Exhibiting at the Japan International Art Festival

Our five days at the Japan International Art Festival have come to a successful close.

Thank you to everyone who visited us. 🙏

At this edition of the Japan International Art Festival, held at the Expo,

we at Feel&Sense presented “INOCHI Exhibition — Kukai, Prayer and the Mandala of Life,” inspired by a vision that came to us.

These works incorporate bonji, Sanskrit seed syllables said to have been left in Kukai’s own hand.

Bonji express the resonance of the universe in a single character, representing a Buddha or bodhisattva.

We could call them the art of our predecessors.

Written characters also hold and reveal the feelings of the person who writes them.

The prayer that Kukai placed within the bonji,

overlaid with one’s own prayer

and brought into resonance before the work,

formed the basis of what we created as an “instrument of prayer,” amplifying many times over the power of the resonance between the universe and life.

During the exhibition, monks from renowned temples that preserve World Heritage, including Ninnaji, Hieizan Enryakuji, Toji and Sennyuji, visited our booth.

The 51st Monzeki head priest of Ninnaji, a World Heritage Site and the head temple of the Omuro school of Shingon Buddhism,

His Eminence Daishu Segawa, came to visit.

Standing before the bonji “A” and “Om,” written in Kukai’s own hand,

he said, “Kukai teaches that beyond conscious and subconscious awareness,

and deeper still,

there is another layer of consciousness. These works express precisely that layer.”

It was a moment when the depth of life seemed to have been put into words.

That layer is our very soul,

It is a realm where what matters most resides. We created these works with the single wish that people might feel it, so His Eminence Segawa’s words moved us profoundly.

We hope that what Feel&Sense brings into resonance

can be a sound that invites people into that realm.

When he previously watched the film LIFE INOCHI on a computer,

the former President of Koyasan University, the Most Reverend Shingen Takagi,

asked, “Was this work made by someone who understands esoteric Buddhism?

It expresses Kukai’s Treatise on the Ten Stages of the Mind of the Secret Mandala.”

Those were the words he shared with us.

We have not formally studied Buddhism or religion. Yet the expressions we have continued to create from our own sensitivity and prayer were connected, across time, to the wisdom of our predecessors. We feel profound wonder and gratitude at this discovery.

Now we find ourselves within a larger movement: bringing these works into resonance with the Super Kids Orchestra, sharing them with the world on the stage of an Expo devoted to life itself.

A resonance that transcends every boundary and connects us at the source of life. We are filled with deep gratitude to be in the midst of the mission we must fulfill together with our companions.

At the venue, not only monks but many other visitors joined their hands in prayer before the work at the center of the exhibition, “Dainichi Nyorai of the Womb Realm,” into which we had poured our whole hearts, and before the sacred rock of the Kumano Kodo. We are deeply grateful to have been able to create these works.

🌿 Visitors (honorifics omitted; listed in no particular order)

Dr. Felix Moesner — Consul, Consulate of Switzerland in Osaka

Andy Laksmana — Consul, Consulate-General of the Republic of Indonesia in Osaka

His Eminence Daishu Segawa — 51st Monzeki Head Priest, Ninnaji, Head Temple of the Omuro School of Shingon Buddhism

圓城義孝 — Chief Administrator, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha (Nishi Hongwanji, a World Heritage Site)

星野最宥 — Deputy Executive Officer, Hieizan Enryakuji / Director, Enryakuji Kaikan

三浦文良 — Chief Executive Priest, Toji, Head Temple of Shingon Buddhism

渡邊恭章 — Executive Priest and Director of Buddhist Studies, Sennyuji Head Temple

竹中亮寛 — General Affairs Section Chief, General Affairs Department, Omuro School of Shingon Buddhism

九條義宣 — Section Chief, Internal Affairs Office, Hongwanji, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha (Nishi Hongwanji)

Takuo Dome — Assistant to the President, University of Osaka / Chair, Inochi Forum Executive Committee

Hiroshi Ishiguro — Professor, University of Osaka / Thematic Project Producer, Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition

President Yamamoto — Adventure World

President Sato — Zero Seiko Co., Ltd.

Artists: 村田好謙 / 松原明俊 / 磯部茂亀

Yoshikazu Noda — Mayor of Higashiosaka