​​​In 2011, I began producing The Stream, a film series shot in the Ogura-ike Reclaimed Land near my home. Since then, I have continued creating one film each year, completing fourteen works to date.

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The Ogura-ike reclaimed land in Uji City, where I live, is a special place for me. It is completely different from the historic sites associated with The Tale of Genji, Byodoin or the Nintendo Museum, which are also located in Uji. Most of this vast area, once covered by a lake, has now become farmland.

 

Its scale is enormous — large enough to contain around 170 baseball fields. There are no tall buildings here to block sunlight or wind. Apart from a small number of people engaged in agricultural work, there is hardly anyone around.

In terms of sound, the environment is also quiet, with only the distant noise of passing cars and the occasional chirping of birds to be heard.

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For this reason, the sky stretching across a 180-degree field of view is filled entirely with the colors of the sky itself and the movement of clouds. The sunlight pouring onto the farmland also changes its color and temperature from morning to evening, allowing one to physically experience these transitions directly. Likewise, because there are no buildings to obstruct it, the wind can be felt exactly as it exists in the weather itself, in both direction and intensity.

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Although the reclaimed land is an artificial environment, it is fundamentally different from another artificial environment: the dense clusters of buildings in urban areas. What can be filmed and recorded here is filled with rare forms of information that cannot be obtained in cities. I became interested in the “streams” that contain this rare information.

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There are three kinds of streams in this reclaimed land.

The first is the stream of nature: rivers, wind, clouds, rain, the movement of the sun, the flight of birds and fish in motion.

The second is the stream created by human activity: agricultural processes, irrigation, drainage, and the movement of vehicles.

The third is the historical stream surrounding the reclaimed land: the history of flood control that transformed the lake into reclaimed land, along with the historical sites and testimonies that remain there.

These streams never stop; they continue flowing even now.

 

The Stream reconstructs these three streams in order to express the dynamism inherent in the reclaimed landscape.

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Next, I would like to explain why I choose video as my medium of expression.

Video extends human audiovisual perception. Perspectives that can only be captured through the eye of the camera — such as close-ups, aerial shots, underwater filming, and time-lapse photography — reveal diverse aspects of things that would otherwise remain unseen. Through these discoveries, we come to realize that everyday life, often considered ordinary, is in fact filled with wonder.

 

Through discoveries made by video, I attempt to reconsider preconceived notions about my subjects and pursue my own unique form of expression.

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At this screening exhibition, The Stream X (10) (2019, 6 min) and The Stream XIV (14) (2025, 9 min) will be presented on a loop. The total viewing time is approximately 15 minutes.

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