ASK02: Shiga Museum of Art Presents Contemporary Art in Kohoku Kaneuji Teppei: Smoke and Fog in Kashiwabara-juku, Nakasendo

Period　Sat., October 3 – Sun., December 13, 2026 Open on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays during the exhibition period Open for 25 days in total

Outline

Since FY2025, the Shiga Museum of Art has been presenting ASK: Contemporary Art in Kohoku, a three-year exhibition series staged in three cities (Takashima, Maibara, and Nagahama) in the Kohoku (northern Lake Biwa vicinity) area of Shiga Prefecture, with a different artist invited each year.

ASK is an acronym for Art Spot in Kohoku, while also invoking the English verb “ask” and the project’s aim of raising questions in people’s minds through art. By presenting contemporary art not only inside the museum but throughout the region, the project seeks to offer fresh perspectives on the area’s history, culture, and the lives of its people.

The second installment of ASK, to be held in FY2026, will invite artist and sculptor Kaneuji Teppei to the Kashiwabara district of Maibara City, formerly the post town of Kashiwabara-juku on the historic Nakasendo route. The area is also known for Ibuki moxa, a local specialty made from medicinal herbs from Mount Ibuki. Kaneuji severs everyday objects from their intended meanings and uses, employing assemblage to graft them into new and unexpected configurations. What emerges are scenes in which the real and the imaginary, the bygone and the yet to come, occupy a single space. His practice spans media including sculpture, installation, moving image, and performance.

The exhibition title, Smoke and Fog, takes up a recurring subject in Kaneuji’s works and exhibitions. Smoke is considered here as a human-caused phenomenon generated by combustion, whereas fog is a natural phenomenon that occurs when airborne water vapor cools into minute droplets. Both register as fine particles suspended in the air, but their visual resemblance belies their different properties, and their conjunction suggests how crossing boundaries can generate change and open new possibilities.

While exploring this theme, the exhibition will reconfigure selections from Kaneuji’s existing body of work for the spaces in Kashiwabara, alongside a new installation informed by the town’s history, environment, and ways of life. Kaneuji’s singular, dynamic methods will bring new facets of Kashiwabara into view against the enduring atmosphere of its post-town past. We hope visitors will experience the pleasure of contemporary art and the energy of Kaneuji’s works, and at the same time discover the distinctive appeal of historic Kashiwabara.

Period: Sat., October 3 – Sun., December 13, 2026
Open on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays during the exhibition period
Open for 25 days in total

Hours: 10:00–16:00
Kashiwabara-juku Historical Museum only: 9:00–17:00 (last admission 16:30)

Venues

Former Sake Brewery “Yaito-juku” 2098 Kashiwabara, Maibara City
Kashiwabara-juku Historical Museum 2101 Kashiwabara, Maibara City
Nishimachi Kaido Cultural Exchange Center “Rosso” 2204 Kashiwabara, Maibara City
Former Nakamura Residence 2188 Kashiwabara, Maibara City

Parking (free)
Kashiwabara Clinic Parking Lot　2100 Kashiwabara, Maibara City
Maibara Santo B&G Kaiyo Center Parking Lot　2293-1 Kashiwabara, Maibara City

Admission: Free
*Admission fee required for the Kashiwabara-juku Historical Museum only: Adults ¥300, elementary and junior high school students ¥150

Organized by: Shiga Museum of Art

With the Cooperation of: Nakasendo Kashiwabara-juku Yaito Festival Executive Committee, Furinsha, Kashiwabara-juku Historical Museum, and Takumikobo Co., Ltd. (registered first-class architect office)

Supported by: Maibara City and Maibara City Board of Education

ArtistProfile

Kaneuji Teppei

Born in 1978, Kaneuji is an artist, sculptor, and associate professor in the Department of Fine Arts (Sculpture), Faculty of Fine Arts, Kyoto City University of Arts. Working with objects from his immediate surroundings, he extracts fragments and reconnects them in assemblage works that radically reframe their established contexts. He has held solo exhibitions at the Yokohama Museum of Art (2009), UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing, 2013), and Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art (2016), among other venues. His work has also been presented in group shows and international exhibitions in Japan and abroad. Since 2011, he has designed numerous stage sets, and in recent years he has extended his practice to theatrical works. His awards include the Kyoto City New Artist Award in FY2012, the Kyoto Prefectural Cultural Encouragement Award in FY2015, the 29th Takashimaya Cultural Foundation Award in 2018, and the Kyoto Prefectural Cultural Merit Award in FY2025. In 2025, as part of a project for Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025, he presented a work of public art at Expo 2025 Osaka.

Artist Statement

Kashiwabara retains the distinctive atmosphere of a former post town on the Nakasendo route, evoking distant places and eras.

I can sense traces of its former role as a hub for the transit and convergence of people, cultures, commerce, and fashions. Today, however, its abundant natural surroundings and peaceful, close-knit community make the stronger impression. In the far future, the town may assume an entirely different form. Perhaps portents of that future can already be discerned, or imagined.

My practice and research are grounded in translating connections, or disconnections, among times, contexts, values, places, and people into forms conceived as both hypotheses and temporary constructions, with reality and fiction interwoven throughout.

I am also intrigued by the prospect of exhibiting work far from museums and the established frameworks of contemporary art, in spaces where travelers must once have lodged.

Owing perhaps to the local climate, and to the relief that moxibustion gave weary travelers, the area is also known for producing moxa, the dried herb burned on the skin in that treatment. Kashiwabara lies close to Sekigahara, where forces from eastern and western Japan once met in battle, so signal fires may well have risen here. Smoke is a subject to which I often return. Its protean, abstract qualities call to mind the breadth of human activity, from its benign to its malignant forms.

The title Smoke and Fog imagines the mingling of two visually similar phenomena with different origins. Smoke may be regarded as human-made, while fog occurs naturally. Smoke rises from below, while fog descends from above. I would be glad if the dialogue between them encourages shifts in thought and perspective and awakens the imagination, if many people travel here from afar, and if those who live nearby cast their imaginations beyond their immediate surroundings.