Mission: U-TOPIA
The Lunar Dreams of Akitoshi Fujiyama
On a cloudy morning, while practicing his drive, amateur golfer and UBE Industries engineer Akitoshi Fujiyama goes into the bushes of the UBE Country Club to retrieve a lost golf ball. Instead, he finds a strange-looking object, what he assumes to be some sort of meteorite. The most intriguing feature of this rock is its vivid turquoise tone, which somehow reminds him of UBE’s corporate color. Feeling almost certain of being in the presence of an amazing discovery, Akitoshi decides to break off a piece of the meteorite with his golf club, keeping a big chunk of it for himself as a good-luck charm before notifying the authorities.
A few weeks later, the authenticity of the lunar meteorite is confirmed. The Meteoritical Society decides to name it UBE 064 after the place where it was found (UBE Country Club 64th hole). The scientific community remains perplexed by the outstanding properties that this extraterrestrial mineral possesses, and its potential future applications.
Meanwhile, aware of the importance of his discovery, Akitoshi Fujiyama starts plotting a very ambitious plan of his own. He decides to break up his hidden moon rock into hundreds of pieces and sell them on the black market in order to finance his new dream: going to the moon. He starts planning his own Lunar Mission, which will allow him to bring back about 380 kilograms of moon rocks and start a new and prosperous business in his small town of Akiyoshidai.
Akitoshi starts by contacting the Japanese Lunar Embassy and using most of his savings to buy several acres of lunar land. His plan is strictly confidential, and only his wife, Akiko Fujiyama, and his two best friends, Satoshi and Tetsu, know about it. Nothing can change Akitoshi’s mind, as he’s determined to use all his connections in the whole prefecture of Yamaguchi to start gathering different aerospace intelligence and materials, while entrusting each one of his accomplices with different tasks to complete his flawless plan.
The first thing Akitoshi needs is a location for his Mission Control Center. This subject is very sensitive, since he needs to keep this location and his mission secret, whatever the cost. An abandoned pachinko building in the outskirts of Mine City proves to be the perfect place. The old building has been shut down for several years now, yet Akitoshi is captivated by its modern architecture and mysterious name: U-TOPIA.
Mission: U-TOPIA is now a reality. Akitoshi asks Satoshi, who runs an auto repair shop in a village nearby, to help him build a Lunar Module that will carry him to the moon and back. When evening comes, Satoshi’s auto repair shop is transformed into U-TOPIA Operations Center. Assembling auto spare parts together, the two friends start building their most ambitious project ever.
Akitoshi’s biggest concern is being able to navigate through the dark and deep lunar craters of the South Pole of the moon, where he’s almost certain of finding his cosmic bounty. Akitoshi will need some serious driving skills to find his way around these craters on board his Lunar Rover. Luckily for him, his long-time friend and coworker at UBE Industries, Tetsu, is willing to help. Tetsu has been driving a gigantic 80-tonne UBE truck for a few months now, as part of a top-secret project. Word at the company is that UBE Industries is also on the race to the moon, and has set up a lunar training environment on Earth to prepare this mission. Tetsu has installed a geologic map of the South Pole of the Moon on the front of his truck, so as to start getting his friend familiarized with this remote area while they drive together along UBE’s private highway.
Akitoshi is aware of the risks and dangers inherent in his plan, but he has no intentions of backing off. He’s concerned, though, about spending such a long time alone in space, and missing his home. He’s never been outside of Japan, after all. Akitoshi decides then to create a very special object, a Cosmic Byobu. Inspired by traditional Japanese screens, he designs and build his very own to decorate the interior of his Lunar Module. Akitoshi cleverly uses aerospace materials from UBE Industries, such as the high temperature–resistant polyimide film UPILEX, using it as a thermal blanket and for protection against galactic cosmic rays outside Earth’s atmosphere.
If there’s someone concerned about Akitoshi’s plan though, it’s his wife, Akiko Fujiyama. She tries to take her mind off the Lunar Mission by practicing ikebana at home. Akiko wants to support her husband as much as possible, but she’s also aware of the many dangers that he will have to endure to complete Mission: U-TOPIA. In a romantic gesture, Akiko decides one night to tear apart her most precious kimonos and obis and turn them into astronaut patches. She stitches them one by one into Akitoshi Fujiyama’s space jacket, hoping that these will protect him during his lunar journey.
Artist’s statement:
I wrote this short story as a key narrative element of my art project Mission U-TOPIA. It was first exhibited in March 2015 at AIAV Japan, and featured several sculptures, photographs and installations.
In Mission U-TOPIA, I sought to re-imagine the local landscape of Yamaguchi, Japan, as the scenario of a complex fictional narrative. The project explores the notion of reality and its meaning regarding issues of ownership and authenticity — both on personal and global scales. Spending several months in the area and collaborating with large industrial corporations and local craftsmen, I attempted to create a collection of compelling objects and installations inspired by historical references, futuristic materials and fascinating locations.
“Cosmic Byobu” is a traditional Japanese screen built with UPILEX, a material manufactured by UBE Industries for aerospace purposes. This high temperature–resistant polyimide film is regularly used in satellites and spaceships as a thermal blanket and as protection against galactic cosmic rays. Exposure to cosmic rays are among the biggest barriers for interplanetary travel and a possible manned mission to Mars.
I also placed a geologic map of the South Pole of the moon onto a 80-ton UBE truck that traveled along UBE’s private highway — Japan’s longest private expressway, on which thousands of tons of natural resources are transported — temporarily transforming this road into a 31.94 km long cultural venue. The colorful, highly detailed map envisions a not-so-far era of colonization and exploitation of celestial bodies.
Through the imagined life of Akitoshi Fujiyama, I wish to invite the audience to visit an exciting world where truth can be as relative and flexible as we please.
To find out more about Mission: U-TOPIA, please visit my website SeeThisWay.
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