Animism beliefs around the world include the conception that objects serve as vessels for spirit essence. In Japan, this often calls to mind the traditional belief in tsukumogami, which are inanimate objects such as household implements and tools that have been used for many years and are thought to host a spirit. For fifteen years, Isana Yamada has created art centering on the theme of tsukumogami. Recently, however, he has talked about how the definition of this term is too narrow and does not properly reflect the intended concept. The title of this exhibition, Funade wa Seshika, is taken from poem number 3,893 in the Man’yoshu waka poetry collection.  The poem expresses the completion of a safe marine voyage, and how it seems like only yesterday that the writer set out on their journey. In life, we perhaps most keenly feel the rapid passage of time in the moment when a certain thing has just reached its conclusion. The Nisshin Maru, Japan’s only whaler mother ship, has recently been decommissioned after 36 years of service, and its role is being taken over by the Kangei Maru which was completed in March 2024. This year, Yamada will turn 36, and he will mark the occasion by presenting new works made using parts from the decommissioned ship provided by Kyodo Senpaku Co., Ltd. It’s up to the viewer to imagine what Yamada is thinking in his efforts using these decommissioned ship parts to, as he puts it, give tangible form to the vague feelings of attachment and reverence people living in modern-day society experience in regard to inanimate objects.