B-OWND, a platform for arts and crafts provided by Tanseisha, will hold an exhibition called "Koga Takahiro Exhibition: Ha・Wabi-Sabi | in Sakai: Birthplace of Rikyū" from Sunday, March 1st to Saturday, March 7th, 2026, fusing contemporary arts and crafts with the spirit of the tea ceremony.
During the event, we will also collaborate with Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, the birthplace of Rikyu, to carry out a demonstration project in which participants can experience an artistic tea ceremony using the works of Koga Takahiro in a tea room associated with Rikyu, comparing it with a traditional wabi tea ceremony.
Through this initiative, we will combine the contemporary art and crafts promoted by B-OWND with the tea ceremony and the historical cultural resources of Sakai City, its sacred ground, to create new value and explore the possibility of sharing it overseas.
Location: Sakai Risho no Mori Exterior
Event main visual
Background of the initiative
The collaboration between B-OWND and Sakai City began with the hosting of an event at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo.
Sakai City has flourished as a trading city since the Middle Ages, and has developed while flexibly accepting and nurturing foreign cultures and values under an ethos of freedom and autonomy. The "Sakai spirit of freedom" nurtured throughout this history has become the soil for innovation that creates new value with each era, in the form of tea ceremony culture represented by Rikyu, craftsmanship, Japanese beauty, and aesthetic sense, and has been passed down to the present day.
This project is set in Sakai, Rikyu's birthplace and the roots of his works, and is the setting for the ceramic artist Koga Takahiro, who respects Rikyu and has adopted the theme "NEO WABI-SABI." By combining the contemporary art and crafts that B-OWND aims for with the tea ceremony and the historical and cultural resources of its sacred place, this is an attempt to create new expressions and value, and to generate innovation, and has been implemented with an eye toward further strengthening cooperation in the future.
News Release
Exhibition Overview
| Name | "Takahiro Koga Exhibition: Breaking Wabi-Sabi | in Sakai: Birthplace of Rikyū" |
|---|---|
| Exhibition Theme | This exhibition is a contemporary response to Rikyu, whom Koga respects. In a time of war and turmoil when luxury was a sign of power, Rikyu, by "sparing" ornamentation to the utmost limit, created a space where people could come together as human beings, even dissolving the boundaries between friend and foe over a single bowl. However, in modern times, "wabi-sabi" tends to be safely consumed as a symbol of refinement. Therefore, out of respect for Rikyu, Koga dares to "exaggerate." By taking the excess of gloss, color, volume, and decoration to the point of catching the eye, taking one's breath, and shaking one's values, he creates moments of serenity. He presents flashiness not as frivolous but as shock therapy that reboots the senses from a modern perspective. What occurs here is not mere flashiness, but a reversal of the conventional notion that excess equals noise. At the moment when the visual sense becomes saturated, silence, paradoxically, takes shape. This silence is not an escape, but a tactile sensation of "chosen peace" that takes on the senses and judgments of the viewer in an age of violence and pressure to conform. The exhibition space is set in a teahouse named after one of the Three Sen schools of tea ceremony in Sakai, Rikyu's birthplace. Rather than relying on the neutrality of the white cube, Koga utilizes lines of conduct and distance as a medium. The viewer's shadow, distance, and even the time spent there are all woven into the work, creating a one-off composition in which the three elements of material (ceramics), system (exhibition), and body (audience) compete with each other. It is a proposal to restore tranquility through flashiness. |
| Date and time | March 1st (Sun) - March 7th (Sat), 2026 9:30-17:30 (until 15:00 on the last day) |
| Location | Sakai Risho no Mori Tea Room Space (2-1-1 Shukuincho Nishi, Sakai Ward, Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture) |
| Admission fee | Free |
| Organizer | TANSEISHA Co., Ltd. |
| Contact Us | B-OWND mail:info@b-ownd.com |
Art Tea Ceremony Event Details
In order to create a tea ceremony experience where "tradition and innovation" unique to Sakai intersect, an art tea ceremony will be held using the works of Koga Takahiro in the special space of a tea room associated with Rikyu. The art tea ceremony will be held in collaboration with Koga Takahiro, at the tea room "Muichian," a reproduction of the four-and-a-half-tatami room that Rikyu held at the Kitano Grand Tea Ceremony. Enjoy the experience of making and tasting tea in a space surrounded by Koga Takahiro's tea utensils and works. There will also be a guided tour of the tea room "Sakai Tai-an," a restored version of the Myoki-an Tai-an, the only surviving National Treasure created by Rikyu, in its original form.
*The concurrently held Wabi Tea Ceremony is not open to the public. For details, please see the Sakai City press release below.
(Sakai City press release: https://www.city.sakai.lg.jp/shisei/koho/hodo/hodoteikyoshiryo/index.html)
| Name | "Takahiro Koga Collaborative Art Tea Ceremony" |
|---|---|
| Date and time | Six events will be held on Saturday, March 7, 2026 from 10:00 to 16:00 |
| Location | Sakai Risho no Mori Muichian (2-1-1 Shukuincho Nishi, Sakai Ward, Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture) |
| How to apply | Applications will be accepted from 2:00 PM on Friday, February 6, 2026 via the following website (first 30 people). |
| Cost to Participate | 6,600 yen |
| Website | Sakai Toshiaki no Mori official website application page |
| Organizer | Organized by: Sakai City, Sakai Risho no Mori, with the cooperation of: TANSEISHA Co., Ltd. |
Takahiro Koga Profile
Born in 1987, she noticed that the Japanese aesthetic of "appreciating imperfection" can be seen not only in the simple, wabi-sabi aesthetic, but also in flashy Kabuki and cute culture such as anime. Her work is based on the concept of "NEO WABI-SABI," which encompasses both the "culture of simple stillness" and the "culture of flashy movement." Her work is characterized by gorgeous colors and countless studs that accentuate the presence of objects. She updates the forms of Japanese art and creates works that reflect the concerns of modern society.
Comment from Ken Ishigami, producer of Tanseisha B-OWND
Following on from its collaboration with Sakai City at last year's Expo, B-OWND will be holding an exhibition and tea ceremony at Sakai Rikyu no Mori, where the spirits of Sen no Rikyu and Yosano Akiko intersect, that best reflects the "NEO WABI-SABI" concept pursued by Koga Takahiro. Please come and see this experiment that redefines "crafts" as a concept that transcends the dualistic questions of tool or art, everyday or extraordinary.
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