Mifuneyama Rakuen is a pleasure garden sprawling over 500,000 square metres at the base of Mt Mifune in Saga Prefecture on the Japanese island of Kyushu. Created for the former feudal lord Shigeyoshi Nabeshima in 1845, the position of the garden was brilliantly calculated; the mountain creates the perfect backdrop, appearing to be part of the garden without the burden – or price tag – of ownership. The ‘borrowed' panorama creates a stunning first impression, and while the azaleas that drench the garden in colour during spring are absent, the vivid autumn hues of orange, yellow and red are equally arresting.
Wandering the tiered terraces, weaving through a maze of low-manicured hedges, I am blissfully engulfed in the silence and solitude of nature, removed from the technology and affections of the modern as if I have stepped back in time. Then I see it, an unassuming sign, almost apologetic in its humbleness: teamLabs Ruins and Heritage. In the middle of a garden in the middle of the mountains in the middle of an island, I have happened upon an installation by the hottest digital art collective in the world.
I'm amazed, then I am
