Yada Sekizaiten (stonemasonry)
Aichi, Japan / 2015

“connecting by graves”

Graves
… something that keeps us connected to the dead people
… something that reminds us who we are
… a symbol of happiness that strengthen family ties.

Stonemasonry’s job of making graves means to create connections between the dead people at the same time strengthening the bonds of the families that are alive.

Therefore, I had considered about making a space of talking about graves, which is an essential element, by portraying it as a “gravestone”, a “house” and at the same time a “home”.

What I actually did was to divide the space and made each divided space for a private family space.

Moreover, I had made the outside of those spaces just with the materials that are used in gravestones and made the inside just with the materials that are used in houses in order to express that the families are connected by graves. The most important issue is portrayed by a wall that is inextricably linked.

I had also finished the stones on the outside with techniques that are used only in woods (herringbone, border, haddon hall, random bonding) so that the warmth of the family can be expressed by the stones.

Photos by Keisuke Miyamoto