Today, I finally visited the Kamakura Treasure Museum. It is situated on the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine grounds in a beautiful setting surrounded by lots of trees and of course, the autumn colors were astounding, especially the yellow from the Gingko tree. The featured ex ... Continue Reading
Yesterday, we went to an exposition from Yamato Tomoko, a friend of mine who lives in Mashiko. Now, she had a show in Tokyo in the Brocken Gallery, so we were able to go. It is a very modern gallery from concrete, nice and clean in a normal neighborhood with all houses. Tomoko-s ... Continue Reading
Last week, I had an interview with the head of the Gotoh family, Gotoh Keiko. This family is one of the two families left who have been sculpting Buddhist images since the Kamakura Period and is heir to the craftsmanship handed down from father to son for 28 generations. But now ... Continue Reading
Kamakura has of course a Kamakura Bori Museum: Kamakura Bori Kaikan. It is situated in the middle of the city on the main street on the way to the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, Kamakura’s most important shrine, which was founded by Monamoto Yoriyoshi in 1063, and enlarged ... Continue Reading
On May 9th, the day after I arrived from Japan, Kusakabe-san and Marc Lancet opened their show at the Trax Gallery in Berkeley, California. http://www.traxgallery.com/ Before the opening reception they held a Tea Ceremony workshop. The participants made their walk to the ceremony ... Continue Reading
And there, I finally found the museum! How could I have waited so long! Close to the Engaku-ji temple stands this beautiful old farmhouse, transferred by the owner from the Fukui Prefecture, north of Kyoto. Actually, they are 3 combined farmhouses and were built around 1850 at th ... Continue Reading
The 10-year anniversary of the building of the Dancing Fire Wood Kiln at the Solano Community College was celebrated on September 23rd, 2008. This kiln was built by Masakazu Kusakabe and Marc Lancet and lots of other people. They describe the process of the building of this kiln ... Continue Reading
The Mingei International Museum collects, preserves and exhibits arts of daily life from all cultures of the world. These are objects made by hand for use rather than intentionally as art like paintings and sculpture. A great philospher of Japan, Soetsu Yanagi, early in the 20th ... Continue Reading
Last weekend, I visited my oldest son, Roland, in San Diego. It was a great weekend. I started out with visiting Balboa Park, which is a cultural complex. Besides open areas and natural vegetation, it contains a variety of cultural attractions including museums, theaters, gardens ... Continue Reading
Today, I went to the Tableware Festival in Tokyo Dome. Like last year, again so many beautiful table settings and so much choice of ceramic ware. And then in combination with the interior of a dining room and especially also, ikebana, flower pieces. All very beautiful. Here is a ... Continue Reading
