On the 9th, artist Noritaka Tatehana's one-day exhibition, "Tatehana Noritaka: Face and Continuation," was held at the Wakeijuku School, the former residence of Count Hosokawa, in Tokyo. Visitors were treated to approximately 30 works, including "Trace of Continuing History" (2015), a new work by Tatehana, a golden skeleton sitting in meditation that he created three years after conceiving it. The strikingly impressive meditating skeleton, unveiled for the first time, began with a CT scan of Tatehana's own skeleton, which was then modeled in 3D. The 3D-printed resin mold was then used as the prototype for the cast, which was then cast in brass. "This work can be seen as a device to erase the fear of death I felt after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. The act of imagining what my own death would look like was almost like an act of birth," Tatehana said in front of the piece. While studying at Tokyo University of the Arts, Tatehana studied courtesan culture. His previous works include heelless shoes evocative of courtesan geta (high clogs) and a courtesan hairpin sculpture over two meters tall. "Theory of the Elements," (2015), debuting at this exhibition, houses a Ploom electronic cigarette. Upon seeing the item, Tatehana commented, "It's like a modern-day courtesan's kiseru (Japanese tobacco pipe)." Following the geta and hairpin, this piece, which Tatehana describes as "the final piece of the courtesan's iconic items," is inspired by modern technology and reconstructs ancient techniques from a new perspective. Each of Tatehana's works in this exhibition seems to possess a vitality that transcends time and space. Even if time flows from the past to the present and into the future, when you stand in front of his works, you get the strange feeling that all of that is bundled together at once. This exhibition left me deeply convinced, as I ruminated on Tatehana's words, "I asked myself what is more important than what can be seen, and expressed the power of believing in what cannot be seen."