Today is about color.
First the meaning is here.

Color
Color (American English) or colour (Commonwealth English) is the characteristic of human visual perception described through color categories, with names such as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or purple. This perception of color derives from the stimulation of cone cells in the human eye by electromagnetic radiation in the visible spectrum. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associated with objects through the wavelength of the light that is reflected from them. This reflection is governed by the object’s physical properties such as light absorption, emission spectra, etc.

Wikipedia

I am interested in the explanation about color in Japanese Wikipedia, it is something like this.

“Even with the same color stimulus, the same color perception is not necessarily established, and the results are different depending on the perception of the surroundings and the state of the observer.”

And also the explanations related to the above sentenced in English Wikipedia:

Individual colors have a variety of cultural associations such as national colors (in general described in individual color articles and color symbolism). The field of color psychology attempts to identify the effects of color on human emotion and activity.

If you have been a designer for more than 15 years, you will also be naturally aware of the feelings of “creator” other than your genre design (graphic & digital).

I wonder what they are made of? How did the creator did it? What the purpose of it? something like I wonder the background of the creation. I feel happy when I find something common feeling even our genre is different, or it is also happy to find new learnings.

I love any “creators” from designers or craftsmen very much, and I would like to introduce love expressions from designers/creators which I can see from the finished products, so that I named the title of today. In addition to the purpose as a function, there are other purposes such as culturally appeal to emotion or they have social sense of mission. I would like people to look at other roles than functions.

Vol. 1 today is about “Shoji (Shoji is a sliding screen with white paper on thin
wooden laths).” designed by Korin Ogata (he was a Japanese painter, lacquerer and designer of the Rinpa school).
I visited the MOA museum of art in Atami the other day, there are facilities except for the museum such as Noh theater, Tea garden, Tea house etc. And I write about the Shoji of Korin’s Residence (reconstruction) which he spent the last five years and drew national treasure paintings there.

Not be trapped in the past that has already gone and not feel anxious for future that has not come yet. Put your awareness on your breathing, and aware of you have been already happy and rich. Focus on your breaths and feel present…

Recently practices such as mindfulness, breathing, zazen, meditation or yoga are getting popular to live yourself. I have tried to do some of them (in progress).

The basic steps are breathe in abdominally (consciousness of the inner part of the lower abdomen, just beneath the navel), breathe in and breathe out. I could do this longer when I am in good condition but not all the time, otherwise I am dominated by thinking. I have been trying to do some practices to keep good feeling longer, and I met good method of Thich Nhat Hanh.

I continue where I left off last blog unexpectedly went long.

About how to read and understand the picture book “The Giving Tree” in English. The sentence that with interpretation “And tree was happy…. but not really”.

Mr. Kiichiro Honda who translated it before Haruki Murakami.
According to Mr. Honda (Here is my translation Japanese in English again, funny)
“The tree was happy… but is it really?” (something like that, I translated it directly)

And, here is Mr. Murakami’s
“And the tree was happy… no she can’t” (something like that, I translated it directly)

Mr. Murakami denied clearly, she wasn’t happy.

I am a graphic & digital designer but my major was English and American literature. I chose “The Great Gatsby” for my graduation thesis by the way.

I am asked by some people that is it possible to be a designer if you didn’t graduate at art or design school? I can say yes if you really want to be, yes you can. I thought it would be better if I studied design at school during my training period, but not I think every experiences are necessary. Go with the flow, and then you will find life is perfect.

Why I think so is reading and understanding literature provided important skills as a designer. At the literature department, I learned about ways of thinking from different perspectives by the steps such as reading books, researching authors, making era verifications, touching on psychology, philosophy, sociology, and write my own interpretation.

I’m good at imaging something basically but I like to read stories thinking from author’s or character’s standpoint, and imaging what “I” think about it objectively. I think it is fun point to read books is there is no correct answer.

And the objective viewpoint is a necessary skill as a designer. Designing something with three viewpoints is important for designer. Specifically, we design taking best balance of these three viewpoints: clients, clients’ clients (messages to whom, people who will receive the message), and the designers.

I often have visited to shrines or temple, read books about Japanese culture and leaning about how to wear Kimono recently because the desire to learn Japanese culture properly became stronger year by year. What I would like to learn about next it Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement).

You can see Ikebana somewhere cultural places, but I only enjoy it seeing not doing for now because I hesitate to do it… However, I found a experience chance of it at MOA museum of art in Atami.

The venue is very nice which is “this reconstruction is a precious document of the traditional machiya style of house from the Edo period. The Residence contains two tea rooms, one five-and-half-mat size and the other three-mat. The latter “Seisei-an” was named after Korin’s pen name, and the sign for the room was created by Japanese artist Okumura Togyu. The reconstruction was supervised by a great authority on the Sukiya style of architecture Dr Sutemi Horiguchi.”

The reconstruction is here.

“Khadi: The Fabric of India’s Tomorrow” – 1 –
“Khadi: The Fabric of India’s Tomorrow” – 2 –

I have introduced about the exhibition “Khadi: The Fabric of India’s Tomorrow – Homage to Martand Singh -“ at 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT over two times.

Both the content and the ways of exhibition are great, and the words of Mr. Singh (the producer and the curator of this exhibition) caught my heart at most.

There is an infinite number of whites…
White of the jasmine flower,
White of the sea form,
White of the august moon,
White of the conch shell,
White of the clouds that have been emptied of rain.

Handmade Kadhi has different expressions one by one, a beautiful cloth expressing the difference delicately the white. The above his words are very nice which imaged Kadhi with countless white, and I feel so happy to imagine the beauties. Why I was caught my heart is “White”.

I introduced about Kadhi last time, I tell about the producer and curator Martand Singh who conveys the wonderful culture to us.

Kadi was on the verge of survival 20 years ago, Mr. Singh made various activities to rebuild his country’s tradition to the present age. Today, Kadhi is used high-end fashion brands. I learned about it is also important someone who conveys the wonderfulness to people, not only the culture or facts itself.

Mr. Martand Singh

The exhibition of Kadhi is held all over the world. I was very impressed the Swatches + Catalog, it was displayed at the first “KHADI: The Fabric of Freedom” on January 30, 2002, the 54th anniversary of Gandhi’s death. Only one hundred copies of this catalog of 108 (the number of earthy desires) fabric samples were created, they look so beautiful! I thought the sense of Singh’s production was also playing a major role in Kadhi’s reconstruction. Ways of conveying is also important, big learning.

I went to the current exhibition “Khadi: The Fabric of India’s Tomorrow – Homage to Martand Singh -“ at 21_21 DESIGN SIGNT in Roppongi.

Khadi is a type of cotton fabric that is still spun and woven by hand in regions across India. The process is all by hands and the origin dates back to the Indus civilization. They look all different, and warm and beautiful.

It is said that there are spinning wheels called Charkha in each house. There is a famous picture of Mahatma Gandhi with the wheels Charkha, Khadi is a symbol of Indian independence.
* Boycotting imported goods from Britain and wearing traditional Indian cotton clothes, which promotes the independence.

“First Summer” of the 24 seasons has started today. It writes “Summer is up” in Kanji character, you can feel the sings of Summer and the refreshing wind is quite nice season.

And, the 72 micro-seasons are the followings, they say that animals and plants start actively. Exciting season has started!

【First Summer】
New Season – The First Frogs Call
Next Season – The Earth Worms Rise
Latter Season – Bamboo Shoots Appear

Also it is a child day today. There are some designed Koinobori (carp streamers) these days, I’m happy that the traditional culture is taken over by the times.
*The picture is taken at Tokyo Mid Town