LIFESTYLE ARCHITECTURE Ci-contre, à gauche et à droite, et ci-dessous : ouverte au public au printemps dernier, la guesthouse Washin (“wa” pour Japon, “shin” pour le cœur, l’esprit ) a été dessinée par le New Material Research Laboratory, agence créée par Hiroshi Sugimoto et l’architecte Tomoyuki Sakakida. Sa conception s’inspire des techniques japonaises anciennes et associe matériaux naturels et technologie contemporaine. En bas à droite : la salle de thé de l’artiste et historien Terunobu Fujimori, perchée dans les branches d’un cyprès centenaire. Yoshii’s father, also a gallery owner, conceived the site, in Yamanashi Prefecture west of Tokyo, as an artistic utopia, a place where painters and sculptors from all over the world could live, create and show their works—not unlike La Ruche (“The Hive”) in southern Paris, a building designed by Gus- tave Eiffel that oncehoused Marc Chagall, Chaïm Soutine and many other artists. The Hive at Kiyoharu is an exact replica, built in 1981. It’s tempting to comparehet place with Naoshima and Teshima, the famous museum-islands of the Seto InlandSea. But rather than the sweeping horizons Artistic Eden of the coast, the art colony has cherry trees and mountains in the distance. Today the site is a whole complex of magnificent > TWO HOURS FROM TOKYO, THE KIYOHARU ART COLONY IS AN ARCHITECTURAL MARVEL—AND A PARADISE FOR ARTISTS AND ART LOVERS. We’re the only two diners in Hiromi Yoshii’s sushi restau- rant in the Aoyama district of Tokyo. Yoshii is a gallery owner, and the tiny restaurant (with a maximum capacity of four) is where he entertains artists and collectors. Between champagne and sake, hamachi and otoro, he talks about the filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu, through whom his parents met, and the familyhome in Onomichi, the town where Ozu’s movie Tokyo Story begins. He also talks about the photographer and architect Hiroshi Sugimoto, another key figure in his family’s history. It’s all part of the genesis of the Kiyoharu Art Colony, starting in the early 1980s. AIR FRANCE MADAME / 205