Some images of Glass from Japan

Julia and I saw a lot of Glass, Craft and Contemporary Art  on this trip. The following is a cross section of images of glasswork we collected and encountered while traveling.  We ended up seeing a number of exhibitions thanks to Masahiro, and while staying with him in Nagoya we helped him to set up his solo exhibition. On the trip we also saw a fair bit of glasswork in Museums and we made it a point to collect images at the schools where we were teaching. So this is by no means a comprehensive overview of glass in Japan but I’m sure you glass enthusiasts will enjoy it.

Masahiro Sasaki- These shots were taken during exhibition set up at GALERIE hu in Nagoya.

Aichi Art Center Public Art 

Seto Exhibition:

Yukako Kojima

Hiroki Numi

Yukio Miyamamoto

Kochi Matsufuji,  who curated the exhibition Flat Glass

Toyama Institute of Glass Art Faculty, Teaching assistants and a few students:

Makiko Nakagami

Chicako Ogawa 

Jin Hongo

 

Kyoko Sano

 

Lada Semecka

Ryoji Shibuya

Robert Lewis

Katsuji Miyawaki

Yosuke Tsusaka

Shoko Matsushita

Here are a few images of this fourth year student’s work. The level of finishing was impressive.

Eriko Asano

Another student who was coming back to school as a mature student gave me a great digitial pinball game to play on my computer. She and her husband developed it, Little Wing  Monster Ball… check it out you can play the trial online!.

 

Appropriate Proportion by Hiroshi Sugimoto, Go’o Shrine Arthouse project, Naoshima.

Some work from Kurashiki Glass Program:

Akihiro Isogai

Jang Kyung-Nam

A selection of past graduates student work from the program:

Bike Culture

I’m not sure what compelled me to take pictures of bikes and motorcycles on this trip. Having never owned a motorcycle myself other than a dirtbike as a kid, and rarely riding my own bicycle it sort of boggles my mind. I guess it is because there are so many bikes and motorcycles EVERYWHERE. Japan is the place where Bike Culture really makes sense and it is absolutely a part of everyday life. Everyone rides them…. kids, business men in suits, and elderly people. We began noticing a trend with older women in Kurashiki and Takayama having their rides done up with a bit extra. We never really found out why the hand covers were employed  or their use, some were made of vinyl and others  used lace or other light fabric. Anyway there is one shot of them in this mix.

Wabi Sabi, Stonework, and Details

We really enjoyed the attention to detail displayed in older architecture and the Wabi Sabi of letting a little of the natural remain. Here is a group of shots that  focus on stonework walls, fences, and details.

 

Signs

Sometimes it is the little things you notice in a different place. With no cultural context and often without being able to read the information being communicated, we thought that many of the signs were interesting. Some lead to speculation and in turn interesting conversations, others were just plain odd. Here are some of our favorites:

Kurashiki & Mingei

Before we came to Japan we knew there was a long and rich craft tradition in ceramics, textiles and paper.  We also knew that there is a strong Contemporary Glass Movement occurring in Japan but we knew little of its origins. We  knew of a few of the glass programs here such as Toyama and Osaka but we imagined that since the studio glass movement started here only about 15- 20 years ago that there wouldn’t be many schools and programs. As we have spend time in Japan getting to know artists and visiting some of the schools we have learned that there are many other programs and residencies. It  really surprised us that there are close to ten programs  in glass art that we  have heard of, and more to be sure. We recently visited University of Kurashiki, a program we had only heard about since arriving in Japan. We assumed because we not heard of Kurashiki before, that the program was not that big. Well, we were wrong. Our first inclination of this was when we visited the cold working facilities and saw a diamond saw that was taller than Tyler. From there we visited huge kilns with overhead 2 ton hoists and a hot shop with 3 furnaces, colour pots, 6 gloryholes and 24 hour access, essentially a glass artists dream. We were welcomed and hosted by Isogai San, the head of the department and  Kyung-Nam San, the kiln-casting instructor. The program was the third to open in Japan and offers undergrad, graduate and PHD degrees in glass. The students we met while visiting and presenting at the school seemed engaged in their practices and interested in learning about glass in Canada.  We originally came to Kurashiki to visit Kodani – San, considered to be  one of  the first and most influential Mingei artists in glass in Japan. As a former professor at the University he held a lot of respect in the community. He is considered one of the fathers of the studio glass movement in Japan and despite being close to 80 years old he still blows glass in his studio,and  makes his living creating functional work. After our presentation at the University our host Aki Isogai took us out to visit Kodani San at his studio. We then went out to a fabulous dinner with instructors Isogai San and Jang San and with Kodani San. During dinner we were able to discuss the philosophy of Mingei with Kodani San and his experiences as a glassworker. Mingei celebrates the beauty of pure  material and and purpose. At dinner  Kodani San expounded the the following tenants of Mingei,

-Love Nature

-Love Humanity

-Respect your work

-Do this with all your heart

We could feel his passion for the material and could understand why he was so well loved by younger generations.  

Kodani San knew he wanted to work glass from the furnace but had no resources to assist him. He evolved his process and equipment entirely his own. In the following pictures note the small size of the blowpipes!  In the forground of the first picture you can see an open square shape, this is the “arms” of Kodani’s “bench”, his tools are inside with the exception of his Jacks which hang from the stool he sits on. On the left of the first shot you can also see a half round metal form which is the only device he uses for blocking and shaping the glass other than his jacks and a footing tool. While we were at his studio he showed us the optic mold he was using, it was made of an aluminium can and wire, he had made in 1960. In the final shot you can see his annealer at the back of the furnace. When he finishes working for the day he empties and turns off the furnace. Allowing the lehr to cool. In the furnace he runs two small pots, one clear and one colour, both charged in the morning, worked out in the afternoon.

Kurashiki is famous for its wood-fired ceramics. Potters Hamada Shoji, Bernard Leach, and Kawai Kanjiro all lived in the area. Kurashiki is a large industrial city by Canadian Standards but in the core of the city still remains the original settlement and the some of the tradition buildings that were not bombed during the second world war.  

 

Here is a shot of the industrial side of Kurashiki taken near the University and some images of the school:

Art and Nature on Naoshima

During our time in Japan we have mostly stayed in big cities, although compared to Black Diamond, every city is big and compared to most cities in Japan, every city in Canada is small. We met a woman from France yesterday who has been working for the embassy in Tokyo for the past year. She said that when she travels to Nagoya a city of 2.2 million people, she feels like she is in the country. There is a density of population here in the cities and between the cities that makes it feel for us that we are never truly in the country. We have enjoyed the museums and culture of the cities but felt like we need to get to the ocean and spend some more time in nature.

 This past winter John De Wit, a glass artist from the Seattle Area, came as a visiting artist to ACAD (Alberta College of Art and Design). While he was there, he gave us two valuable pieces of advice regarding Japan-

1. Be the water not the tea bag

2. Visit Naoshima Island

 Although Nao Shima is a small island in Japan’s inland sea, it is also home to some of the best contemporary art museums we have seen. Tyler found us a great place to stay, a traditional “Japanese Style” cottage on the beach. We spent many hours with the rice paper screens open to the sea, soaking up the view from our Tatami floored room, feeling inspired by the colour, light and texture of water meeting land. On the island there are two museums created by Japanese architect Taodo Ando. As well there are several old houses in the towns that have been designated as art houses, where individual artists created an art piece with or within the building. The results of this combination of art and architecture were stunning. It was inspiring to see what can be achieved when there is the intent and resources to marry art, nature and architecture. The Chichu Art Museum was built specifically to house certain art pieces. The building in itself can be considered art, it highlights natural elements to accentuate the art viewing experience. Experiencing the light of James Turrell and Monet’s painings of water lilies in that space was a transcendent experience. In the rooms I felt knew how a peasant in the middle ages must have felt seeing the  interior of Chartes Cathedral and the light of  stained glass windows. The effect of  the light and space  was truly inspired, it transformed my perceptions of the experience of viewing art. Unfortunately we were unable to take pictures of the work in the buildings but here is a sample of some of the work in outside spaces of the Ando buildings Bennesse House and Chichu Art Museum.

Entrance to Chichu Art Museum, built underground revealing spectacular views and framed vistas. Built specifically for the collection of art it houses, it has one room dedicated to four Monet water lily paintings and one section dedicated to three James Turrell works. 

The view as you Exit Chichu.

The same foundation has commissioned artists and architects to develop a number of projects using houses in the fishing village Honmura. Here are some shots of the art houses,  the first is titled Dreaming Tongue/ Bokkon Nozori 2006, and was created by Shinro Ohtake. It was the first that we saw :

Below Sea of Time by Tatsuo Miyajima, at Kadoya. A modified traditional interior. In what would be the Tatami sitting room was a pool full of LCD counters sequenced at different tempos.The final Art house project we took photos of utilizes glass in an extraordinary way. It is titled Appropriate Proportion and is by Hiroshi Sugimoto at the “Go’o Shrine” site. 

This final shot is as you exit the underground passage into the light.

Here are some other random shots from the island

Next to the Mountains

One of the more beautiful aspects of the area around our home in Black Diamond is the rugged mountain landscape. When we prepared our slideshow for our workshops in Japan we included several shots of the mountains near the Sheep River. These images were a big hit with the students at the workshop at Aichi University, as they looked so different from the landscape surrounding Nagoya. When we arrived in Toyama, a city about 4 hrs north of Nagoya, to do a workshop, we realized that these pictures likely would not seem very special as Toyama is next to the Japanese Alps. Before arriving in this region I was unaware of how high and dramatic this mountain range was. My notion of Japan’s landscape was flat rice fields.

Toyama is not really known as a tourist city, but we lucked out as there was a shrine festival happening the evening we arrived. The streets were packed with booths selling deep fried squid snacks and every other snack imaginable, the air and streets were thick with music and revelers. We had no idea at the time what was going on but just followed the crowd and tried to take it all in. Our next day at Toyama City Institute of Glass Art (T.I.G.A) was great. It is amazing to see what can be created when a city supports the arts. The facilities were top notch and the work of the instructors and students reflected the desire to make Toyama an international centre of glass art. The institute draws many practicing artists with its residency facilities. We were lucky enough to be hosted by well-known glass artists Makiko Nakagami  and Peter Ivy. They welcomed us into their home and studio, without their help our trip to Toyama would not have been possible. During our time at T.I.G.A we noticed some similarities between Japanese and Canadian glass artists such as a reverence for the materiality of glass and nature. This quality is imbued in the work being made in both countries, despite the differences in landscape and culture.

Tyler being assisted by Robert Lewis and a First year student.

Chicako (Chica) Ogawa, Teaching Assistant in the hotshop, who really helped us and was great fun. 

Chalk talk with Makiko and the advanced students.

Makiko’s work.

Fields near Makiko and Peter’s house, Toyama.