Image: MOA Museum of Art, Shizuoka
The MOA Museum of Art in Shizuoka, Japan, has renewed the projection artwork ‘Between Sea and Sky’, replacing the images shown in the museum’s circular hall from 1 September 2026. The announcement identifies the work as a projection-based kaleidoscope installation and credits its production to Atelier Yamanoha, also known as Urushi Atelier Yamanoha, and artist Yu Murose.
The museum’s notice describes the circular-hall work as the world’s largest projection-type kaleidoscope. It does not provide technical specifications, installation dimensions or information about the imagery used in the renewed presentation. No closing date is given, indicating that the museum has announced the change as an ongoing presentation rather than a limited-duration exhibition.
Atelier Yamanoha’s website identifies the studio in Japanese and English as ‘Urushi Atelier Yamanoha’. The atelier is based in Morosawa, Hitachiomiya, in Ibaraki Prefecture, a location surrounded by mountains and water. Its stated activities include cultivating urushi trees, producing objects and communicating the material’s cultural and artistic significance.
The studio’s name refers to the ridgeline of a mountain, or the point where mountain and sky meet. That explanation appears on the atelier’s own website alongside information about its work with urushi, the sap harvested from Japanese lacquer trees. The material has been used in Japan since the Jōmon period as a coating and adhesive; when it reacts with moisture in the air, it hardens into a durable, glossy film. The atelier highlights the clarity and lustre of urushi from the Oku-Kuji area in its production of objects including bowls and chopsticks.
The available announcement does not state whether urushi or lacquer techniques are incorporated into ‘Between Sea and Sky’, and the work should not be conflated with the atelier’s separately described craft production. It confirms only that the projection artwork in the MOA Museum of Art’s circular hall has been renewed, that Atelier Yamanoha and Yu Murose are credited with its creation, and that the new presentation began on 1 September 2026. The museum has not published an end date for the display.
