A sunny bright blue sky made my trek with a friend to Komaba to visit the Japan Folk Crafts Museum the other day very pleasant indeed. Autumn is the prescribed season for artistic viewing events in Japan precisely because of such wonderful days. And it was bliss to be outside in the sun's warm rays on an especially perfect day.
You can see the entrance to the museum in the photograph to the left. It was not simply what was inside these walls which had attracted me here. The museum was built in 1936 by Soetsu Yanagi who was closely involved in its design. Carpenters were brought from Tochigi to carry out the fine craftsmanship and once inside it was clear that a great, great deal of attention had been paid to every detail. The photo at the top right shows the benches placed in every room atop wooden floorboards and a customised display case in the background.
Our timing was also fortunate as the Yanagi residence (below left) across the road was open to the public. This home was delightfully quaint with its tatami-mat rooms and a book-lined library. The entrance floor was lined with stone (below right) which was beautiful albeit rather chilly. This is one museum which would make an ideal summer oasis. Despite the decidedly cool indoor temperatures, there were quite a few fellow attendees, all eager to pay homage on the second-last day of the exhibition.
The museum was displaying various items from the collection of Sori Yanagi, the son of Soetsu Yanagi. While the father was a philosopher who fostered an appreciation of the folk arts through the establishment of the museum, his son was an industrial designer, and later, the third curator of the museum. In my limited experience, it is rare for individual collectors to occupy prominent public positions in Japan and my eye had been caught by the title of the exhibition: "Eyes of Sori Yanagi".
The items being presented had been compiled from his personal much-loved collection to give people a glimpse of the objects he had sought out during travels to Africa and West Asia and which had inspired him in his own works. The pamphlet prepared by the museum explained they had chosen not to add any explanation to the items in order for people to focus on the innate beauty of the objects. For devotees of Yanagi's designs there was probably no need for any elucidation but for myself, I was thankful I had briefly researched the man prior. Aside from his success as a designer, I was curious how his name, "Satoshi" morphed into his nickname "Sori". Did he apologise one too many times and end up with a new moniker perhaps?
My search was unsuccessful and I put that mystery aside and instead concentrated upon pictures of his famous kettle (see here) which looked instantly familiar to me. His other revolutionary design was the butterfly stool (see here) which is now part of the MoMA collection in New York and available for only USD725. No doubt it would make someone a lovely Christmas gift.
Moving around the galleries, I gazed intently at the items to find the connection between them and his designs, and felt like I had come up with an original design myself each time I felt I discerned a creative link. I felt snobbishly gratified that his textile collection included a number of kantha (running stitch) quilts from India (maybe Bangladesh now) which were like the one I have. Also he had a fascination with African masks, some of which were massive. Quite different in scale from the kind of souvenirs I can fit into my suitcase when I travel. My friend and I surmised he would have shipped these home. With the museum just across the road from his home, he would have had plenty of storage space. Looking at these items it was quite amazing to think they had fed his creative juices and in turn, he was inspired to re-create their form anew.
After contenting myself with a few postcards from the gift shop and several photographs from the footpath, we departed. I headed home feeling enriched from my short sojourn with Sori Yanagi. Although, if they had been selling bottles of whatever it was that Sori Yanagi imbibed with his meals, I may have been a little more extravagant with my purchases. Maybe travel was his magic elixir, but wouldn't it be something if we could just drink in new ideas with a tonic every day? (non-alcoholic, I mean, of course).
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