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Yumedono Inspired by the Shōgun Team 2025
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CMAPR-011 (UR) - Murakami says that the American period drama series, Shōgun, which has been airing and distributing since 2024, has knocked him right out of his brain. What an amazing reinterpretation of Japanese cultural barriers! The idea that samurai of the Sengoku (warring states) period may have approached life with a creative spirit—crafting their own narratives of existence through acts of seppuku and writing death poems—seemed to offer one possible answer to the modern question of what it means to live. At the same time, Murakami was deeply moved by the art direction in the series. When he asked Disney Japan if he could meet the production designer, Helen Jarvis, he was told that producer Justin Marks and screenwriter Rachel Kondo happened to be visiting Japan for promotion and research. Murakami met with them, which in turn connected him with Helen, and from there, this project got started.
Yumedono is a real structure located in Nara, themed around the concept of
dreams. A National Treasure, the octagonal hall at Hōryū-ji was built during the Nara period in honor of Prince Shōtoku, and enshrines the Kuse Kannon as its principal deity.
With the idea of exhibiting four large paintings of the Four Symbols (shishin) inside, Murakami’s structure was produced in a very short time under Jarvis's direction by the production company 11th Street Workshop with the coordination of its manager, Korey White.
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