板室温泉 大黒屋

Itamuro Onsen Daikokuya is pleased to present Shards of Pangaea, a solo exhibition by Hirofumi Isoya, from November 2 to November 30, 2025.
The exhibition features 14 new works from the Shards of Pangaea series, along with 7 small-format pieces from the Colored Frames series.
Isoya has long explored the layered structures of perception through installations that combine photography and sculpture. His fourth solo exhibition at Daikokuya—three years since his last—centers around a series of photographic works taken at Schloss Loosdorf, a historic castle located in Lower Austria, north of Vienna. Originally built in the Middle Ages and remodeled over the early modern and modern periods, the castle has been owned by the Piatti family since 1834, when it was acquired by Count Friedrich August Piatti. The family, of Northern Italian origin, has documented roots going back to the 11th century and once held court positions in Saxony. They were also involved in the porcelain trade and are believed to have transported their ceramic collection with them when relocating from Dresden to Loosdorf.
The Loosdorf Castle collection is known for its rich diversity, including Kakiemon and Jingdezhen porcelains that reached Europe from East Asia in the 17th century onward, alongside pieces from famed European kilns such as Meissen and Vienna. It stood as a symbol of East-West exchange around the so-called “white gold” of porcelain.
At the end of World War II, however, the castle was seized by the Soviet army, and much of the porcelain hidden in its basement was destroyed. The fragments were later gathered into what is now known as the Scherbenzimmer (“Room of Shards”), where they have been quietly preserved as a memory of wartime devastation.
The photographic works on view depict these remaining fragments, captured floating in milk—a substance symbolizing life. The milk envelops the traces of destruction, creating a ritual space for renewal. Its milky translucence softens the sharp edges of the ceramic shards, inviting us to imagine the vessels they once formed.
Rather than physically restoring what has been lost, Isoya seeks to discover new relationships between separated parts, exploring the possibility of emotional and temporal restoration. Even while holding space for rupture, his work reconnects memory and matter in the here and now.
The exhibition’s title, Pangaea, refers to the ancient supercontinent that once united all landmasses on Earth. The later dispersal of continents—and the seafaring and trade routes that reconnected them—echoes the journey of East Asian porcelain into European hands. The shards remaining at Loosdorf Castle, originating from Japan, China, and across Europe, silently speak to histories of connection, transmission, and fragmentation.
By reassembling these broken pieces, this exhibition becomes a quiet journey of recovery—one that traverses layers of history and material, inviting the viewer’s imagination to engage in acts of renewal.
This project emerged from a collaboration between Hirofumi Isoya and the Piatti family, the current owners of Schloss Loosdorf. The Piatti family has collected ceramics from East Asia, including Japan, over multiple generations. With the Room of Shards as its axis, the family envisioned a project that bridges cultural heritage (and wartime memory) with contemporary art.
Moved by this vision, Isoya set out to connect the historical narrative of porcelain fragments with present-day perception—exploring themes such as temporal layering, shattered memory, and regeneration. For him, this encounter has served as a creative opportunity to mediate between different eras and places.
We warmly invite you to experience the exhibition this autumn in Itamuro Onsen, as the colors of the season deepen across the Nasu landscape.