On August 22–23, 2025, Audio-Technica presented HOTARU at Studio 525 in Chelsea, New York.
Named after the Japanese word for “firefly,” HOTARU is a limited-edition floating turntable inspired by the aesthetics of shijima (静寂, stillness) and chōwa (調和, harmony). More than an audio device, HOTARU embodies a fleeting beauty—an invitation to experience time, sound, and light in perfect balance.
Concept
Fireflies live in a world of pure water, stillness, and small lights glowing in the dark. That beauty is fading.
So too is something within us — our analog senses, the patience to slow down, the importance of feeling with the body. Preserving the environment, protecting life, and sustaining culture also means preserving the values of analog. That is where this idea began.
HOTARU — Floating turntable, was created to let people experience what we believe is worth saving: the ritual of analog, the beauty of time spent with care, the meaning of touch. Inspired by the firefly, a fragile light that reminds us of what is fleeting yet beautiful, this work invites us to rediscover the role of ritual in modern life through the intimate space of a tea room.
Why the tea room?
A tea room is not simply a piece of Japanese architecture. It embodies a philosophy where every gesture carries meaning, and an aesthetic that finds beauty in what may appear unnecessary.
The act of making tea is deeply human and intentionally inefficient: time is taken, movements are refined, the space is purified, all in order to welcome another person. None of this is measured by utility. It exists to create richness and connection that cannot be explained by reason alone.
This spirit runs through the way Japanese crafts have long been made: never sparing effort, paying attention to every detail, and imbuing even the unseen with value. At times, the very act of making becomes something close to prayer.
To evoke this sensibility through HOTARU, we designed a tea room and garden layered with meaning. When you step inside and exchange even the smallest gestures, sound emerges and the space itself comes alive with purpose.
The Pathway — Roji
The roji, a narrow path leading to the tea room, is a threshold between the ordinary and the sacred. It slows the body and quiets the mind. In this installation, each visitor’s footsteps unconsciously became part of the score, recorded as living traces of passage.
The Sand Mound — Morisuna
“Morisuna” a sand mound symbolizes purification and welcome, the sand mound is also a miniature landscape of nature’s mutability.
Within this installation, it resounds as a continuous, delicate noise that quietly unsettles the stillness.
The Circular Water — Tsukubai
The tsukubai, a stone basin in the tea garden, invites ritual purification. Its circular
surface evokes a mirror, reflecting the heart and embodying the ethos of wa, kei, sei,
jaku—harmony, respect, purity, tranquility. The falling of droplets recalls the principles of fukinsei (asymmetry) and wabi-sabi: an affirmation of imperfection, and of beauty arising through transience.
The Bell — Kanshō
The tea garden bell, or kanshō, summons guests not through a Japanese sense of
temporality as thresholds—moments of transition. Each strike accentuates “this very instant,” marking the irreversibility of time, never to be repeated.
The Tea Room & HOTARU
Within the tea room, acoustics shape an environment where sound becomes ceremony.Rather than excluding the outside world, it absorbs it, weaving moments that exist only once. The presence of visitor and performer alike alters the composition, while HOTARU, placed at the center, becomes a vessel—like a tea bowl in a tea room—mediating between people, time, and sound.
Record Cutting
All sounds—city echoes, footsteps, instruments, voices—were visualized via oscilloscope and engraved in real time onto 7-inch vinyl. Each guest left with their own unique record, a singular trace of their experience. When replayed, the sound shifts again, reshaped by the place, the moment, and the people present, ensuring no two listenings are alike.
Through this installation, Audio-Technica envisioned a future where music extends beyond equipment, unfolding into a living world of experience and resonance. HOTARU is not simply an audio product but a work of art that guides listeners into a new journey of sound and time.
Materials
Trace the evening’s atmosphere through captured scenes and sounds.
