The “IMAMORI Mitsuhiko: Satoyama, Where the water smells” exhibition at the Shiga Museum of Art will feature Imamori’s series of satoyama photos restructured with the keyword, “water smells.”
There are signs of water in all of Shiga’s satoyama, from the mountains, wood lands, terraced rice field, lakesides, reed beds, and Lake Biwa. Imamori captures such a three-dimensional water cycle in satoyama along with activities of humans and the life cycle of living creatures. The “water smells” is a symbolic smell of satoyama, a complex mixture of them.
What would you imagine if you thought about the “water smells”? It may be surprisingly difficult to describe. It can be the scent of a waterfront, or rain. Some might even think of an earthy smell, or chlorine smell, and some may think of no scent at all.
The complexity of the water smells holds the potential to lead to our personal nostalgic landscapes. We hope that this exhibition will provide an opportunity for each of us to recall our personal nostalgic landscapes and to ponder the future.