Oita Art Plaza and Funai Castle Ruins

Concrete and Stone

Art Plaza is a concrete building designed by Arata Isozaki in 1964. It was built as a library but the library relocated in the 90s and now the building serves as a meeting/event space and a permanent architectural exhibit of Isozaki's work. I went to the Art Plaza for a handmade arts and crafts event, and coincidentally stopped by the Funai Castle ruins next to the plaza. I had time to look around at the building and architectural images. The arts event was really fun with a lot of local artists and creative work. I was able to buy some little souvenirs. The mood inside the craft fair room was really cheerful and colorful in contrast with the building. I love the design, but it's a sort of cold white concrete with a lot of right angles. When I arrived, a junior high school class was at the castle ruins cleaning up their installation of handmade clay haniwa, a sort of traditional old fashioned doll, but more of a weird body-less face. I chatted with the teacher a little and he surprised me by giving me one of the unglazed terra cotta haniwa. I had been having sort of a bad day (hard time finding the right place due to using Apple Maps...) but that really cheered me up. Plus the haniwa lined up all over the entrance to the castle ruins was sort of weird but cool looking. After the event it was relaxing to walk through the park near the castle ruins.