Updated December 26, 2021
Digital Art has quite a market in Japan, as you probably already know if you've done any amount of research into Japan travel in Tokyo... and probably came across "TeamLab" (the exhibit that everyone has photos of when they post about Japan, I assure you). While they are the most well known, they are definitely not the only players in the game.
NAKED INC. (yes, yes... get all the giggles out) is arguably one of the next biggest players in the Digital Art/Projection Mapping game in Japan. While you may not have heard of them by name, you probably have seen some of their work all over Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, all over Japan and even some overseas.
Particularly, a lot of the projection mapping in various castles around Japan are done by NAKED INC. Like the Ninja Night at Himeji Castle I've posted and several Nijo Castle projection mapping projects that I never posted.
If you're an Osaka resident and go through Umeda often, then you've definitely seen NAKED INC's work near Higashi-Umeda (at the WHITY underground shopping mall).
Recently, they've moved into Temple and Shrine projections at Heian Jingu in Kyoto. I was lucky enough to be able to go on a weekday night to enjoy the projections without too many people.
This projection is limited from December 15th (Wednesday) to December 30th (Thursday), 2021 and from January 6th (Thursday) to January 16th (Sunday), 2022.
More information here on the website.
Let's get to the photos!
Here it is! Let's go inside. Click on the side to scroll through the photos below:
One of their signature exhibit is their "DANDELION PROJECT".
This is a cute little set up where you can input your own name on this website they have. It creates a screen that the machine scans to create a nice little dandelion projection mapping with your name on it. It's really cute.
I don't want to spoil too much because this really isn't a huge exhibit, even though the Heian Jingu grounds and gardens are quite huge in size, but their other signature this time is in the gardens area on this bridge (it's a beauty in the daytime if you get a chance to go in).
Oh and yes, every group who enters gets one free lantern to carry around the grounds until you exit. If you would like an extra lantern, you will need to pay an extra 300 yen. Make sure you visit the tent to your left as you enter the grounds.
And that's it. I hope you get to visit!
If not, I hope you enjoyed my photos, and finally - I leave you with a creepy photo of myself
