A Vist to SENTE | Revealing What Is Already There

In the first part of our visit, we explored SENTE’s use of silica and the idea of wearing water. In the second part, we spoke with Ota about the places and experiences that have shaped his relationship with nature, and the ideas that continue to guide his work today.

A little further back in time, from his late teens into his early twenties, Ota worked as an itamae (chef), preparing mainly fish dishes. Because of PTSD rooted in his childhood family environment, there was a period when he found it difficult to speak and had to take a break from work, eventually withdrawing from society.

During this time, his family took him to Hawaii, where he encountered a glassblowing performance. The experience left a deep impression on him. The turtle necklace he bought there became a catalyst for returning to work, as well as a personal source of strength.

The Great East Japan Earthquake, which Ota experienced in his late twenties, also had a profound influence on his life and work. While volunteering in the affected areas, he began thinking about the richness of nature, including its power and awe, and about the relationship between nature and people that might need to be reconsidered. As he questioned what it meant to be himself, and what it meant to be part of society, he remembered the relationship between the people of Takeo and the natural environment in which they lived.

From these reflections came the idea of expressing water through silica, creating jewelry and objects that could suggest a more harmonious relationship between people and nature. He began acquiring tools and conducting his own research, gradually developing his techniques and materials.

One of the first pieces to emerge from this process was an aroma necklace designed to soothe the wearer through scent. This became the starting point for Ota’s wholesale business. The sensitivity he had developed as an itamae—how to approach materials, how to work with them, and how to understand the space between things—continues to inform his practice, as does what he learned at Kissa Sankan-jin about living alongside nature.

The ideas of being “touched” and “healed” are also always present in his work, as a form of self-care for the mind. At the heart of Ota’s practice is a constant balance between two kinds of beauty: one shaped by human intention, and one that arises without force.

The first places the human being at the center—the idea that we create the world, that I express something through my own hands. The second is closer to an Indigenous understanding of nature, in which nature and people are not separate. A Buddhist sculptor, for example, may believe that the Buddha already exists within the wood, and that carving simply allows that presence to emerge.

Ota, in his own way, seeks to reveal the “water” that already exists within each person through silica. In 2024, Ota was invited by TOYOTA to create an artwork exploring the circular use of glass and slag materials used in automobiles. Through projects such as this, his practice continues to move beyond jewelry and into objects and wider forms of social engagement.

Ota calls the unique material he develops for his work “Suisei” (水精). For him, Suisei represents an aesthetic in contrast to that of the diamond. Rather than controlling nature in order to preserve a perfect form, it embraces impermanence and seeks to exist in harmony with the natural world. It is an approach that values not perfection, but things as they are. From jewelry to objects and projects that engage with society, Ota’s practice continues to expand, carrying with it the simple question at its center: how might we live, and make, in greater harmony with nature?