This is an unusual story about art and architecture. Takuya Norjiri was born in Oita City and grew up in Osaka, Japan. He was a poet, songwriter and the owner of Yumeya (a ryotei restaurant in the old capital of Japan, Nara City) but he often escaped to other countries, and frequently found himself in Bangkok, puffing on his pipe and listening to Eric Clapton.

He initiated PROJECT Z , a multi-cultural cross-cultural art / poetry / architecture / music / culinary / ceramic / garden adventure, with participants from Brazil, Thailand, Australia, Japan, India, Italy, Cambodia and Germany. His haiku book of poems DOORS was published in 2002 by “collective effort press” p.o. box 2430 gpo melb vic Australia and was translated by Sandy Caldow and TT.O., introduction by Dan Takasugi.

On 15 Nov. 2010 for reasons that are unclear Takuya took his own life in his “hidden Bangkok room”. He was a great and innovative artist whose work straddled all of the above disciplines. He took many risks in his life and art and his creative spirit and life force will be sorely missed. He is survived by Kiyoe Nojiri and his son Seiten.