Today is about Sweden’s leading designer “Ingegerd Råman”, her exhibition is held at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo Crafts Gallery until 2018.9.14 – 12.9.

Generally she is known as “designer” or “ceramist”, but she calls herself not “ceramist” but “potter“, not “designer” but “form-giver“.

This is because she does not regard her creations as self-expression but is more aware of her craftsmanship, which is obliged to create vessels for everyday use. The term “designer” in Swedish is “formgivare (form-giver)“, but the term has more specificity in its meaning-to give a form to something, the presence of an object.

An extremely popular painter whose exhibition is held somewhere every year in Japan, Yumeji Takehisa. I have been to the exhibition “Takehisa Yumeji: Master of Japanese Modern Illustration” held at Tokyo Station Gallery now.

See you at Tokyo Station!

The exhibition consists of four sections. Section 1 is about Takehisa Yumeji (1884-1934) in his youth. Section 2 focuses on his work, such as publishing, printing and woodblocks. Section 3 explores in more detail his work connected with music and score sheets, and Section 4 covers such topics as the original artwork for his autobiographical novel Shuppan (Sailing Off), and publications by Ryuseikaku after Yumeji’s death.
(from TOKYO STATION GALLERY website)

As the title of this exhibition “Takehisa Yumeji: Master of Japanese Modern Illustration”, inside the hall the paintings of Taisho Romantics drawn by Yumeji were in full bloom. A thin, supple and colorful world is like a dream. In the Taisho Period when Western culture began to enter, Japanese and Western mixed up, love was enjoyed, popular culture blossomed. It is an era like a slumber, which is fascinated by the fleeting images of the shortness of only 15 years.

Yumeji was a perfect match to the atmosphere of the times, but today I would like to pay attention to Yumeji as a poet not as a painter.

As a one of picture book lovers, I am happy as long as many picture book of animals or plants titled “The most beautiful xxx” have been published recently in Japan. The charm is the plant illustration, it catches the veins faithfully and seems to draw vividly up to one of the hair growing on the leaves. For the insects, the detailed description of the captivating eyeballs or delicate touch that dramatically reproduces the iridescent beauty color. I am attracted to the mysterious beauty that appears in the microcosm.

Great museum for picture book lovers is “The Intermediatheque” where is near from Tokyo station Marunouchi exit. The feeling that the heavy and academic atmosphere is very nice as if I entered the university’s laboratory. I saw the current exhibition Special Exhibition“The Art of Natural Science in Sweden — Treasures from Uppsala University”.

It is anniversary year 2018: the 150th Anniversary of Japan–Sweden diplomatic relations. And this presents the world of Natural History which bloomed in 18th-century Sweden, as well as its connections with Japan.

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.