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The 11th Wave of this project, “Sento”, was started by the modern artist Keiko Migita on 7 August, and completed on 1st September.
On the headboard, a painting of Mount Fuji and pine trees. On the wall, the mosaic looks like tiles, but this is also a picture. This painting, which makes you feel like you’re actually inside a “sento” (Japanese bathhouse), surrounds you. Migita chose the theme of “sento” as her motif because it’s part of the “austere, daily life of the Japanese people”. She wanted to create a room where you could relax body and mind in the easy-going atmosphere of a Japanese bathhouse. And the characters painted there are the fictitious people called PONI (dwellers) which always appear in her work. The painting shows these dwellers, who might be foreign guests or space travelers, enjoying Japanese culture.
We hope you too will come and experience the “Sento Artist’s Room” – a rather extraordinary artwork you can actually live in.
Room #3120 | Completion Date: September 2014
Thermae Tokyo “PONI-yu”
In Japan, there is a bath culture. It’s not only a place where you wash your body, but also where you relax your mind. I think of hot springs as special, but the local bathhouse is a public place, and rather than being something fancy, it’s a place where you can just go and be yourself. Japanese people are shy, but they all get in the water together with strangers they’ve never seen before and don’t know, and come home spiritually refreshed. That’s why it’s both interesting, and wonderful.
It’s a culture that’s part of a simple daily life which continues to this day. I chose the Japanese bath as my motif in order to reappraise it. I thought it would be nice for guests to relax body and mind surrounded by the scene of a public bathhouse where you can unwind. I hope you enjoy the Japanese “sento”, or public bathhouse, through my world, PONI.
Keiko Migita
Born 1983 in Kumamoto.
Specialized in Printmaking at Tama Art University Graduate School, Fine-Arts Graduate Course
