Artist Majima Tatsuo worked together with nine project members living in Aichi Prefecture to create a 5.4m high, 15.3m wide mural representing the essence of Aichi as can be seen through the three great warlords-Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu-hailing from the region who unified Japan during the Sengoku period.

As background research, project members inspected the murals that can be found in Nagoyaʼs underground walkways, public facilities, and stations, and the walls and sliding screen doors decorated with art at Nagoya Castle. They also learned about the Mexican Muralist movement at Nagoya City Art Museum, where they studied how murals were made in Mexico and the techniques employed in their creation. The project members then proposed from what perspective to capture the “whole of Aichi,” as well as things that symbolize Aichi from various angles, and came up with ideas and developed a plan regarding what materials to use, what to paint, and how. Having also learned from researchers specializing in history when and why the term “Kyodo San-eiketsu” (lit. Homeland Three Heroes)-referring to Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu-came into use in connection with Aichi, they went on to capture “Homeland Aichi” not only from the perspective of Aichi being their home, but also of Aichi Prefecture as a homeland in the modern historical and conceptual sense.

Rather than expanding the focus of research outwards centered on Nagoya, Majima viewed Aichi from multiple perspectives, using the ellipse as a keyword for the shape formed when two centers of focus are established. The approach could be applied to pairs of foci such as the provinces of Owari and Mikawa, Nobunaga/Hideyoshi (Owari) and Ieyasu (Mikawa), Nagoya and Toei-cho, Nagoya and Homi Danchi, Nagoya City and Aichi Prefecture, and the Chita and Atsumi Peninsulas. The creation of the mural outside the Learning Room on the eighth floor was inspired by materials and artistic expressions encountered during research, down to the coloring, wording, and even how the three warlords were rendered. All of the parts attached to the panels forming the whole oval belt consist of things made in Aichi.

Selected Works & Awards

Recent major presentations include A Mountain and a Crowd (Taikan and Leni)/ Four Examinations (TPAM 2019 version), blanClass (2019; Yokohama, Japan); Open, Fold, Reverse, Close: On Kawara Diagram (Clay), Fujita/Foujita at 11 rue Larrey, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art (2016; Aichi, Japan); Okayama Art Summit 2016, Tenjinyama Cultural Plaza (2016; Japan); PARASOPHIA: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art (2015; Japan).

Exhibition

• Installation view at Aichi Triennale 2022
• The Whole of Aichi featuring Three Heroes, 2022
• Photo: ToLoLo studio