Further to our trip to Kansai last year, this one was supposed to be a relaxing trip staying in luxurious hotels and ryokans with onsen and lots of gallery hunt ... but it's turned out to be a trip about meeting people and snow mountains! There were a lot of long dangerous drives and more than once I thought I had made a deadly plan that were way too aggressive to all those highlands, and almost had given up. Luckily, the people we met were all nice and interesting. Among the people I have met they have ceramists, gallery owners and curators, illustrators, sculptors, musician and music label owner, author and publisher ... who are all the people I had learnt and read about in books and always fancied meeting face to face. Without the blessing of Hiro-san at Gochizen ("Monocle" Japan travel guide 50 Must Dos) would I have arrived my destinations and come home safe?
Japan is a country to excel in many areas and to be respected. I particularly admire the Japanese unique way of expressing beauty. Quoting what Kazumi Sakata said, "Sen no Rikyu and Yanagi Soetsu were Japan's two great geniuses in terms of observing beauty in objects. Everyone who came after them is forced to take on the same set of senses." To me, a conversation with Sakata-san in real person is like meeting the Japanese modern art scene face to face that is a reassurance of what I've been believing and imagining about the spirit of the Japanese beauty. Let me fill in the blank that I am sure Sakata-san would have never said it out himself - after Rikyu and Yanagi we have him in our time to define beauty. We need people like him to "break the walls" (quoting the exact words he used) and move on.
"What socks should I wear? What shoes should I wear? What do I do with my car? People are responsible for so many choices in their lives. If you have no interest in objects, clothes, food, or music and then decide to look at Venus de Milo, what you see will be nothing more than mere knowledge ... ... To find what you like - what suits your own tastes - without depending on knowledge or popular opinion takes true courage."
Last, thank you again to Masami-san who helped us tracking down Maekawa-san all the way from his workshop in Ibaraki to Tokyo and we finally had met him up and his masterpieces!
