— New works incorporating materials from Noto are presented in the Shiroshoin, with Suzu ware artist Tatsuma Nakayama joining as a guest artist —

WHYNOT.TOKYO, an art project operated by Sora to Tsuchi Co., Ltd., will present Descending to the Heights, a solo exhibition by contemporary artist Towa Takaya, at Ninnaji Temple (Ukyo-ku, Kyoto) — headquarters of the Omuro school of Shingon Buddhism and a UNESCO World Heritage Site — from Sunday, October 25 to Saturday, October 31, 2026, and from Friday, November 6 to Sunday, November 8, 2026. New works layering materials from Noto with substances of distinctive optical properties will be presented in the Shiro-shoin. Suzuyaki ceramicist Tatsuma Nakayama joins as guest artist.

The Kuro-shoin will host a simultaneous group exhibition, Entanglement and Circulation, featuring traditional crafts from Oku-Noto and contemporary art. Both exhibitions are curated by cultural studies scholar Hiroki Yamamoto.

Towa Takaya (contemporary artist)

Towa Takaya, Myriad Within a Grain, 2026, φ53cm
Materials: Wood fragments collected at a Suzuyaki kiln site, Noto roof tiles, ash from a Suzuyaki kiln site, diatomite, pigment, oil, wood panel
Photo: Tomohiro Sato / Courtesy of Artist

Towa Takaya, Ebullition, 2026, φ53cm
Materials: Wood fragments collected at a Suzuyaki kiln site, Noto roof tiles, ash from a Suzuyaki kiln site, diatomite, pigment, oil, wood panel
Photo: Tomohiro Sato / Courtesy of Artist

Towa Takaya, Pervasion—Starfield, 2026, pigment, pearl pigment, oil, h. 155 × w. 205 cm
Photo: Tomohiro Sato / Courtesy of Artist

Towa Takaya, Pervasion—Abundance, 2026, pigment, pearl pigment, oil, h. 65 × w. 130 cm
Photo: Tomohiro Sato / Courtesy of Artist

Solo Exhibition | Descending to the Heights
— Where Materials from Noto Meet the Light of Ninnaji

Since the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake, Towa Takaya has made repeated visits to Oku-Noto through WHYNOT.TOKYO’s initiatives supporting Suzu ware ceramicists, sustaining a dialogue with local artists and workshops. For this exhibition, Takaya presents new works that layer materials bearing the accumulated time of the land—earth and sand, ash from Suzu ware kilns, and minerals from Noto—with optically responsive materials, including polarizing pearlescent pigments and metallic pigments. Responding to the natural light entering the Shiro-shoin and to the viewer’s movement through the space, the works continually shift in appearance: one image emerges, dissolves, and gives way to another.

The exhibition title, Descending to the Heights, draws on Simone Weil’s Gravity and Grace, in which grace is understood not only as an upward movement, but also as a paradoxical descent. Here, “the heights” are not remote from the earth or from everyday life. Rather, they open precisely when one turns one’s attention deeply toward—and descends into—the ground beneath one’s feet, the matter at hand, and the lives of those nearby. Takaya’s continuing involvement with Oku-Noto has offered a way of pursuing this question through both lived experience and artistic practice.

The particles and traces across the surfaces of the works momentarily summon images—mountains, valleys, currents of air, distant landscapes—that shift with the viewer’s position and the changing light. Through driftwood, irregularly shaped canvases, and works extending across the floor, the exhibition stages a paradox within the Shiro-shoin: a descent into matter can widen the field of perception.

Guest artist Tatsuma Nakayama, who has devoted himself to the revival of Suzu ware—a historic ceramic tradition once thought lost—will present works in both the Shiro-shoin and the concurrent group exhibition in the Kuro-shoin.

Exhibiting Artist
Towa Takaya (contemporary art)

Guest Artist
Tatsuma Nakayama (ceramics / Suzu ware)

Why Ninnaji?

Ninnaji Temple: Photo courtesy of Ninnaji Temple

Ninnaji is a temple that has carried forward its cultural and spiritual practices through great loss and renewal. This exhibition brings together the work of contemporary craftspeople from Oku-Noto and a contemporary artist at a venue defined by that history, as a space in which to reflect on how culture is passed on through human hands.

Ninnaji was completed in 888 CE under the 59th Emperor Uda. Following the near-total destruction of its structures in the Ōnin War, it was rebuilt in 1646. In 1994 it was inscribed as a component property of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto."

Ninnaji official website: https://ninnaji.jp

About Towa Takaya

Towa Takaya | Contemporary Artist
Born in Tokyo in 1992; based in Tokyo. Graduated from the Fine Art department of Goldsmiths, University of London in 2015. Centering her practice on the exploration of optical phenomena and materials, she develops painting as a site in which perception is generated through the relationships among light, matter, body, and environment. Using polarizing pearl, earth, minerals, CO₂-derived materials, and other substances, she creates visual experiences in which the physical properties of materials and the time recorded in specific landscapes are transformed through light, viewpoint, and environment. Works shift in color and depth depending on the angle and distance from which they are seen; images dissolve on approach and reconstitute themselves at a distance.

In 2019 she launched the art project WHYNOT.TOKYO. Through exhibitions and artist support, she develops activities that connect creative practice with society, and since 2023 has supported the revival and continuity of Suzuyaki. Since 2022, she has been engaged in collaborative research with Shiseido MIRAI Technology Institute. In 2025 she presented the solo exhibition Transience and Infinite at the 3rd Japan Annual-International Art Festival / Expo 2025 Osaka. In 2026 she provided cover artwork for Meiji Shoin's high school Japanese language textbooks Shin Seisen Gendai no Kokugo and Shin Seisen Gengo Bunka. Major solo exhibitions include Threshold of Emergence (Tokyo International Gallery, 2026) and Contours of the Unseen (Kamakura Gallery, 2025).

Concurrent Exhibition | Kuro-shoin
Entanglement and Circulation
— Seven Artists Working in Suzu and Wajima, in Dialogue with Contemporary Art

The Kuro-shoin presents an exhibition curated by Hiroki Yamamoto, featuring works by ceramicists and lacquerware artists from Suzu and Wajima alongside contemporary art works, available for both viewing and purchase. The exhibition brings together craft rooted in the materials and long history of specific places — Suzuyaki, Wajima lacquerware — with contemporary art that responds to shifts in society and understanding.

The "entanglement" named in the exhibition's title refers to a condition in which those who support and those who are supported, cities and regions, tradition and the contemporary, past and future are not separate but mutually constitutive of a shared reality. Viewers, buyers, and supporters are also part of that relationship.

Exhibiting Artists — Entanglement and Circulation
Tatsuma Nakayama (ceramics, Suzuyaki), Takenori Shimizu (ceramics, Suzuyaki), Kenji Yamamoto (lacquerware, Wajima), Miyuki Takenaka (contemporary art), Mariko Shirahama (contemporary art), Yoshitaka Nanjo (contemporary art), Mariko Sanao (contemporary art)

Works for Sale and Cultural Support

The exhibition offers works for purchase by Towa Takaya and other participating contemporary artists, as well as craft works by the Suzu and Wajima makers. In addition to direct purchases, visitors may support the ongoing practice and technical continuity of makers through sponsorship and donation.

Sponsorship and donation funds are managed separately from sales revenue. Their allocation and use, as well as a post-exhibition report on outcomes, will be published on the WHYNOT.TOKYO official website.

Exhibition Overview

Title: Towa Takaya Solo Exhibition Descending to the Heights
First period: Sunday, October 25 – Saturday, October 31, 2026
Second period: Friday, November 6 – Sunday, November 8, 2026
Closed: Sunday, November 1 – Thursday, November 5, 2026
Hours: 9:00 – 17:00 (last entry 16:30) *Final day closes at 16:00
Admission: Free. Entry to the exhibition requires a ticket for the Ninnaji Imperial Villa Garden. (Free admission for high school students and below)
Venue: Ninnaji Temple, Shiro-shoin and Kuro-shoin, headquarters of the Omuro school of Shingon Buddhism
Address: 33 Omuro Ouchi, Ukyo-ku, Kyoto 616-8092

Exhibition Structure

Shiro-shoin: Towa Takaya Solo Exhibition Descending to the Heights / Guest: Tatsuma Nakayama
Kuro-shoin: Group Exhibition Entanglement and Circulation — Traditional Crafts of Oku-Noto and Contemporary Art
Curator (both exhibitions): Hiroki Yamamoto
Organizer: Sora to Tsuchi Co., Ltd.
Venue cooperation: Ninnaji Temple, headquarters of the Omuro school of Shingon Buddhism

Planning and management: WHYNOT.TOKYO
Grant support: Ogasawara Toshiaki Memorial Foundation, 4th Emergency Grant for the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake (Contemporary Art and Traditional Craft)

Cooperation: Ritsumeikan University

PR cooperation: Ryosuke Maeda (Kikaku to Henshasha Co., Ltd.)

Related Program

Saturday, October 24, 2026, 13:00–15:30
A commemorative talk event will be held at the Hirai Kaichiro Memorial Library, Kinugasa Campus, Ritsumeikan University, to mark the opening of the exhibition. The program will address the current situation of Wajima lacquerware and Suzuyaki following the Noto Peninsula earthquake, and the role of craft and contemporary art in cultural continuity. Details including the program, speakers, and how to attend will be announced in a subsequent press release and on the WHYNOT.TOKYO official website.

Curator's Statement

In preparing for this exhibition, I visited Noto with the support of WHYNOT.TOKYO. I was deeply impressed by the breadth of the support network WHYNOT.TOKYO has built in the region, and found myself in strong resonance with their commitment not to "observe damaged culture from a distance as an object of support," but to "build a sustainable circuit for cultural support." Confronting the reality that recovery in parts of Noto still has far to go, and at the same time meeting people — from within and beyond the region — who continue their activities without abandoning hope, I found myself greatly encouraged. I hope that through curating an exhibition drawing on my own field of contemporary art, I can help convey to viewers something of the vitality held within Noto's culture.

Hiroki Yamamoto | Curator
Born in Chiba Prefecture in 1986. Graduated from the School of Social Sciences, Hitotsubashi University, then completed a Master's and PhD at the University of the Arts London. He has held positions as Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Transnational Art Research Centre, University of the Arts London; Research Fellow at the Asia Culture Centre (ACC), Gwangju, South Korea; Postdoctoral Fellow at Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Global Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts; and Lecturer at Kanazawa College of Art. Since 2024 he has been Associate Professor in the Department of Aesthetics and Art History, Faculty of Literature, Jissen Women's University. He curated the Japanese Pavilion at the 15th Gwangju Biennale (2024). His publications include A History of Contemporary Art: Europe, America, Japan, and the Transnational (Chuo Koron Shinsha), Art in the Post-Anthropocene (Bijutsu Shuppan-sha), and What Is the Regional Arts Festival? (Heibonsha).

About Towa Takaya and WHYNOT.TOKYO

WHYNOT.TOKYO is an art project launched by contemporary artist Towa Takaya in 2019 and operated by Sora to Tsuchi Co., Ltd. The project plans and implements exhibitions and cultural support initiatives.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it worked to protect the conditions in which artistic work could continue — through reservation-based exhibitions and support with grant applications — even as social circumstances shifted dramatically. Since 2023, the project has expanded its scope to encompass art, craft, technology, and regional culture.

Within this context, following the Oku-Noto earthquake of May 2023 and the Noto Peninsula earthquake of January 2024, WHYNOT.TOKYO has worked closely with Suzuyaki ceramicists and workshops: accompanying them through grant applications and rebuilding plans, and creating opportunities for their work to be shown and sold — supporting both the making and the livelihoods of artists.

This engagement goes beyond restoring lost facilities. It involves sustained attention to the challenges that public support alone cannot address, with the aim of passing on — as living culture — the skills, knowledge, memory, and human connections cultivated in the region before the earthquake.

WHYNOT.TOKYO connects the people, resources, skills, and spaces that sustain creative practice, nurturing a "cycle of creation" in which each exhibition leads to the next.

Press Inquiries

Sora to Tsuchi Co., Ltd. / WHYNOT.TOKYO — Ninnaji Exhibition Press Office
Contact: Noriko Takaya E-mail: n.takaya@whynot.tokyo
Please include the specified captions and photo credits when using images.