This web magazine proposes new ways to enjoy kogei.
Through interviews with creators, artists and people who live in Hokuriku,
discover the allure of Kogei from various angles.
The first site along the Kogei Stroll is the front of the National Craft Museum. (photo: Oku Yuji)
“Kogei Kairo” [literally, “Corridor of Traditional Japanese Craft”] was held as a major event of the Kanazawa 21st Century Kogei Festival,* with the idea of “the craft world spreading across town.” Close to the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa in the Hirosaka neighborhood, the National Craft Museum opened in 2020. In this “Part 2” of our two-part series on the Kogei Kairo events, we took a “kogei stroll,” set up by “Kanazawa Kuritsu” [whose name is a portmanteaux of the Japanese for “creative tourism”], which was held in conjunction with the Kogei Kairo in the History Museum from October 23rd to the 25th in the Hirosaka neighborhood.
* The Kanazawa 21st Century Kogei Festival is an annual large-scale festival held in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture, with the aim of discovering and sharing the charm of traditional Japanese craft. The festival is divided into five sections: “Shuzen Shokusai,” a feast plated and presented with kogei dishware and art; the “Kogei Kairo,” a stroll through the exhibitions shown in machiya, Japanese townhouses scattered through the city;“Kanazawa Mirai Chakai,”where the tea ceremonies are inspired by various venues and themes; the “Kanazawa Mirai Kogei-bu,” a children’s workshop; and the “Kanazawa Art Space Link,” a collaborative project with a focus on art spaces.
After a thorough look at the exhibition of the Kogei Kairo in the History Museum, it was time to head out for the Kogei Stroll, a guided tour of the Kogei Kairo held every year in collaboration with the non-profit, Kanazawa Creative Tourism Organization (commonly known as “Kanazawa Kuritsu”) and the Kanazawa 21st Century Kogei Festival. What’s more, our volunteer guide, himself a university professor, was an expert in art, architecture, tourism, town development and more. To have such a knowledgeable person was an amazing treat!
Our guide, Hideyuki Sakamoto, chairman of the non-profit, Kanazawa Creative Tourism Organization. Dr. Sakamoto was an expert of art and design and art expert at the Kanazawa College of Art and is a member of the Machiya Study Group.
This stairway along a roaring waterfall is called the “Path of Fine Art.”
A map of the 2020 Kogei Kairo.
The tour passes in front of the National Craft Museum and follows the Southeast Canal flowing between the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art to the Path of Fine Art and Path of History behind the museum. The walkway is abundant with greenery and water, with a height difference of ten meters from top to bottom, connecting what was once the the upper and lower residences of the Honda Clan, the family of the chief samurai retainer of the Kaga Domain.
“The water in this canal also flows to Kenroku-en Garden Park and Kanazawa Castle. It’s a culvert with underground stone pipes, and the lower pipe of the two-layer structure is for the castle’s lord…” A unique aspect of Kanazawa Kuritsu is being able to hear such detailed explanations like this, and to the walk the routes only the locals know.
* translation: “Method Reveal 2020: Method Without Mind”
At the end of the path is the relocated Old Nakamura House and the municipal Kanazawa Nakamura Memorial Museum, which display the collections of Eishun Nakamura, a sake brewer and tea master. Into my view came a special exhibition that was being held, titlted Hoho no Hatsuro 2020: Hoho no Muishiki, a huge object d’art by the forging modeller, Masayuki Hashimoto. Though not an official piece of the Kogei Kairo, it’s certainly worth a look for craft-loving Kogei Kairo participants.
The Old Nakamura House was relocated to the grounds of the Kanazawa Nakamura Memorial Museum. Here, Hoho no Hatsuro 2020: Hoho no Muishiki was held concurrently with the Kogei Kairo.
Masayuki Hashimoto, Undo Maku to Seppen-gun. [translation: “kinetic membrane and segment swarm”]
Hiroshi Kaneyasu, Urushi Zokei to Kogei-teki Shizen; Kumi Yabuuchi, Hoho no Muishiki: Sonzai no Ryo [translations: “lacquer modeling and the nature of Japanese craft” and “mindless method: the measure of being”
Taku Shibuya, Associate Professor at the Kanazawa College of Art, organizer for Hoho no Hatsuro 2020: Hoho no Muishiki.
We could see pieces of metal fill an entire tatami room as we entered the house. Masayuki Hashimoto’s work, Undo Maku to Seppen-gun, is the accumulation of discarded metal over years of art production. The artist said, “It’s like my own countless shells that have mindlessly washed up on the beach of my subconscious.” The contrast between the garden scenery outside and the inorganic work within was striking.
In the “bengala”-red painted hall of the second floor were works by Ryosuke Ogino (paint), Hirotake Kurokawa (bronze) and Ikumi Komori (dye). Also, in the pitch-black waiting room beside it, Tsunao Okumura’s Yakei no Shishu [“embroidery of the night watchman”] was exhibited.
Exhibition within a machiya differs from a white cube. The architecture becomes a highlight as well, such as with the finely carved lintel above.
Works by Ryosuke Ogino (paint), Hirotake Kurokawa (bronze) and Ikumi Komori (dye).
Tsunao Okumura’s Yakei no Shishu. Resident building guards would pass their late-night work hours embroidering marks with sewing thread. The darkened room is part of the narrative installation.
The work is said to have taken a full year to complete the accumulation of each stitch. It reminded me art from overseas.
The last four Hoho no Hatsuro [“the manifestation of method”] exhibitions have been held in other spaces, such as galleries, universities, and the White Cube, but this is the first time for them to be held in a machiya, or traditional Japanese townhouse. Exhibitions within a machiya differ in style, but it was reminiscent of the Kogei Kairo that had previously been held in the machiya of the geisha districts, Higashi Chaya Gai and Kazue-machi.
On October 25th, the very same day that the relocated National Craft Museum opened, the gallery Kanazawa Mercury Cave opened near the “Shoutou-an” Tea Room, a preserved building on the grounds of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. As I was already participating in the Kogei Kairo and other concurrent events from their pre-opening October 24th, I was able to join the first tourists to the venue.
The first floor of Kanazawa Mercury Cave is a permanent exhibition of kogei, antiques, contemporary pieces and works from a hodgepodge of industries.
Bizen-ware artists Taiga Mori and Syo Fujita.
In the second floor’s planning room, a new solo exhibition and other special exhibitions are held each month.
From the special exhibition on the 2nd floor. Don’t miss the piece in the stairwell!
Kanazawa Mercury Cave is connected with and supplied by three companies with a focus on crafts: Tanaka Kogei Fine Arts in Nomi City, Ishikawa Prefecture; Gallery Kogure in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; and Roentgen Kunstinstitut in Chofu, Tokyo, who also has roots in Kanazawa.
At the time of our visit, Takehito Hisada of Tanaka Kogei Fine Arts was there with bizen-ware artists Taiga Mori and Syo Fujita, who’d come to deliver work from Okayama. A number of such galleries is sure to increase with the relocation of the National Craft Museum, and it’s likely that there will be even more opportunities to meet artists not only from within Ishikawa Prefecture, but also from all over Japan and even from overseas. This time my schedule didn’t allow a long stay, but I promised I’d return for a more leisurely visit again soon.
Across the Hirosaka and Korinbo shopping districts, there are a plethora of antique shops, galleriesand stores peddling crafted pieces. Along with the Kogei Kairo, concurrent and special exhibitions were held in such shops, including in vintage Scandinavian furniture shops and pharmacies.
In the window of Kanazawa Crafts Hirosaka, a shop which displays and sells rare traditional crafted pieces of Kanazawa, the works of eight artists were exhibited under the direction of the Kanazawa Utatsuyama Kogei Kobo, a municipal workshop that trains young kogei artists. It was impressive to see more vivid and contemporary pieces than usual.
Exhibitors: Akane Kakino, glass art; Atsuko Koyama, glass art; Ema Yamazoe, metalwork; Ihsuan Kuo, metalwork; Haruka Soutome, lacquer art; Hikari Miyake, pottery; Junpei Hiraoka, pottery; Yuki Murakami, dye.
Akane Kakino, glass art.
Haruka Soutome, lacquer art.
Ema Yamazoe, metalwork.
In years prior, one or more artists of the Kogei Kairo would exhibit a number of works in a spaces provided by a tea house or traditional townhouse, and the pieces could be sold while on display. This year saw many exhibitions in shop windows of shopping districts, and visitors were able to enjoy them in an open-air space with the crowds that must be avoided during the pandemic.
When asked about it, an executive committee member Yoko Motoyama of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, who was in charge of the project, replied, “I was considering an online viewing at first. Many galleries and artist’s exhibitions have been shut down, but these are real works of art, and I was keenly aware of the importance of being the the presence of each piece. With the news that the opening of the National Craft Museum had been postponed from summer to October 25th, I felt emboldened to hold a real-world exhibition. We had given up on the conventional face-to-face exhibitions and sales in rented machiya buildings, but we realized we could take advantage of this situation by creating a theme of transforming the city of Kanazawa into one large gallery.”
A work of glass art by Mayu Otsuka exhibited at at Imai Kinpaku [a gold foil store].
A work of lacquer art by Ken Noguchi exhibited at Tori/Now [a furniture store] next to the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.
Taikido [“atmosphere hall”] by Mitsuho Tsuri is a ceramic piece that looks as if it were knitted with soft yarn.
At Now, a vintage Scandinavian furniture and modern design shop, one can imagine a living space.
The ceramic piece by Chisato Yasui goes well with the Scandinavian furniture.
The window of Aozora Pharmacy is also part of the kogei gallery event.
The exhibition director is Toshio Ohi of Chozaemon Ohi Ceramics, and the glass artist exhibited is Motohide Takagi.
Among the exhibitions of the shopping districts, one that was particularly unique was the window of the long-standing lacquerware shop, Nosaku. The Okamochi and Iki tea box sets were made especially for today’s Kogei Kairo events.
The Kanazawa 21st Century Kogei Festival’s programs include the “Kanazawa Mirai Chakai,” which each year produces innovative ways to enjoy the tea ceremony. However, because current restrictions on indoor eating and drinking have made holding a tea ceremony difficult, these two tea box sets were created, one traditional, and one contemporary.
Participants of the Kogei Stroll peer into the windows of the lacquerware store, Nosaku, to look at the Okamochi tea box set. (photo: Oku Yuji)
「The artists of the Okamochi tea box set: Kousakusho Sawayama, Kohei Shiotani, Reiko Shiraiwa, Shin Button, Kayoko Tanbo, Satomi Den, Masahiko Toide, Emiko Monden, Yasushi Yoshimura, Hideaki Watanabe, and Masato Watanabe.
Okamochi was created by volunteer artists with the gallery, As Baku B, in the Owaricho neighborhood. It was inspired by the wooden carrying boxes of the same name used for delivery at Chinese restaurants. It not only explores the shapes that different kogei media can take, but also the enjoyment of tea, and the new values it can provide. The style has been crafted for a new kind of tea ceremony to match contemporary society, and the work can be brought indoors or out, with or without a dedicated tea room.
The second tea box set, Iki, was produced in collaboration with the Iki Project of the youth organization, the Junior Chamber International Kanazawa and the Kanazawa 21st Century Kogei Festival. The concept behind the work is “a tea box set for the younger generation in Kanazawa for work and daily life,” and the theme is “Six Gourds,” [a homonym in Japanese for “without illness”]. With the gourd as a motif, six artists used their respective techniques to create this unique set.
Both tea box sets were works that made me excited use at outdoor or regular tea ceremonies. Check out the videos above to get a feel for how they’re used in a tea ceremony.
The purpose of the Kogei Kairo has been to connect with Japanese craft through conversations with the artists and galleries, and to bring your favorite pieces back with you into your home. Even during the pandemic, Kogei Kairo 2020 gave us that personable opportunity and the chance to rediscover Kanazawa.
Kanazawa 21st Century Kogei Festival 2020: Kogei Kairo
Download the Kogei Kairo brochure
Part 1: Kogei Kairo in the History Museum
when: Fri., Oct. 23rd to Sun., Oct. 25th; where: Ishikawa Prefectural History Museum An exhibition of 21 artists, ranging from traditional Japanese craft to contemporary art. Free admission; works may be procured.
Part 2: Kogei Kairo in Hirosaka
when: Thur., Oct. 10th to Tue., Nov. 3rd; where: Hirosaka Shopping District Walk along the sidewalk in the Hirosaka neighborhood as shop windows become an art gallery. Free admission; works may be procured.
Yuki Sakashita (author of the original Japanese article)（Tsukitoito/ Communication director）
Born in Himi, Toyama Prefecture. Editor, writer and planner based in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture. After working as an editor of a town magazine, a winery and a sake brewery, she became a freelancer. She has been living in Kanazawa since 2008. A qualified curator and sake taster, she loves travel, history and alcohol. Also a crafty person who likes to create crafts by herself such as pottery, glass blowing, lacquerware, woodwork, metalwork, and Japanese paper.
