Water Calling

Water Calling – this book is the result of research into groundwater in Kyoto carried out in collaboration with Yoshiko Nagai. How was the groundwater formed? How did the local people develop a water-related culture? In the 1990s, geophysical studies quantified the volume of water contained in the water table beneath the city, equivalent to that of Japan’s largest lake, Biwako. They have revealed the relationship between the depth of the bedrock, its composition and the quantity of water flowing through it. As far back as the Heian era (794-1192), people were aware of the abundance of underground water, but were unable to explain its origin or course. The book Water calling tells the story of the evolving relationship between water and human beings, from the formation of the water table 5 million years ago, to the domestication of water, the emergence of a mythology and the development of urban space and networks. It consists of twenty felt pen drawings and a text in English/Japanese. Each drawing is associated with an onomatopoeia, translating the sound of water into Japanese.