A reimagining of tradition through the fusion of science fiction and Kyogen.

As an official affiliated event of the Osaka–Kansai Expo, SF Kyogen “Mono no Aware” was staged at the EXPO Hall “Shine Hat.” The performance is based on Mono no Aware, a short science fiction story by American author Ken Liu—the first writer to win all three major international sci-fi awards: the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards.

In this production, Tenth-generation Miyake Tōkurō, who inherited the name of his grandfather, a Living National Treasure, takes the lead role. The project blends art, performance, fashion, design, music, and gaming to explore new creative expressions rooted in tradition.

Konel oversaw the real-time projection visuals that brought the performance space to life.

Concept

This work adapts a story by world-renowned sci-fi author Ken Liu into Kyogen, Japan’s oldest traditional performing art. It expands Kyogen’s universal emotional expression through modern knowledge and technology, presenting a new form of 21st-century performance that transcends borders, cultures, and time.

Rooted in a tradition that began as worship of the gods and transformed the absurdity of life and death into laughter, the piece asks: What does faith mean in an age without gods? How should we face the world shaped by new technologies?

Konel directed the real-time projection visuals that enhanced the performance space.

The blurred relationship between performer and audience

The visual production redefined the relationship between performer and audience by intentionally blurring their boundaries.
Audience members were cast as “passengers” aboard the spaceship featured in the story—their real-time images captured and projected as part of the performance, dissolving the line between watching and acting.
The text displayed on the left symbolizes “names,” portraying all individuals equally as existence itself, beyond distinctions of gender, nationality, or age.

An organic cosmos, an inner spirit

The piece intertwines the vastness of the cosmos with the depths of the human spirit, creating a metaphor where the viewer’s consciousness wavers alongside the work—dissolving the boundaries between self and other, reality and fiction.
Using slime mold simulations, the visuals reveal the invisible connections between the universe and the mind through lifelike, organic movements.