In Yunotsu, a small historic port town on the coast of Shimane, 24 SETSU begins with listening.

Once connected to the world through the silver of Iwami Ginzan, Yunotsu carries layers of exchange, labour, craftsmanship and memory within its streets, houses and landscape. Today, as many traditional buildings stand vacant, a new generation of residents, makers and craftspeople is finding ways to inhabit them again—not by erasing the past, but by giving it another life.

Through an artist residency in Yunotsu, 24 SETSU undertakes a period of field research into akiya—Japan’s vacant houses—and the wider question of how architecture, craft and community can participate in cultural regeneration.

The research unfolds through encounters: entering abandoned houses, documenting traces of former lives, meeting local craftspeople and residents, observing materials, repair techniques and everyday rituals, and understanding how a place survives through adaptation.

These observations form the Japanese chapter of Beyond Ore, a dialogue between Yunotsu and Luxembourg’s former mining landscapes.

Rather than arriving with a predetermined answer, the residency begins with a question:

How can we give new meaning to what already exists?