Rui Design Office's New Facility 'Uda Innovation Center VUTAI' (Uda City, Nara Prefecture) Grand Opens on Saturday, April 11 — Commemorative Ceremony Held on the Same Day Featuring Noh Performance 'Okina' and Celebrity Panel Discussion

The main hall of VUTAI where the ceremony will be held

Rui Design Office Co., Ltd. (headquarters: Yodogawa-ku, Osaka; President: Hiroshi Abe; hereinafter "Rui Design Office") announces that its new facility, the "Uda Innovation Center VUTAI" (Uda City, Nara Prefecture), will have its grand opening on Saturday, April 11. The Uda Innovation Center VUTAI is a residential co-creation hub for agriculture and learning; plans were announced in April 2023, construction was completed in November 2025, and it soft-opened at that time. To mark the grand opening, a commemorative ceremony will be held at VUTAI on the day of the event, April 11.

The first part of the ceremony will feature an invited Noh performer from the Kyoto Kanze school, who will present the ceremonial Noh performance "Okina" — a ritual of prayer performed through chanting and dance. The second part will be a special panel discussion. The two guests will be Master Carpenter Yasuhisa Nishijima of the Daito school of shrine carpenters — renowned for the restoration of the National Treasure Himeji Castle and responsible for VUTAI's main hall — and Seijun Nishihata, known as a globe-trotting plant hunter who produces numerous landscape projects, who was responsible for VUTAI's planting plan.

With this grand opening, we will create, together with all of you, a space for co-creation to build a vibrant society — starting from Uda, said to be "the land of beginnings" in Japan.

Date: Saturday, April 11, doors open at 1:00 PM

Venue: "Uda Innovation Center VUTAI" (79-1 Shimo-Iashi, Haibara, Uda City, Nara Prefecture)

Ceremony Overview

Part 1: Noh Performance "Okina"

The land of Uda has deep historical and cultural roots in the ethereal beauty of the Kanze school of Noh, as seen in traditions such as the "Firefly Noh" performed at Aki Shrine. For the christening of the Uda Innovation Center VUTAI, a Noh performer from the Kyoto Kanze school has been invited to present "Okina," a ceremonial ritual Noh performance of prayer, through dance and chanting.

"Okina" celebrates a bountiful harvest by invigorating the life force, and its movements — stamping the earth and a dance evoking the scattering of seeds in the Bell Sequence — are layered with prayers for new innovation to take root in Uda. It is a solemn dedication celebrating the dawn of a new era in this historic land of Uda.

Part 2: Special Panel Discussion with Yasuhisa Nishijima and Seijun Nishihata

A special panel discussion will be held between Master Carpenter Yasuhisa Nishijima — the 32nd head of the Daito school of shrine carpenters, who was responsible for VUTAI's main hall — and Seijun Nishihata, representative of Sora Botanical Garden, who was responsible for VUTAI's planting plan. The unique space of VUTAI, where architecture and planting converge...