship with nature. In his series Satoyamart, familiar designs are recreated using local materials and the skills of regional craftspeople. A shoe becomes something unexpected: its upper woven from threads painstakingly made from washi paper. One shoe remains as an artwork; its partner was returned to the mountain from which its materials came.
I find this idea deeply moving. As an interior architect, I often think about where materials come from, how they feel and what they bring to a space. Shinya’s work invites another question: where do they go when we have finished using them? For me, this is a beautiful way to approach satoyama—the relationship between people and the landscape that sustains them. A material carries more than texture or colour. It carries the knowledge of the hands that shaped it, the time spent making it, and a connection to its place of origin.
MUJUN also co-organises AKIYA AIR with the MONO JAPAN Foundation, bringing creative practice into Yunotsu’s vacant houses and connecting visiting artists with local life and craft. Being here makes these questions feel close and tangible. An empty house, a piece of timber, a sheet of paper—each asks us to look carefully at what already exists, and consider what might become possible through care. Meeting Shinya feels like an invitation to begin there: with the place, its people, and the stories held in its materials.
Discover Shinya Kobayashi’s work at MUJUN