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相良 育弥 ikuya Sagara
相良 育弥 ikuya Sagara
相良 育弥 ikuya Sagara

相良 育弥ikuya Sagara

兵庫県神戸市北区淡河町を拠点に、伝統的な民家から文化財、現代的な内装や装飾まで幅広く手掛ける茅葺き職人。
空と大地、都市と農村、日本と海外、昔と今、百姓と職人のあいだを、草であそびながら、茅葺きを今にフィットさせる活動に精力的に取り組む。
宮澤賢治の『農民藝術概論』に出会い、生活自体が芸術でありそれが美しく尊いという言葉に、自然の風景に溶け込む実践者になりたいと、「百姓(＝生活に必要とされる百の業を持つ人)」を目指す。
茅葺き職人の道を選んだのは、「植物を刈りとり、お屋根に葺いて、使い終わったら土に還せる」茅葺きの世界が、まさに百姓の業でできていると知ったからという。
また茅葺き職人の高い技術で自然と向き合いながら制作されたアートワークは国内外からの評価も高く、LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2024ファイナリストに選出された。
様々な方向から茅葺きの持つ可能性や魅力を探り、それを表現するアーティスト・作家として、茅葺き職人という枠を超えて今注目を集める。

Based in Ougo-cho, Kita-ku, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture, he is a thatcher who works on a wide range of projects, from traditional private homes and cultural assets to modern interior design and decoration.
He is energetically engaged in activities to make thatching fit the present, while playing with grass between the sky and the earth, urban and rural, Japan and overseas, the past and the present, and peasants and craftsman.
Encountering Kenji Miyazawa's “Outline of Farmer's Art” and hearing that life itself is art and that it is beautiful and precious, he wanted to become a practitioner who blends into the natural landscape and become a “peasant (= a person who has a hundred works necessary for life).
He chose to become a thatcher because he learned that the world of thatching, where “plants are harvested, thatched on roofs, and returned to the soil after use,” is truly the work of a peasant.
The artwork, which was created while facing nature with the advanced skills of thatcher, has been highly acclaimed both in Japan and abroad, and was selected as a LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2024 finalist.
He explores the possibilities and charms of thatch from various directions, and as an artist and creator who expresses these possibilities, he is now attracting attention beyond the framework of a thatcher.

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