Hitotsutsumi（One Wrap, One Embrace）
Year of Production: 2025
Format: Participatory Artwork
Size: Kikumaki (including fillings): W2000 × H100 × D1800 mm
Materials: Fabric, cotton
Hitotsutsumi is a participatory artwork in which visitors are wrapped in large furoshiki cloths by the artist while sharing a conversation. By transforming an everyday Japanese wrapping cloth into an experience of wrapping a human body, the work explores how familiar objects and gestures can create communication, trust, and one-of-a-kind relationships between the artist and participants.
Doctoral degree completion work.
The work is set in a fictional kimono accessory shop, where large furoshiki wrapping cloths are displayed throughout the space. Visitors encounter the artist in the role of the shop’s okami, or proprietress, who explains that this is a place where visitors can be wrapped in furoshiki while sharing stories and conversations.
Participants choose two large furoshiki cloths from the patterns displayed in the space. They then step onto the tatami area and, together with the artist, spread out the two cloths and connect them by tying their corners together. Once joined, the cloths form a square measuring approximately three meters on each side.
The participant then positions themselves on top of the cloth in the posture in which they wish to be wrapped. They may sit, stand, or lie down. Responding to the participant’s body, posture, and conversation, the artist wraps them according to traditional furoshiki tying techniques.
After the wrapping is complete, the artist photographs the participant on site and prints the image onto iron-on transfer paper. The participant then cuts out the printed image, attaches it to a noren curtain, and gives their wrapped form a name.
As more people participate, the noren gradually fills with images of wrapped bodies. Each individual wrapping becomes a singular artwork, created through the communication between the participant and the artist.
From the Doctoral Thesis
Three Elements in the Work
Object
The object in this work is the furoshiki wrapping cloth. By creating the fictional setting of a kimono accessory shop lined with large furoshiki together with the artist, the work forms a space temporarily separated from everyday life, allowing viewers to feel safe as they participate in the experience.
Although furoshiki and fabric are familiar objects, the use of cloths far larger than ordinary furoshiki creates a sense of surprise: an object normally used to wrap things now wraps the viewer’s own body. At the same time, because the action itself—wrapping and being wrapped—is familiar, viewers can easily imagine the process of participation, which also helps create a sense of security.
In the act of wrapping something with furoshiki, the viewer takes on the role of “the one being wrapped,” while the artist takes on the role of “the one who wraps.” Through the reciprocal exchange that emerges from their communication, the furoshiki is transformed from a mere object into Hitotsutsumi: a work created through both the act of wrapping and the communication between the artist and the viewer.
Viewer
In this work, the viewer is the one who is wrapped in furoshiki. By experiencing the work together with the artist, the viewer transforms an ordinary furoshiki into the artwork Hitotsutsumi.
The viewer has the agency to choose the patterns of the furoshiki displayed in the space, as well as the posture in which they wish to be wrapped. These choices reduce the gap in experience between the artist and the viewer, and also create a unique, unrepeatable experience for the artist.
After being wrapped, the viewer is given an opportunity for reflection and expression by naming their own wrapped form based on the experience. This process of reflection and self-observation becomes a catalyst for transforming the act of participation into a personal experience.
Artist
In this work, the artist appears as the okami, or proprietress, of a kimono accessory shop. Taking on this role, the artist creates the world of the artwork together with the furoshiki objects and adjusts the conditions of the experience.
By participating together with the viewer, the artist collaboratively transforms the object of the furoshiki into the artwork Hitotsutsumi. However, because the viewer chooses the furoshiki patterns and determines their own body posture, the artist cannot fully control the experience.
By handing over certain choices—such as the selection of cloth and posture—to the viewer, the artist also enters the experience as a participant and challenger.
