You have to admit, it's all awfully clever. At "L'art de Rosanjin," which runs at Nihonbashi Mitsui Hall until March 24, visitors can sit in a virtual tempura restaurant, and gawp as images of the chef's hands at work are projected on the counter in front of them, accompanied by the sounds of sizzling oil.
In an adjacent room, an eight-course traditional kaiseki meal is recreated via the wonders of 3-D projection mapping. On a table lined with empty plates and bowls, servings of food seem to materialize out of thin air when you lean in close, then disappear just as you're framing a shot on your smartphone.
This smorgasbord of high-tech froth has been laid out in tribute to Kitaoji Rosanjin (1883-1959), the calligrapher, ceramicist and epicure whose theories on the interplay between food and art did much to shape current thinking on Japanese cuisine. The primacy of natural flavors, the virtues of simplicity and the importance of carefully chosen tableware, are all concepts that Rosanjin championed.
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