Tondabayashi

“Tondabayashi”

Series: Ishikawa Tani

Date: 2009/2010

Dimensions: 42’ x 33” x 64”

Materials: Cast glass, basswood, copper, hemp.

TONDABAYASHI
Is a small community on the banks of the Ishikawa (stone river), founded by a Buddhist priest over 500 years ago. In the valley, modern homes and businesses share space with tiny family farms and bamboo forests. In the surrounding hills, 2000-year-old burial mounds (Japanese pyramids?) mark the location of an earlier civilization and to the East, you can see the twin peaks of Nijo-san, believed to be the birthplace of modern Japanese Culture.

The glass piece features an abstract “kasa” (umbrella-shaped rice-farmer’s hat) on one side, and an image (cast from a man-hole cover) of a traditional home with Nijo-san in the background and azaleas, the official flower of the city of Tondabayashi, in the foreground.