Too Much #9 – The Sacred

TOO MUCH is a magazine about romantic geography. Its purpose is to document our collective experience of cities, and look at the ways people and landscapes make and remake one another. Founded in 2011, TOO MUCH is produced and designed in Japan by a global group of writers, researchers, artists and photographers. It is for those searching for real stories about architecture, cities and art.

This volume of TOO MUCH Magazine asks: Who is to say what is sacred?

We begin on the shores of the Okinawan islands, where we meet the Yuta shaman, who see people as characters play- ing roles in a larger narrative arc of life. We venture to the beguinages of medieval Europe to learn how women have related to the divine in ways that ensure their own earthly survival and independence. We visit mosques in contemporary Japan and elaborate festivals for ancestor worship in China. We look at the work of Jae-Eun Choi and Camille Henrot, which shows us how plants and trees can grow tall in desolate landscapes and emotional wastelands. We travel to the slopes of Osore-zan and hear the cries of crows and the bereaved before peering into the living room of Tadanori Yokoo and beholding the reclining Budhha and the Odalisque.

Issue 9 of TOO MUCH Magazine ultimately explores the nature of the sacred in an increasingly profane world, taking us into our own belief structures — both old and new — and questioning what will remain and what may evolve as we move forward into the unknown.