about us

An Art house for Alterative Art in  the Japanese countryside, with a special focus on dance and Performance Art.

YESE lies in Mie-ken, a prefecture with many sources of natural inspiration…A third of Mie consists of National parks.  Famous sites in Mie include the ISE grand Shrine (Ise-jingu) and the Kumano Kodo, an ancient pilgrimage walking path.

Noteworthy  milestones of YESE!:
1)Converting a 40  year old house into an art house: This nearly killed us. The site consists of two houses. We had to clear MAJOR termite damage in the oldest one..which wasn’t apparent when we first found the place. We had to strip walls and removing the entire floor. Next was dealing with the damp and reinforcing supports for the roof. Finally we could build  a new dance floor and adjoining ateliers/all-purpose rooms. We managed to do this through two cold winters and little money thanks to the support of professionals and volunteers.
2)Collaborations and support: We’ve been collaborating almost since the inception of YESE, with a young painter Shinpei Hamaguchi in a series of action painting dance performance  venues throughout Mie-ken. This culminated in a tour of Germany, where we did action painting/dance events. Following an intense 2 months, a new exhibition of Shinpei’s new work, inspired by Germany was exhibited at YESE along with two local HAKUSAN artists in a show entitled “MORTAL KOMBAT, 3 Artists celebrate 3 years of YESE!”

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