Have you ever heard of the "Venus' flower basket"?
A Venus' flower basket is a group of white sponges that live in the deep sea. A pair of male and female shrimp live in the sponge, and the two spend their lives together there. Therefore, in Japan, it’s become a word that means that a couple's bond is strong, “when alive we grow old together, when we die we are buried in the same hole together.”
The artist Lulu Kouno, who worked on this room, began making murals while traveling around the world. Her style depicts the deep sea and eternal love with a sense of innocence and purity. And the white canopy representing Venus' flower basket that envelops the bed is the artwork of collaborating artist Sachiko Ninomiya.
Imagine it-- we’re down in the deep sea. What would it feel like to be surrounded by a white Venus’ flower basket? I want you to lie down in the bed and lose yourself in a world of pure white. How do you feel? And what are the artists trying to convey to you through this scene? From here, let's listen to their story.
-- First of all, please introduce yourself.
My name is Lulu Kouno. I live in Nagoya and I paint pictures.
-- I think the idea of a "journey" is an important theme in your artistic work. Please tell us how you see the connection between the journey and the finished product, and what the idea of a journey means to you.
So I started painting about 5 years ago. It was when I quit my job and decided to travel, and I visited many countries around the world. At the end of my trip, I arrived in Mexico and realized I had run out of money. My money was gone but I wasn’t ready to go back to Japan just yet, so I decided to work at the lodge as a housekeeper in exchange for accommodation.
-- That’s amazing.
But it was super boring! I would sit on the roof of the inn, thinking to myself, “This is so boring, this isn’t why I left Japan and went on my journey.” But it was there on that rooftop where one day, something clicked inside me and I was overwhelmed with inspiration. I wondered to myself if I could draw a mural or something in exchange for accommodation. When I asked the inn owner, he told me “How did you know I wanted a painting?” He brought me to the wall of the room, and said, “Paint something here!” It was my first time to paint a mural, but I was hooked as soon as I started.
--- This room is titled "Venus' Flower Basket". This room is based on the concept that shrimp enter the sponge and spend the rest of their life there together. In the back of the room, there is a “real” Venus' flower basket. "A space where two people will stay together for the rest of their lives." How do you feel about this concept?
Actually, if it were me I couldn't do it (laughs)! That means staying in someplace like this forever! It’s crazy, isn’t it? You want to go out sometimes, that’s normal. But these small shrimp feel safe inside the sponge and so they stay there. I guess if it was an anime character or something I would think it's cute.
--- So when you put yourself in the same situation,
I just wouldn’t be able to stay in the same place, forever...
--In that sense, it’s kind of romantic, isn't it? Spending the night in a room with such a special story. There must be times when you want to feel that kind of passion.
This is a room where you can enjoy it the more you understand the concept behind it. Without the story, you would just wonder, “What’s with all the tiny shrimp on the wall?” I think I drew about 700 shrimp in this room. Maybe I shouldn't even be saying this, but I hid drawings of shrimp everywhere. In all sorts of random places, there’s most likely a shrimp.
So another way to enjoy this room is to play, “let’s find all the shrimp!”
That’s why I think you can get more out of this room by understanding what it’s all about.
-- Do you have anything you’d like to say to our guests?
You’ll never find a hotel room with a knit canopy over the bed quite like this one. Please take some time to relax here while imagining you’re lying at the bottom of the sea, together with the story of the shrimp and the Venus’ flower basket.