Kyoto City and KiQ Continue Invitation-Only Salon 'Salon Privé Kyoto' Bridging Culture, Cities, and AI

Salon Privé Kyoto: An Invitation-Only Cultural Salon Co-Hosted by Kyoto City and KiQ

KiQ (Founder & CEO: Akane Kikuchi) is continuing its invitation-only cultural salon, 'Salon Privé Kyoto,' co-hosted with Kyoto City.

This project is a small-group co-creation initiative where experts from diverse fields—including researchers, business leaders, local government officials, developers, creators, and traditional culture practitioners—gather to discuss 'the next city and humanity,' crossing the boundaries of culture, urban environments, physicality, and AI.

Rather than a one-off event, it is a continuous initiative that uses Kyoto as a starting point to re-edit the region’s unique cultural capital and memories of the land, connecting them to future urban development, regional branding, urban co-creation, and community building.

■ A Dialogue Project Connecting with Kyoto's Revitalization Efforts and Basic Plan

Kyoto City aims to remain true to its identity and continue attracting people for a thousand years. Through its 'Kyoto Revitalization' efforts and the 'Kyoto Basic Plan,' the city has outlined its future vision and the values to be passed on to the future.

The Kyoto Basic Plan, serving as the city’s 'compass' for the 25 years from 2026 to 2050, highlights the perspective of inheriting values related to history, culture, nature, and human connections.

The website 'Preserve Kyoto' promotes Kyoto's charm and initiatives to pass them on. It is planned to feature information on the Kyoto Basic Plan in the future.

Preserve Kyoto: https://preservekyoto.city.kyoto.lg.jp/

Salon Privé Kyoto echoes this context by aiming to re-edit culture and tradition not just as objects to be preserved, but as creative capital for imagining the future of cities, industries, and regional communities.

■ About Salon Privé Kyoto

'Salon Privé Kyoto' is an invitation-only cultural salon co-hosted by Kyoto City and KiQ.

Participants with diverse expertise, including government, research, business, development, and arts, gather in small groups to cross-examine urban environments, culture, body, technology, and regional economies.

Unlike standard seminars or networking events, Salon Privé Kyoto emphasizes creating space for new questions to emerge through the intersection of diverse perspectives, rather than rushing to conclusions.

Rooted in KiQ's 'Empathy Design' and 'Shosa' (graceful movement) philosophy, it aims to create dialogue experiences that incorporate not just knowledge sharing but also relationship building, the 'atmosphere' of the place, physical sensations, and local context.

■ Previous Sessions

The first session featured Daiko Matsuyama (Deputy Head Priest of Taizoin Temple, Myoshinji) on 'The Philosophy of Meaningful Spaces in Kyoto: Wisdom for a Divided World.'

The second session featured Noriko Matsuda (Associate Professor, Kyoto Prefectural University Graduate School), a researcher of architectural and urban history, on 'The Earth and Water of Kyoto, and the Shosa of Those Who Live There.'

The dialogue reframed the city not just as surface-level architecture or streetscapes, but through viewpoints including underground water veins and historical land layers. Topics covered included the Kyoto basin and water, urban formation, physicality and 'shosa,' humanity that AI cannot replicate, and the intersection of cultural preservation and urban development.

It was a time to rethink the city of Kyoto as a 'living cultural sphere' formed by the overlapping of water, land, and human behavior.

Article on Salon Privé Kyoto Second Session: https://preservekyoto.city.kyoto.lg.jp/en/posts/cultural-salon-202603

■ Venue: A Renovated 100-Year-Old Traditional House in Kita-oji

The second session was held at 'ASOBOLOGY OFFICE,' a co-creation base housed in a renovated 100-year-old traditional folk house in Kita-oji.

In a space reflecting the layers of Kyoto's life and time, participants transcended titles and fields to engage in dialogue, sparking new perspectives on the future of cities and regions.

■ Why Re-examine 'Humanity' in the Age of AI?

While AI and technology advance rapidly, cities and regions are facing renewed questions about value that efficiency and functionality alone cannot address.

Regional identity, cultural context, physical sensation, inherited 'shosa,' and land memory.

While difficult to quantify, these factors are becoming critical capital for future urban development, branding, and co-creation communities.

Salon Privé Kyoto aims to unearth these hidden values through dialogue and build intellectual and emotional spaces for imagining the future.

■ About Founder & CEO Akane Kikuchi

After studying design in New York, Akane Kikuchi experienced life as a geisha in Kyoto's Kamishichiken district.

With a deep interest in non-verbal communication and physicality, she now focuses on 'shosa' and 'empathy design,' crossing fields including AI, robotics, human interaction, urban experience design, cultural preservation, and community design.

She was also involved in android 'shosa' design for 'The Future of Life' at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo.

Bringing experience from both traditional culture and advanced technology, she develops dialogue and co-creation projects based in Kyoto, themed around 'What is humanity in the age of AI?'

■ Collaboration with Governments, Developers, Research Institutions, and Practitioners

KiQ is collaborating with local governments, developers, research institutions, traditional culture practitioners, and co-creation bases to leverage the dialogue design and space-building expertise cultivated through Salon Privé Kyoto to form new regional and urban value.