Ekotumi ・エコツミ・
Interdisciplinary Performance Artist
Japanese mythology × body, voice & place
Profile
Ekotumi is an interdisciplinary performance artist whose practice draws on Japanese mythology to explore the consciousness and voices that reside within the body. Working across singing, movement, literature, and installation, she approaches mythology not simply as narrative, but as something that can be encountered and re-experienced through the body.
In recent years, her practice has expanded into site-responsive work. Beginning with listening to the stories and memories held within a place, she brings them into dialogue with Japanese mythology, allowing new works to emerge through the encounter between mythology, body, place, and people.
Active internationally since 2015, she has presented solo performances in Paris, London, and Lithuania. She was a finalist for the Arte Laguna Prize, an international art competition in Italy, in 2024, and her novel based on Japanese mythology was published by Gakken.
Selected Works
New Translation Kojiki Series
A long-term series that reaches beyond the stories of the gods to the emotions beneath them, bringing a sense of lived presence back to Japanese mythology through body, voice, and music.
Echoes of the Gods
A performance beginning with a live heartbeat, exploring Japanese mythology and the question of existence.
Little God Sukunabikona
An installation that re-creates the singing and dancing body as a 360° hologram, exploring new possibilities for experiencing music in the absence of the physical body.
COVID19-20 Project
A field-recording work that gathers sounds recorded by people around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, positions them within a spatial soundscape according to the geographic coordinates and directions of their recording locations, and weaves them into music.
Click here to download the detailed brochure on Ekotumi’s performance styles.
Photos
Major achievements - CV-
[ Education ]
・Waseda University, Tokyo — B.A. in Literature (one of Japan’s top private universities)
・Shinto Shrine Proficiency Test, Level 1 (Highest Rank)
[ Performances & Exhibitions (selected) ]
・Solo Performance in Tokyo, “Art Performance Between the Sky and the Earth” (2024, selected for Florence Biennale, Italy — declined due to travel cost)
・Performance in Venice, Arte Laguna Prize Finalist Exhibition (2024)
・Solo Performance in Tokyo, “The Sacred Sounds” (2022, selected work for Arte Laguna Prize, Venice)
・Solo Performance in London, Embassy of Japan official event, “New Translation Kojiki – Izanami” (2021)
・Exhibition at Château de La Vrardens, France, “Fragments du Japon” (2021)
・Performance at Kanda Myojin Shrine, “New Translation Kojiki – Okuninushi” (2020, held in a sacred shrine setting)
・Solo Performance in Vilnius, Lithuania, “New Translation Kojiki – Izanami” (2019)
Special support: City of Vilnius / Supported by Embassy of Japan in Lithuania / Endorsed by the Japan Foundation
・Performance at Tokyo Daijingu Shrine, “New Translation Kojiki – Izanagi & Izanami” (2018, held in a sacred shrine setting)
・Opening Performance, World Art Dubai (2017)
・Solo Performance in Paris, “New Translation Kojiki – Amaterasu” (2016)
・Exhibition in Paris, “Exposition dʼart contemporain Japonais <AUTOMNE>” (2015)
・Opening Performance, Japanese Film Festival in Florence (2009)
・Plus numerous tours in Switzerland, Belgium, Mongolia, and across Japan.
[ Publications/Work (selected) ]
・“The Songs of Still-Young Gods” (novel inspired by Japanese mythology), Gakken, 2024
・“Makura-no-Teishi” & “The Takeda Brothers” (short stories based on Japanese historical culture), Gakken, 2025
・“Dream Which You Can See in the Backside of Your Eyelids” (music video & short film), 2024
・“KOJIKI – Japanese Mythology –” (full album based on the Izanami–Izanagi myth), 2018
[ Awards ]
・Finalist, Arte Laguna Prize, International Art Competition (2023, Venice, Italy)
・Grand Prize, MMM Regional Arts Festival (2021-2022, Nakaminato, Ibaraki, Japan)
・Selected for WomenCinemakers Biennial 2018, International Film Competition (2018, Berlin, Germany)
・Winner, Performing Arts Category, KDCC Kitakyushu Digital Creator Contest (2018, Kitakyushu, Japan)
・Special Prize, Women Entrepreneur Contest (2018, Tokyo, Japan)
[ Grants (Selected) ]
・Minato City Cultural Project Grant (2024, Tokyo, Japan)
・Gyomu Super Japan Dream Foundation (2024, private cultural foundation, Japan)
・Minato City Industrial & Regional Promotion Division Grant (2023, Tokyo, Japan)
・Kansai–Osaka 21st Century Association (2021, public cultural foundation, Japan)
・Chiyoda City Cultural Project Grant (2019-2020, Tokyo, Japan)
・Japan Content Localization & Promotion Support Grant (2014-2019, Maxium, governmental cultural promotion program)
Artist Statement
When I sing, “I” do not sing.
I simply listen to the voices that arise from my body.
When I dance, “I” do not dance.
I simply try not to interfere as my body searches through the memories of a place.
Countless memories lie dormant within my body.
Memories from the moment I was born.
The blood that seeped from a wound on the day I fell.
The sun on a morning when, unusually, I woke early.
The fear that strangled a part of my soul.
A song that made me feel I could fly anywhere.
Every story up to this present moment has accumulated within me, and together they make my existence possible.
But that is not all.
Every story exists within a context.
The story that resides within the word tasogare—twilight—once you learn that it comes from tazo kare, “Who is that?”
I look up at the moon and let my thoughts wander.
The same moon was gazed upon by countless poets who composed waka centuries ago.
Japanese mythology, still present in the country where I was born and raised.
Nature, with which we coexist.
All of these accumulate, weaving stories and forming this body of mine, with its indistinct boundaries.
My body is filled with memories that precede me, and stories that precede me.
When I sing, “I” do not sing.
I simply listen to the voices that arise from my body.
When I sing, “I” do not sing.
When I dance, “I” do not dance.
I simply try not to interfere as my body searches through the memories of a place.
When I dance, “I” do not dance.