Complete with a grass deck, this “green park floating on a lake” is a beautiful way to travel.
torii
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Unique blend of botanicals includes seaweed, tea, wasabi, and Japanese cedar, as a nod to the wood used in red shrine gates.
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Torii gates always have an elegant allure, but none quite like this shrine’s.
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There’s more to this unusual shrine than its stunning red torii gates that lead down to the Sea of Japan.
A Franco-German artist is tasked reinterpreting an iconic symbol of Japanese culture. The torii gate is usually seen outside of Shinto shrines as a marker designating an entrance into a sacred space. Benoît Maubrey is creating a more interactive version than the traditional red ones found throughout Japan.
Meriken Park in Kobe will be the site of a torii made entirely out of 300 recycled speakers. The sculpture is functional and includes a four-way channel so visitors can speak to one another through the gate using a microphone or their smartphones. When it’s not in use, the gate will emit varying kinds of white noise.
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