Things that I cannot do for now

Echizen pottery artist, Naoki Izumi

Panoramic view of Toseisha (Izumi's pottery studio).

There is a cave kiln in a building in the foreground.

The Echizen pottery artist, who has a studio named Toseisha in Echizen Town, Fukui Prefecture, is firing in his cave kiln for the first time in a while. I have heard that he could hardly fire in the kiln recently, but he decided to do that because he had some spare time as his workshops were canceled due to the new coronavirus. He made 200 works for the firing in the past month.

Now, I think that many people will try to do things that they cannot normally do because they have free time, aside from things that they cannot do alone or travels. But if I don't do it now when I spend more time at home, I never will. So I have no excuse that I don't have time to do it.
T.S

・Get our newsletter

Collaborative exhibition of lacquerware and photographs "Jet-black color and starry sky"

The exhibition of  lacquerware and photographs "Jet-black color and starry sky" is being held from March 6th to 22nd at the gallery Fukui Kougeisha in the center of Fukui City. This is a collaborative exhibition of Echizen lacquerware company TRAD, which has an exhibition here at this time every year, and Hideyuki Kato, an astronomical expert and curator of Fukui City Museum of Natural History. First of all, when I saw the photographs taken by Mr. Kato on the wall, I was amazed at how many stars can be seen in Fukui.

Even in the gallery where exhibitions by craft artists of various genres are held, such a collaboration of craft and photograph is a unique attempt. Actually, according to Mr. Minowa of TRAD, he was confused by the offer at first. That said, when I saw the exhibition, the photographs of the starry sky and the jet-black lacquerware were in harmony with each other very naturally, and I wondered why it has never held this kind of exhibition before.

While I was in the gallery, I saw visitors who came to see the photographs buying lacquerware. It seems to be a good opportunity for different type of customers to encounter lacquerware other than already existing craft fans, and lacquerware seems to have been created a wonderful synergistic effect of further enhancing its appeal with the theme of starry sky. I discovered something new in this exhibition.
T.S

Photographs of starry sky and lacquerware with a motif of constellation

Jet black and vermilion lacquerware are lined up below the starry sky photographs taken in Fukui City, Ono City and other places in Fukui Prefecture.

Constellation soup bowl

Lacquerware with lacquer work of constellation. There are soup bowls and cups. Constellations of birth month are also available. It is a wonder that there was no design like this before.

The Milky Way viewed from Lake Manahime

Photograph of starry sky taken at Lake Manahime in Ono City. I was overwhelmed by the number of stars as if  I saw on high mountains. A printed photo in a wide format is underlaid lacquerware in the center of the gallery.

Lacquerware reflecting stars

The stars reflected on the surface of plain orthodox lacquerware look fantastic.

Night sky in Starland Sakadani

There was a photograph taken in the Starland Sakadani in Ono City, where I always practice drone.　

・Get our newsletter

Cardboard art

I found the corner shown in the photo above in Yuko Hirata's exhibition space at Fukui Kougeisha Craft Gallery. The works are that Haru, who is an acquaintance of Hirata, made for his children beside his work for a cardboard company.

Nowadays a lot of artists including its pioneer Katsuhiko Hibino, make art works with cardboard. But I didn't know that there also was a cardboard artist here in Fukui. Though cardboard is a common packing material, its texture has an intriguing attraction.
T.S

Even the stencil mark was depicted on the badminton racket. It's amazing that he focused on small details as well.

Speaking of cardboard, two years ago, I went to Onagawa Town, Miyagi Prefecture to see this "Damborgini" made by some staff members of Konno Packing Co., Ltd.