ささやきの部屋 Whispering Room
ここにあるのは、かつて日本の絹産業を支えた群馬の養蚕文化が紡いだ言葉です。
夜更けに聞こえた糸車の音、蚕が桑を喰む音が、優しい雨の音に似ていたこと。そしてあたり一面に広がる桑畑。人々は蚕を「お蚕様」と呼んで、大切に大切に育てたこと。わずか十数歳の少女たちが日本の近代化を支えていたこと。やがて訪れる戦禍の音も、群馬の地で響き渡ったのかもしれません。本作品はこの土地で紡がれた言葉を再構築することで、往時の人々の暮らしを想像する空間を創りたいという想いから生まれました。
Displayed here are words woven from Gunma’s sericulture culture, which once supported Japan’s silk industry. These words evoke vast fields of mulberry stretching across the land, the rain-like rustle of silkworms eating mulberry leaves, and the hum of the reeling machine late at night. They tell of people affectionately calling silkworms “Okaiko-sama” (honorable silkworms) and raising them with utmost care. They also hint at the stories of teenage girls who underpinned Japan’s modernization, and perhaps even the echoes of war that eventually reached this very land. This artwork was born from the desire to reconstruct these words, etched into this land, and create a space where we can imagine the daily lives of people from a bygone era.