Passing Through, 2026
Single-channel video, colour, sound, 6 min 10 seconds
In Fujiyoshida, a city at the foot of Mount Fuji, a network of water channels runs through the urban landscape. The water originates from rain and snowmelt on the mountain, which seep into the porous lava rock and are gradually filtered through volcanic layers over decades before reemerging as groundwater in the lower areas of Fuji. Part of this water flows into the city’s channels, where it becomes visible and audible.
The video work Passing Through follows these waterways through the urban environment. In a sequence of calm, carefully composed shots, attention is directed toward the movement, surface, and sound of the water. A temporal shift becomes apparent: the water that appears here in the city originates from rain and snowmelt that fell on Fuji long before.
The channels also point to different historical phases of the city. Fujiyoshida developed from the former pilgrimage town of Yoshida, an important starting point for ascents of Mount Fuji. Pilgrims prepared for their climb here and performed ritual water purifications. With industrialization, the city later became a center of textile production, where water was used in various stages of fabric manufacturing. Today, Fujiyoshida is largely shaped by the touristic gaze directed toward Mount Fuji, increasingly mediated through photographic imagery and its circulation on social media.
While visitors usually pass through the area only briefly, directing their gaze toward the mountain, the water appears in the urban space as the trace of a process that began long before within the mountain itself. Passing Through focuses on the water as an expression of this temporal shift. In doing so, the work shifts the perception of Fuji away from its iconic image toward the slow hydrological processes through which the mountain becomes present within the city of Fujiyoshida.
