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Enso in the Natural Spring - Togyokusen

teamLab, 2021, Digital Installation, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

Enso in the Natural Spring - Togyokusen

teamLab, 2021, Digital Installation, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi

The Kairakuen Garden area has always been rich in natural springs, and the spring water collected by taking advantage of the difference in topography when the garden was built is called Togyokusen.The spring water was also used in the tea ceremony of Kobuntei house's tea room.


Enso is the Zen practice of drawing a circle with a single brush stroke. This artwork depicts an enso drawn as Spatial Calligraphy. The brush stroke is suspended in space, but the viewpoint changes to reveal the circle enso. 

In Zen, enso is a circle that has since ancient times been written with canes or sticks in midair. It is said to represent enlightenment, truth, the entirety of the universe, and equality. The circle also reflects the hearts and minds of those who view it, with its interpretation left to the individual. 


Spatial Calligraphy is calligraphy drawn in space, a form of calligraphy that teamLab has been exploring since it was founded. The artwork reconstructs calligraphy in three dimensional space to express the depth, speed and power of the brush stroke, and that calligraphy is then flattened using the logical structure teamLab calls ultrasubjective space. The calligraphy shifts between two and three dimensions.