Creating a New Standard for Art Appreciation: Tokyo National Museum x GATARI – Sound Immersive Experience 'Memories of Water and Prayer' Starring Kuranosuke Sasaki Debuts at Horyuji Treasure Hall

GATARI Inc. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Shunichi Takeshita; hereinafter 'GATARI'), in collaboration with the Tokyo National Museum's Horyuji Treasure Hall, will hold a special limited-viewing experience titled 'Memories of Water and Prayer.'

This experience is a sound-immersive journey using GATARI's 'Auris' platform, where the story unfolds in response to the visitor's steps and actions.

This initiative is the first step in transforming the traditional role of audio guides from simply 'delivering information' to creating a spatial experience that encourages visitors to 'notice, move, stay, and return.'

■ Shifting the Role of Audio Experience from Information Delivery to Behavioral Change

Audio guides in museums and art galleries, first introduced in the Netherlands in the 1950s, have been the standard format for cultural appreciation for over half a century. Visitors, as 'recipients,' select a number and receive one-way commentary—a structure that remains unchanged today.

GATARI proposes a new standard: sound immersion, where the space responds to the visitor's position and movements, and the action itself creates the experience.

By having the space respond through Auris to natural visitor actions like walking, stopping, and turning around, visitors not only receive information unilaterally but also engage with the space through their own actions. Auris aims not to create 'content to be listened to,' but to generate behavioral changes in visitors: 'noticing, moving, staying, and returning.'

■ Your Own 1300 Years, Opened Only on Closed Days

In 'Memories of Water and Prayer,' a small number of guests are welcomed to the Horyuji Treasure Hall on a closed day. Starting with the sound-immersive experience, visitors engage with 1300 years of history through a lecture by a museum specialist, a special boxed kaiseki meal related to Horyuji, a rare incense ceremony featuring aloeswood, and a performance of the biwa (Japanese lute).

The Horyuji Treasure Hall, designed by architect Yoshio Taniguchi with the concept of 'water,' is known for its architecture of tension and release, designed as a vessel to house the Buddhist statues and crafts created during the Asuka and Nara periods. The collection stands in silence and dim light, without much explanation. By overlaying the sound-immersive experience of 'Auris' onto this space, visitor behavior is transformed.

The voice is provided by actor Kuranosuke Sasaki. As a narrator and celestial being, and sometimes as a lone traveler who visited the treasure hall before, he guides visitors across 1300 years to the Nara and Asuka periods.

■ Guided by the Voice of Celestial Being Kuranosuke Sasaki Across 1300 Years

Listening through headphones to the narration of the celestial being played by Kuranosuke Sasaki, interwoven with the voice of the 'real' Kuranosuke Sasaki who visited the hall earlier, visitors slowly walk through the hall, feeling as if they are touching the world of Asuka and Nara across time.

If you walk towards where the sound grows louder, you encounter the story waiting there. Even moments of silence while standing still become part of the narrative. A Bodhisattva statue you might have passed by without a second glance becomes a presence you want to stop and face. You realize that behind the artifacts you knew nothing about, there are stories you want to learn more about.

This change in experience is born from the sound layered over the space responding to the visitor's actions.

And supporting this experience is 'Auris,' a game engine for the real world.

Without any construction work on the space, using only a rented smartphone, it can acquire the user's position, orientation, and posture data with centimeter-order accuracy, triggering interactions based on their actions and movements.

By placing audio and sounds in specific locations within a digitally scanned Horyuji Treasure Hall and linking them to unfold based on visitor actions, a narrative experience integrated with the space is achieved on-site or remotely, with just a single smartphone.

This experience, which does not require a screen to progress the story, leaves the eyes free to focus on the space and the many Bodhisattva statues in front of them.

The narration of the celestial being delivered through headphones guides visitors to perspectives they would not notice on their own, such as the differences in the Bodhisattva statues' forms and the meaning of prayers embedded in the canopy.

■ Bringing Behavioral-Changing Audio Experiences to All Museums and Art Galleries

GATARI's goal is to change the relationship between visitors and spaces through audio. The accumulation of experiences—stopping in front of exhibits, encountering the stories behind them, and wanting to know more—transforms museums and art galleries into 'places you want to visit again.'

Starting with this experience at the Horyuji Treasure Hall, GATARI will roll out this new standard of sound immersion to museums and art galleries everywhere.

■ Event Overview

Event Name: A set event combining 'Immersive Sound Immersive Viewing,' 'A Lecture on Fragrance and Incense Ceremony by Museum Specialists,' and 'Special Chef's Cuisine'

Venue: Tokyo National Museum, Horyuji Treasure Hall [Room 1, Room 2, Entrance Hall]

Date: Monday, June 8, 2026

Time: 11:00-14:00 / 16:00-19:00

Capacity: 40 people (20 per session)

Price: 30,000 yen (tax included)

Reservation URL: https://www.asoview.com/channel/ticket/jgz3hboMWt/ticket0000051446/

Organizer: Tokyo National Museum, Horyuji Treasure Hall

Direction/Technology Provider: GATARI

■ Comment from Kazutaka Kono, Director of Curatorial Research, Tokyo National Museum

'The Horyuji Treasure Hall is a place where people's prayers and wishes have lived for over a thousand years. 'Memories of Water and Prayer' is an attempt to immerse oneself in that world of prayer through sound and create new experiences. As visitors walk, feel, and imagine, a unique story will emerge in each person's heart. This expands the possibilities of appreciation and holds great potential for the future of museums. I hope many people will enjoy this new experience.'

About the Mixed Reality Platform 'Auris'

Auris is a Mixed Reality platform that can create an unprecedented sense of immersion in reality with just one smartphone and no coding required.

Without the need for any head-mounted displays, it provides a new immersive experience using only a smartphone and earphones, devices that are becoming commonplace.

With its proprietary spatial scanning and self-position estimation system that works entirely on a smartphone, and a highly flexible authoring tool that enables various experiences depending on settings, it allows anyone to create unprecedented experiences anytime, anywhere. It is currently being introduced in various locations, including cultural properties, museums, model rooms, and exhibitions.

'Auris' official website: https://gatari.co.jp/auris-intro/

Company Overview

GATARI Inc. is a Mixed Reality startup aiming to build the infrastructure for a future where digital and reality merge, with a focus on new entertainment. With the vision of 'Creating a world where people and the internet merge,' the company is based at the University of Tokyo.