On the left is the State Guest House in Osaka, “Senpukan” in the Meiji era, and on the right is the State Guest House of the Reiwa era (designed by Sou Fujimoto). Each side features ancient textiles from the 7th to 8th centuries, which were strongly influenced by Western/Middle Eastern patterns that travelled along the Silk Road, such as the pattern with lions and humans under the flowering tree and the chain-like circle pattern with four lion-huntings.
These two textiles hanging in the State Guest House show the trajectory of Japanese diplomacy from ancient times to the modern era. They, deliberately “Weaving in Progress”, express the conflict of how Japan, an island nation in the Far East, should open up to the world and how to conduct diplomacy. The threads of each Meiji and Reiwa period move back and forth between the left and right sides, connecting in places and sharing their constituent elements.
These fabrics are woven by Kawashima Selkon Textiles using “Tsuzure”, the traditional hand-weaving technique. The state of the wooden weaving shuttles, which are placed between the white warp threads when the weavers take a break, is also reproduced.

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[Artist’s Statement on Creating Works for the Expo State Guest House]
Japan, which had been closed, has now opened up, and Japan, which has opened up but still has parts that remain closed, will host an Expo again. The accumulation of “human curiosity about the unknown” and “Courage to open up to others”, which are not recorded in the historical record, has created our present. From national isolation to opening up to the world, then the Meiji era. And now, into the Reiwa era. I carefully chose motifs that faintly convey the pulse of energy that cannot be put into words. Then, I created them as “unfinished” works.
At the State Guest House for the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, where people from around the world gather, I hope that the motifs scattered throughout these textiles will emerge like a “mystery-solving” puzzle or constellations in the night sky, drawing out people’s imaginations and words.