Contemporary Artist — b.1987, Yamanashi, Japan. Based in Saga Prefecture. MFA Tokyo Zokei University.
Takakurakazuki creates works using digital media such as video games, pixel art, XR, and AI, drawing on Eastern thought—particularly Esoteric Buddhism, Shinbutsu-shūgō (the syncretism of Shinto and Buddhism), and cultures of belief surrounding yōkai and spirits.
At the center of his practice is the proposition "PLAY = PRAY." Ritual implements used to access realms beyond the human world are structurally equivalent to controllers used to access the world beyond the screen. Game characters, as vessels for one's own soul, function as yorishiro—spirit dwellings—within virtual space. Play and prayer are constituted through the same act of crossing into another dimension, grounded in the body as hardware, the soul as software, and dependent origination (engi) as network.
Through this framework, Takakurakazuki reexamines embodiment and rituality in the digital age through the structures of characters and games, producing works that seek to rewrite the very systems and assumptions of contemporary art. Projects such as "Hyper Shrine," "Character Matrix," and "Characters = Characters" interconnect Eastern philosophy, digital art, and contemporary art in a mandala-like network—an ongoing process of saṃsāra as continuous updates.
たかくらかずきは、ビデオゲーム、AI、XRといったデジタル表現を用い、東洋思想、とりわけ密教、神仏習合、妖怪や精霊の信仰文化を手がかりに作品を制作している。中心にあるのは「PLAY = PRAY」という命題である。人間の世界の向こう側にアクセスするために用いられてきた仏具や祭具は、画面の向こう側にアクセスするためのコントローラーと構造的に等しい。自らの魂の容器としてのゲームキャラクターは、仮想世界における依代として機能する。遊戯と祈祷は、身体＝ハードウェアと魂＝ソフトウェア、そして縁起＝ネットワークを起点に、別次元への越境という同一の所作によって成立している。
Takakurakazuki. Artist. Born in 1987, based in Japan. Completed an MFA at Tokyo Zokei University. Selected solo exhibitions include "Characters = Characters" at Hyper Museum Hanno (2026) and "Mechareal" at the Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art (2023). Selected projects include "Character Matrix" at BUG (2024) and "Hyperman Van Go O" at GINZA SIX (2025). His work has been presented in Japan and internationally, including at NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC], SusHi Tech Square, New York, Taipei, and Mexico. In 2025, his work was acquired by the Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, and he was selected for OpenAI's "Sora Select Tokyo." In recent years, as a form of social implementation of mandalas and the logic of dependent origination, he has also been exploring network-based modes of artistic production, including distributed ownership, decentralization, de-urbanization, and collaboration with craftspeople.
Large-scale installation at the GINZA SIX entrance. Hyperman reconfigures the Esoteric Buddhist concept of the Five Elements—earth, water, fire, wind, and void—into a character form. Zodiac characters based on Yin–Yang and the Five Phases visualize nature, time, direction, and cycles through digital artworks and sculptural structures.
Solo exhibition across the museum galleries, Art Forest Park, and virtual space. "Mechareal" is a coined term focusing on mechanistic tendencies when Surrealism was introduced to Japan. Starting from Yamanashi-born painter Hisashito Yonekura, poems were fed into image-generating AI, creating canvas works through collage and digital painting. Technologies include AI image generation, pixel animation, 3D printing, VR, and NFTs.
A game in which the player controls "YOU" and aims to reach the summit of Mount Sumeru. The game cabinet was crafted by Mizota Butsudan, a traditional Buddhist altar maker. Adopting the format of a butsudan as a structure for virtually enshrining the soul, with kusōzu (Nine Stages of Decay) reconstructed using emoji on both sides.
Installation of character-based works using video games, AI, and AR. Characters inspired by oni, kappa, zodiac signs, Buddhism, Shinto, and yōkai. Featured more than ten playable game works and a four-meter Hyperman sculpture. Structure inspired by the three-dimensional mandala at Tō-ji Temple, Kyoto.
Participatory art project that deifies digital file formats (jpg, png, gif, mp3) and enshrines them as KAMI. Reconstructs animism within contemporary data society. NFT and blockchain technologies serve as yorishiro—vessels for possession and growth. Unfolds across online shrine, 2D metaverse, installations, AR shrine pavilions, and physical shrine spaces. Head shrine "Hyper Shrine 6D" permanently installed at Naoshima Ryokan ROKA, produced with Nakamura Setsuro Sekizai stoneworks.
Group exhibition curated by Takakurakazuki at Recruit BUG. Artists: Yume Aoyama, Sawako Kageyama, Tomoya Kuki, Takakurakazuki, Meichin Romana Tanimura, Takumi Hirayama. Explored the structural grammar of characters across art, religion, and digital culture.
Sculptural work composed of 15 LED panels driven by 12 Raspberry Pi units. Each day, the system searches social media for "enjo" (viral outrage), and the intensity of Fudō Myōō's flames shifts between three states based on the number of hits. AR extends the visualization into augmented space.
Satori Yugi OHENRO 88: Action RPG set 5.6 billion years after humanity's extinction, where AI "9-KAI" installs data of 88 Buddhas seeking enlightenment. Presented at BitSummit, Tokyo Game Show 2025. Mani Yugi TOKOYO: Buddhist-themed shooting game on Steam, inspired by the mani wheel of Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism. Player rides a wooden fish machine through the Six Realms of Reincarnation.
Series reconsidering diverse forms of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Devas, and Myōō in Japanese Buddhism as "characters." Connects formal diversity in Buddhist paintings and sculptures with contemporary cultures of character variation found in video games.
Ceramic series combining game controller and console forms with esoteric Buddhist samaya concepts and tea ceremony vocabulary. Produced in collaboration with traditional ceramics craftspeople.
SNS-based artwork exploring Buddhist network metaphors through digital communication. Collaboration with Junko Shimizu (UI/UX, Graphic Recording) and Makoto Amano (Technical Direction).
Production and exhibition project addressing a condition where "narrative" recedes and continuous "updates" take the foreground. Presented in VR, physical installation, and NFT formats.
Collaborative project combining Japanese yōkai tradition with Indonesian wayang kulit shadow puppet theater in digital form.
Emoji mosaic artworks reimagining the 53 stations of the Tōkaidō road, reconstructing Hiroshige's ukiyo-e landscapes using contemporary emoji as pictorial units.
Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art (2025)
Column: "Contemporary Art and Video Games" (現代美術とヴィデオゲーム) — serialized in Bijutsu Techo Online Premium (美術手帖), ongoing.
Manga: "Onikappa to Hotoke-tachi" (オニカッパとほとけたち) — serialized on Chieumi Plus (ちえうみ＋), a Buddhist media platform.
Art Director, Hanchu-Yuei (範宙遊泳) theater company. Animation and visual direction for NHK E-TV "Shakiin!", TV Tokyo "Shinapushu", and other media. Tourism Ambassador, Ichikawamisato Town, Yamanashi Prefecture. Organizer, Mandala-dan (曼荼羅団) study group & community. Former Part-time Lecturer, Kyoto University of the Arts (2021–2024).
Animation and art direction for television (NHK E-TV, TV Tokyo), film (WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES), advertising, music artwork, book design, theater (Hanchu-Yuei), and product collaborations.
Takakurakazuki is not represented by or affiliated with any specific commercial gallery. Exhibition collaborations include YOD Gallery (Osaka/Tokyo), Mizuma Gallery (Singapore), aki gallery (Taipei), and others. "Takakurakazuki" (one word) is the preferred artist name. Studio Tokoyo (スタジオ常世). Contact: studiotokoyo.com/contact