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.
“Kogei Kairo in the History Museum” in held by the Ishikawa Prefectural History Museum.
“Kogei Kairo” [“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 part 1 of this article series, “Go for Kogei” reports on “Kogei Kairo in the History Museum,” which ran from October 23rd to the 25th, and in part 2, on “Kogei Kairo in Hirosaka,” which ran from October 10th to November 23rd.
* 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.
Takaharu Hori, White Hymenopus coronatsus, pottery
In the center of the exhibition, a giant mantis appears about to move. Inspired by his favorite insects since childhood, the young artist, Takaharu Hori blends the beauty of clay modeling and playful structure into his work.
Miku Nagai, Uchide Zoganbako “Ryoran”, metalwork
[translation: “embossed inlay box, ‘Profusion’ ”]
This piece was produced using traditional metal engraving techniques, such as inlaying, embossing and watermarking. Leaves and stems on the box itself extend heavenward, while flowers bloom in abundance on the lid.
Kazuma Tominaga, Ao no Katachi wo Tsukuru, glass art
[translation: “making the shape of blue”]
Tominaga is an artist who uses blown glass techniques to create fluidity and expansions with a motif of natural objects, such as fruit or vegetables. For this event, he featured a masterpiece of blown glass and kiln work.
Michie Morimoto, Kinshu, Kaga thimble
[translation: “an autumn as beautiful as a brocade”]
In the peak of autumn, the leaves appear glossy when illuminated by the sun. These pieces feature the beautiful transition of green to yellow, to orange, to red.
The primary venue for “Kogei Kairo” is the Ishikawa Prefectural History Museum. Once the residence of the Kaga Provence’s chief samurai retainer of the same name, the Honda Forest now hosts several cultural facilities, including the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, the Kaga Honda
Museum [a private museum of the samurai family], and the Ishikawa Prefectural History Museum, which is also referred to as “Ishikawa’s Red Brick Museum.”
The National Craft Museum was relocated from Tokyo just this autumn, garnering attention from all over the country to this spot. To coincide with the National Craft Museum’s opening, the Ishikawa Prefectural History Museum was chosen as the main venue for October 25th.
Yurie Nakashima, Tsukifune, metalwork
[translation: “moon boat”]
This piece is finished with engraving and uses translucent brass and tin. Is it a crescent ship on the water reflecting the moon or a ship sailing in the night sky itself?
Kouya Furuta, LIFE Arumajirotokage, metalwork
[translation of the Japanese: “armadillo lizard”]
This lifelike lizard appears ready to move any moment. Impressed with the jizai okimono [a type of objet d’art whose term means “freely moving figure”] of the Edo and Meiji eras, Furuta seeks to create the modern equivalent. Using forging and engraving techniques, he hand-makes each part of the body and joins them with copper or brass.
Yuka Oshita, Secret Garden brooch, lacquer art
Along with working on prints and drawings, Oshita produces a series of doll brooches for her lacquer jewelry line “Classic Ko” out of her family home.
Mariko Kobayakawa, Mau, metalwork
[translator’s note: The original title is ambiguous and could mean either “to dance” or “to be dizzy.”]
Kobayakawa creates contemporary artworks by combining various materials, including silver as a precious metal, and incorporates kogei styles such as urushi lacquer and maki-e.
A total of 21 artists were featured at the “Kogei Kairo in the History Museum.” The minimal and clear exhibition allowed each artist’s individuality to shine, and the sheer range on display from folk art to contemporary art—pottery, metalwork, lacquer art, glass, Kaga-yuzen silk and Kanazawa’s other rarer craft traditions—made me realize the depth and breadth of Kanazawa’s kogei.
Occasionally the artist was present, and I was blessed with the opportunity to interact with them directly. On this day, I met Hirotake Imanishi, who had studied molecular cytology and had gone from doing doctoral research to ceramic art. Although he is currently based in Kanazawa, he is originally of the third generation of a family kiln in Nara Prefecture.
Hirotake Imanishi, Cell Cluster, pottery
The power and dynamics of “life energy” are expressed through a medium of clay.
Pottery artist, Hirotake Imanishi.
By using a translucent clay, the piece can come to life when illuminated from underneath. (Imanishi showed me the special light he uses.)
This new work from Imanishi also expresses “life energy” through a motif of cells, of which he’s familiar from his research. “This piece is a hybrid work that uses traditional glaze and Kutani-ware painting on a modern material, the translucent clay. The clay body is the structure (the skeleton) and the glaze is as a skin to make the image of a cell,” he explains as he lights the piece from underneath with his smartphone.
Motohide Takagi, Seishin Bunseki, glass art
[translation: “psychoanalysis”]
Takagi is as active as a glass artist as he is a musician in Japan’s “visual kei” scene. He primarily creates blown glass works with a theme of “the cutting edge of traditional kogei. This piece will be exhibited at both the history museum and Hirosaka venues of the Kogei Kairo for the Kanazawa 21st Century Kogei Festival.
Takashi Yamada, Sisei, Kaga-yuzen silk
[translation: “tattoo”]
This is a sensual work of a traditional Japanese tattoo pattern drawn on crêpe, a contemporary piece from an artist who collaborates with artists from various industries in addition to his own Kaga-yuzen silk kimono.
Shiho Ota, Denno Urushi Mayutama: Hachi to Hana, lacquer art
[translation: “lacquer digital brain cocoon: bee and flower”]
Ota left work at a trading company to join a production company, and while creating educational content (such as being the director for science museum exhibits), he began producing his “Denno Urushi Mayutama” series [literally, “Lacquer Digital Brain Cocoon”) in 2019, which combines lacquer art with electronics. This piece mimics breath with a light from the inside.
Koki Sakao, Mogiri Nado, pottery
[translation: “quality of being broken off”]
Sakao has been attempting a new movement with with clay, with shapes created through plucking and breaking. His specialty is creating vases to match plants and flowers to express a sense of “there are living things here” within contemporary life.
Photos of the works were permissible, save for two, and most of the works were viewable from 360 degrees and up close. The venue was a renovated former military armory, and the old-style arched windows framed the art as people took pictures of their favorite pieces.
As the exhibition was designed for appreciating a variety of works in one place, and as it neighbored other craft museums in the city center, many people went to and from surrounding
cultural facilities. There seemed to be a wide range of ages of both regular locals and tourists who came to enjoy the exhibition.
Shigeru Nakamura, Tanago Sao, Kaga traditional fishing rod
[“Tanago Rod.” A tanago is an Acheilognathus melanogaster, endemic freshwater fish in Japan]
One of the rarer traditional crafts, sao are fishing rods of bamboo, silk thread and lacquer. Nakamura is said to have been so fascinated with the rods used by samurai for catching sweetfish, he quit his former job as a teacher and dedicated himself the world of this particular kogei craft. The work is robust, but delicate and elegant. The lacquered cylinder that serves as the rod’s case is additionally beautiful, giving this hobbyist’s tool a particular charm.
Shieri Hoki, Yuki Tamari V, glass art
[translation of the Japanese: “snow puddle”]
A plate glass is painted with a ceramic glaze, and then baked and polished to create the work. The theme of this piece is “pile up” and “confine” fleeting and decaying things like snow and fallen leaves in glass, with a vessel motif. In addition to the large exhibition of her work at the Kogei Kairo in the History Museum, Hoki will also work in collaboration with Satoru Òtomo in the “Ryotei no Deshigoto” program of the Shuzen Shokusai segment of this year’s Kanazawa 21st Century Kogei Festival.
Uozu Yuu, mist, pottery
Morning dew on a white flower. This work, which follows nature’s shape, incorporates the natural phenomena of the materials, such as the flow of the glaze or the distortion of the clay during baking, to follow a theme of “a fossil of time.”
Taro Kawano, Mori no Katachi, metalwork
[translation: “shape of forest”]
This piece was shaped with a wax cast, which was then replaced with metal.
Yoshida Junko, Akae Saibyo, pottery
Named for one of the traditional painting techniques of Kutani-ware ceramics, which features fine-lined drawings of mostly red paint. Yoshida relishes in red while also applying other colors for a glass-like appearance.
Reiko Shiraiwa, Shimashima no Utsuwa, pottery
[translation: “bowl of islands”]
Using a scraping technique, Shiraiwa mixes sand and brick scraps with white porcelain and bakes the piece at a high temperature.
Yoko Masui, Kodai Midori Daen bowl, pottery
[translation of the Japanese: “ancient green ellipse”]
A work with a unique green hue and texture referred to as “ancient green.”
Maki Hasegawa, Nekkuresu ‘Yoake no Daria’, metalwork
[translation: “ ‘Dahlia at dawn’ necklace”]
This piece of jewelry expresses the moment the sunrise touches the dahlia flower. The upper portion was made with a plique-à-jour enameling technique and the lower with inlay.
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.
