CAFÉ Tarot was created as a museum café for Tokyo Tarot Museum. While the museum’s theme is ‘dialogue with the self,’ CAFÉ Tarot’s theme is ‘dialogue with others.’
Dialogue is the process of facing people with different values and creating something new together while valuing the flow of thought. It is important to respect each other’s values without imposing one’s values on the other. It is through this kind of dialogue that a peaceful society can be brought about.
Happiness and answers in life lie within, not outside of ourselves.
Nature (the universe) is in perfect harmony, and what sometimes seems absurd may actually be a blessing that occurs in order for us to gain awareness.
The way to arrive at the essential answer is not to resist nature (the truth of the universe), but to quietly talk to oneself (introspection) and decipher the meaning of what is happening in front of one’s eyes.
Sometimes, by interacting with others (people with different values), we are made aware of feelings and thought patterns that lie dormant within us, and this deepens our dialogue with the self.
Within us is engraved the memory of time since the birth of life.
We need to think about the story of that memory, and we who live in the present need to pass this baton on to the future.
A marble mosaic of the Tarot card ‘Wheel of Fortune’ is displayed inside the café as a symbol of the ‘cycle of life’ and the weaving of soul stories that transcend time.
We sincerely hope that this space will be a catalyst for people who spend time together to talk and weave the stories of their own souls, and to build a peaceful world.
Owner
Motoyasu Sato
When I first saw the Marseilles Tarot cards, which were painted in the Middle Ages, I was attracted by their lovely colors and designs.
In the process of creation, I tried to faithfully reproduce the colors and designs of the depicted motifs one by one as much as possible. This process was similar to the approach I usually take in faithfully reproducing ancient Roman mosaics, in which I try to read the historical and cultural messages behind the designs.
The charm of marble mosaic, which is created by cutting marble one by one with a hammer and taking time, lies above all in its material.
When the energy of marble, a metamorphic rock formed by the earth over hundreds of millions of years, and the message and power hidden in the tarot card design were combined, they seemed to resonate with each other, and a new world was born, drawing out their qualities.
The wonder of the marriage of marble and tarot was that as soon as the last stone piece was placed and the work was completed, it began to play, releasing not only the loveliness of the design, but also a unique worldview and energy.
This was a new experience for me, the creator of the mosaic, not found in any other mosaic work.
I would be happy if each person relaxing at the cafe could feel the music played by the Tarot mosaic.
Marble Mosaic
Created by Mihoko Narasaki
Studio Mosaico
In 1994, while studying in France, she encountered marble mosaic. She learned the technique and sense of mosaic at a mosaic atelier in Paris.
In 1996, she went to Ravenna, Italy, where the tradition of mosaic is still inherited, to learn the full-scale technique.
After obtaining European mosaic technique certification there, she returned to Japan in 1998 and established Studio Mosaico in Tokyo.
She imported many kinds and colors of marble from Italy, and has been promoting and producing marble mosaics and ancient Roman mosaics, which were not well known in Japan.