While living in Japan, Ildegarda began studying calligraphy in Kyoto with master calligrapher Shotei Ibata (1935- 2021), a pioneer in contemporary calligraphy who placed a strong emphasis on performance. She went on to participate in performances with him in Japan, organised events featuring Shotei Ibata in Europe and wrote a book about him (Shotei Ibata, Rock Music and Big Brush, 2008).

Taking us around her home in Zurich, she discusses some of the Japanese works in her art collection. Ceramics include a vase by Hamada Shoji (1894-1978) and a piece by Ichikawa Toru (born in 1973) whose title Gi no Junrei, Nobunaga alludes to the seppuku of General Nobunaga, the first “Great Unifier” of Japan who died in 1582 (the task of unifying Japan was accomplished by the two other “Great Unifiers” by the end of the century). The battle of Sekighara, which Ildegarda mentions, is the largest battle of Japanese feudal history which took place in 1600 and led to the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Ildegarda then shows us a flamboyant gestural painting by Imai Toshimitsu (1928-2002), an influential post-war artist who went to Paris and became involved in the Art Informel movement before returning temporarily to Japan and helping to introduce Western abstract art there. Two works by Kohei Nawa (born in 1975), a painting from his Direction series and the Pixcell-Maria, are illustrative of his multidisciplinary approach. Another favourite of Ildegarda’s is Mariko Mori (born in 1967) whose Ekpyrotic String sculpture stands beautifully in her living room. The last works she shows us is the Mini Tanking Machine by Kenji Yanobe (born in 1965).

Early years of family life in a traditional Japanese house planted a seed that would blossom decades later when the renovation of her apartment in 2020 prompted the desire to experience again at home the pleasure of bathing in a wooden Japanese bathtub made of hinoki (cypress native to central Japan). Yuichi Kodai, a Kyoto-born architect active in Zurich and then lead in design for Architect office HILDEBRAND, designed the bathroom around the bathtub imported from Japan, as well as the nearby bedroom and dressing room. Inspired by the Mini Tanking Machine by Kenji Yanobe, an artist he knows personally, Kodai imagined these spaces as a cocoon from the outside world. To create this artful shelter he worked with a local carpenter and master-plasterer Tokura Tatsuya who came from Japan to create the clay walls. The specially crafted naguri floor was imported from Japan.