Researching on the Sentô culture led me to unexpected events, and to eventually to fulfill one of my dreams: I got accepted at Villa Kujoyama, a prestigious French artist residency in Kyoto, to pursue there my sento projects. In January, I departed to Kyoto for four months of intense research, which meant drawing a lot and going to sento everyday.

This time, I wanted to research the link between sento, design and crafts: for me, sento are not only places of wellbeing, they appear to me as living museum, where a great variety of crafts can be appreciated: from the Noren at the entrance to the penki-e (painted wall murals with a Fuji-san), ceramic tiles patterns and fresco, their architecture, the Oke (wooden buckets), the tenugui (illustrated coton towels)…

I was lucky to visit many craftpersons, especially Matsuzaki Riku, a young indigo craftman making incredible work, and we collaborated into creating an indigo-dyed Noren that I illustrated with a smiling Onsen face.

The Noren is now displayed at Imomatsu Onsen in Kyoto, and I hope local people can enjoy it everyday!

Kyoto is also special for its buzzing sento scene: I collaborated with sento collective Yutonamisha and art gallery VOU to illustrate their event GET YU: a week of live music, conferences and events around sento culture.

Finally, Sauna Channel, a project documenting public bathing cultures around the world, captured my process and collaborations with three Kyoto-based sento: Umeyu, Kamogawayu and Minamotoyu.
You can watch the video here.

What’s next now ? Our « ukigumo » photography documentary will be exhibited in Yakushima Photography Festival this autumn, and I’m currently illustrating a new sento book with publisher OK DES PARIS…
I hope to enjoy sento as long as possible, so let’s keep it alive!