Statement

Awai – The Touch is a series that reinterprets ukiyo-e shunga through archival materials focusing exclusively on the forms and movements of hands and feet. By trimming and isolating these limbs, Kaneko constructs a growing body of reference materials, which he elevates and reconstructs through his own perspective.

In shunga, entangled hands and feet do not function merely as bodily fragments, but as sites where relationships are most tangibly revealed. Kaneko extracts these moments of touch and contact as concrete expressions of Interconnectedness—the relational processes through which the world is continuously generated.

The title Awai is an archaic Japanese word meaning “interval” or “in-between.” It does not signify a simple gap, but a domain in which elements overlap, touch, and give rise to relationships. Each work in the series constitutes a minimal structure of such a relationship, complete in itself.

At the same time, as these works accumulate and connect within space, they form a network of relationships that extends beyond the individual piece. Through this accumulation, Awai – The Touch transforms the exhibition space into a site where the relational structure of the world itself becomes visible. The series continues to expand as an archive that supports and sustains the artist’s ongoing thinking and practice.

A handmade archival book created in 2013, composed of trimmed hands and feet from shunga. This early reference material marks the initial encounter that led to the development of Awai – The Touch.