Satsuki IMAI

This work, originally created in 2017, was recreated for the summer season of “Ki・Ten・Ki・Ten”, the 10th Anniversary Exhibition of the Museum of Beginnings held in Inawashiro, Fukushima, in 2024.
When speaking with local residents, the artist learned that the iconic Mount Bandai—commonly known as a series of three connected peaks—was once said to have had a “fourth mountain.” This earlier form disappeared due to a major eruption that occurred exactly one hundred years before the artist, Imai, was born. Captivated by this coincidence and the mountain’s layered histories, she imagined and reconstructed the “fourth Mount Bandai.”

Since no photographic records from that era exist, the recreated mountain was inspired by paintings and local stories. While it pays homage to the lost landscape, the “fourth Mount Bandai” also emerges as a new mountain—one blossomed into existence by the hands of people living today.

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Inside the work, participants enter a cave-like interior where they are free to create flowers using just tissue paper, tape, and bamboo skewers. There are no rules or prescribed methods: some remember how they made paper flowers as children, while others invent entirely new approaches.

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As participants work with their hands, conversations naturally begin—about Inawashiro, Mount Bandai, Lake Inawashiro, or people to whom they wish to give their flowers. Though their eyes stay focused on their hands, they soon find themselves engaged in lively exchanges. In this way, flowers of every shape, color, and size come to life—no two ever the same.

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The completed flowers are planted by participants either inside the cave or on the outer surface of the mountain. Those who wished to give their flower to someone special were invited to take it home. After making a flower, participants climb a ladder inside the cave to “summit” Mount Bandai at an elevation of 2,125 meters. From the summit, they enjoy the view and the flowers left by others nearby. Upon exiting the cave, they receive a commemorative pennant for reaching the peak.

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Over the long exhibition period from July to October, many visitors created flowers—a total of 1,366 blossoms were born.