Nippon no Arashi - Ohno (Part 3 of 3)
Here's the second day and last part of Riida's journey~ Enjoy!
Nara Yoshitomo once again. And then, the starting point called Jomon
With the exciting night still lingering, the morning of the second day in Aomori arrived. Since they had to return to Aomori Airport in the evening, Ohno headed to the Aomori Prefecture Art Museum first thing in the morning. The cold was quite intense as always, but the perfect weather made everyone’s spirits bright. Standing as if sandwiched between the pure blue sky and the pure white snow, the white building of the Aomori Prefecture Art Museum was so beautiful, the staff couldn’t help but take many pictures of it.
At the museum, the curator in charge of Nara Yoshitomo-san’s works, Takahashi Shigemi-san, acted as the guide for the group. Despite the early morning start, Ohno seemed a bit excited to be in front of Nara-san’s works.
Takahashi: We have 145 of Nara-san’s pieces on display here. We have been collecting them little by little from even before he became famous, so you can see some things he drew in the early 90s here. Those works are already about 20 years old.
Ohno: That’s so interesting. Oh, there is some Korean written here.
Takahashi: Yes. That is a booth called “Seoul House” that was made for the exhibit in Seoul, South Korea. There materials for it were all obtained in Seoul. Actually, this museum opened 3 years ago, and it has been just like this the whole time. We can’t transfer it exactly like this to another place. So to have things continue to change, I try to change the booths themselves. Changing the items that are inside the booths, or the piece that is hanging above, called “Billboard”, wasn’t there at first, but Nara-san made it one of the times he came here.
Ohno: Now that you mention it, it did feel like additions to the building had been made.
Takahashi: For instance, windows like this were ones used in “A to Z” that we had brought over afterwards.
Ohno: I see.
Takahashi: Nara-san drew the wall art on site. He used a projector to blow up the image on the walls and traced the outlines.
Ohno: I see, that’s how he did it!
Takahashi: And, this is the “Aomori dog.”
Ohno: Wow! Amazing! This is really great.
Takahashi: This is made from reinforced concrete. Nara-san made a small maquette (model), and the carpenters used that to create this.
Ohno: Those carpenters are amazing too. The ears are different lengths in just the right way.
Takahashi: Even slight differences in the curves changes the expression of the work, Nara-san was doing his best to explain that to the carpenters. He even took out a 1,000 yen bill and bent the face to show them, saying, “The facial expression is completely different, right?”
Ohno: Oh~. It’s really beautiful.
Takahashi: Since it’s white, dirt stands out on it, so each year once the snow melts in March we wash and clean it. By the way, the snow that’s on its head right now like a crown is how it fell naturally.
Ohno: Eh?! The snow just naturally became like that?
Takahashi: No one can reach that high up, so it’s left just as it is.
Ohno: Amazing~, it’s beautiful. It’s like the work of a god.
Takashi: In the summertime we open this space up and the kids happily run around here.
Ohno: Do they try to climb it?
Takahashi: They all try jumping up to see if they can touch its nose. Actually, with this piece, Nara-san may have been trying to give it a feeling like it’s a historic relic that’s been excavated, since the Sannai Maruyama Ruins are next door. That’s why it looks like it’s partially buried.
Ohno: With the snow right now, it especially looks that way.
Takahashi: The architecture of this museum itself was modeled after an excavation site. The floors look kind of like dirt/earth floors, right? Just like the dirt/earth floors of an old Japanese house. Many excavation sites have dirt floors, so these were made to look like them, trampled down.
The “Aomori dog” is on the other side of the glass. When there’s no snow, visitors are allowed to go right up next to it, but not when the snow is piled up it like is now. But, Ohno was looking at it so enviously that they allowed it just this once!
After looking at Nara-san’s works to his heart’s content, Ohno looked at many other artists’ works with Takashi-san as the guide. He seemed particularly moved at the exhibit of Kojima Ichiro, a photographer often called the Millet of Aomori. While looking at his original photos depicting the intensely cold countryside during the Showa 30s decade, Ohno many times murmured “So cool!” He felt again the power of a photo developed with silver salts, having a quality that digital photos do not.
Incidentally on these trips, the photos taken by the members themselves were all taken with film cameras. Of course digital cameras are convenient and great, but old-fashioned film cameras are great tools for preserving the present, since they burn onto film the image seen right when the button was pressed, rather than saving it as a data file. It was one of the important decisions made for the members who live in the present, to preserve the present Japan that they saw through their travels.
After having lunch at the museum’s café, Ohno headed over to the Sannai Maruyama Ruins next door.
They roamed around the ruins lead by a local volunteer tour guide. The Sannai Maruyama Ruins are the remains of a village from the Jomon era, which stretched from about 5500 years to 4000 years ago, and is well known for changing the Jomon lifestyle centered around hunting with the discovery of agriculture, with crops like gourd, burdock, and beans. While looking at relics like the Jomon pouch, a small bag weaved from rush leaves, and red-lacquered wooden plates, they appreciated that very skilled craftsmen lived in this area even 5500 years ago, and it felt like they saw the origins of the craftsmanship that they saw on this trip.
Now, the trip was coming close to an end. There was only a little bit of time left. They visited a place where they could try a little bit of Kogin embroidery, a traditional folk craft that Aomori is famous for.
Kogin embroidery is a traditional handicraft created by women who lived in the cold regions. First its history was explained by Araki Etsuko-san, a member of the “Maeda Setsu Kogin Research Society.”
“About 200-300 years ago during the times of feudal lords, the samurai would wear silk or cotton, but the farmers and peasants couldn’t wear cotton, so they wore clothing made from hemp. Hemp used to grow wild in Aomori back then. It doesn’t grow here now though. They would cut the hemp to make cloth, and make their clothes from that. But, Aomori is cold as you can see, so to try to make warmer clothes, they quilted them. This idea of quilting to make the clothes even a little bit warmer, and more durable, is how everything started. Also, each of these patterns has a name. The dragonfly is called “danburiko” in Tsugaru dialect, and like this, each of these motifs, closely related to their everyday lives, has a name. For example, cat paws, “tekona” (butterfly), or walnut shells…”
Ohno always puts his all into these types of craftwork. Just like the spoon making, this time he also silently, steadily worked away. And once again, Ohno Satoshi created an original design. If you look closely, it was two stars with the “S” and “A” from “Satoshi.”
Now, the fun trip to Aomori is ending. After leaving the Kogin embroidery place, they stopped by the nearby Utou Shrine to give their thanks for the trip, in the short time they had before their flight left.
An utou is a kind of sea bird. They went to the shrine’s office to ask about the shrine’s history, and Ohno asked, “But what kind of bird is an utou?” Then the shrine maiden brought over a stuffed specimen of an utou bird from the back. It seems that long ago, Aomori used to be called Utou Village, and many utou birds were native to the area.
The group visited the shrine, giving thanks for the 2 day trip and all of the people and things they encountered there. They went back to the shrine’s office to receive a seal (TN: many shrines have them, as keepsakes of the trip there and an “omamori” - protective charm) for their specially-made book, and then headed to the airport. And then, they reflected on the trip once again.
“It was a lot of fun to experience so many different crafts this trip. It was perfect. Last night was really amazing. Everyone was so warm. And, everyone has worked so hard even though they are close to my age. Kosugi-san is 29, right? And Yamazaki-san is young too. There really are so many different jobs and I want to learn more about everything. Man, traveling is great~ This place might fit me well, Aomori. That’s how it felt. Like, I don’t have to live in Tokyo. Just like Kasai-san said, this place is great too. I think it’s great, I’m so jealous. Actually, I’m not great with the cold, but it was so interesting here I didn’t even think about that. There were lots of things I was interested in here. But since I’m not good with the cold, why did I choose to go to Aomori? I’m not sure myself (lol). At any rate, this trip made me want to draw and make things again. Even pottery, or blown glass, I want to try a lot of different things.”
In their various hometowns, the people of Aomori have gradually created their own unique worlds through their crafts. It seems that after experiencing their craftsmanship, Ohno Satoshi himself has been inspired to create his own works as well. While it was only a two-day trip, it was full of rich encounters one after the other, and Ohno left with a very satisfied smile.
Everyone in Aomori, thank you very much!
And there we have it! Hope you guys had fun reading that (and found it interesting!)
Aiba-chan is up next; his part is already translated so I'll put it up next weekend~
Until then, take care all and thanks for reading!!
Masterpost here.
Nara Yoshitomo once again. And then, the starting point called Jomon
With the exciting night still lingering, the morning of the second day in Aomori arrived. Since they had to return to Aomori Airport in the evening, Ohno headed to the Aomori Prefecture Art Museum first thing in the morning. The cold was quite intense as always, but the perfect weather made everyone’s spirits bright. Standing as if sandwiched between the pure blue sky and the pure white snow, the white building of the Aomori Prefecture Art Museum was so beautiful, the staff couldn’t help but take many pictures of it.
At the museum, the curator in charge of Nara Yoshitomo-san’s works, Takahashi Shigemi-san, acted as the guide for the group. Despite the early morning start, Ohno seemed a bit excited to be in front of Nara-san’s works.
Takahashi: We have 145 of Nara-san’s pieces on display here. We have been collecting them little by little from even before he became famous, so you can see some things he drew in the early 90s here. Those works are already about 20 years old.
Ohno: That’s so interesting. Oh, there is some Korean written here.
Takahashi: Yes. That is a booth called “Seoul House” that was made for the exhibit in Seoul, South Korea. There materials for it were all obtained in Seoul. Actually, this museum opened 3 years ago, and it has been just like this the whole time. We can’t transfer it exactly like this to another place. So to have things continue to change, I try to change the booths themselves. Changing the items that are inside the booths, or the piece that is hanging above, called “Billboard”, wasn’t there at first, but Nara-san made it one of the times he came here.
Ohno: Now that you mention it, it did feel like additions to the building had been made.
Takahashi: For instance, windows like this were ones used in “A to Z” that we had brought over afterwards.
Ohno: I see.
Takahashi: Nara-san drew the wall art on site. He used a projector to blow up the image on the walls and traced the outlines.
Ohno: I see, that’s how he did it!
Takahashi: And, this is the “Aomori dog.”
Ohno: Wow! Amazing! This is really great.
Takahashi: This is made from reinforced concrete. Nara-san made a small maquette (model), and the carpenters used that to create this.
Ohno: Those carpenters are amazing too. The ears are different lengths in just the right way.
Takahashi: Even slight differences in the curves changes the expression of the work, Nara-san was doing his best to explain that to the carpenters. He even took out a 1,000 yen bill and bent the face to show them, saying, “The facial expression is completely different, right?”
Ohno: Oh~. It’s really beautiful.
Takahashi: Since it’s white, dirt stands out on it, so each year once the snow melts in March we wash and clean it. By the way, the snow that’s on its head right now like a crown is how it fell naturally.
Ohno: Eh?! The snow just naturally became like that?
Takahashi: No one can reach that high up, so it’s left just as it is.
Ohno: Amazing~, it’s beautiful. It’s like the work of a god.
Takashi: In the summertime we open this space up and the kids happily run around here.
Ohno: Do they try to climb it?
Takahashi: They all try jumping up to see if they can touch its nose. Actually, with this piece, Nara-san may have been trying to give it a feeling like it’s a historic relic that’s been excavated, since the Sannai Maruyama Ruins are next door. That’s why it looks like it’s partially buried.
Ohno: With the snow right now, it especially looks that way.
Takahashi: The architecture of this museum itself was modeled after an excavation site. The floors look kind of like dirt/earth floors, right? Just like the dirt/earth floors of an old Japanese house. Many excavation sites have dirt floors, so these were made to look like them, trampled down.
The “Aomori dog” is on the other side of the glass. When there’s no snow, visitors are allowed to go right up next to it, but not when the snow is piled up it like is now. But, Ohno was looking at it so enviously that they allowed it just this once!
After looking at Nara-san’s works to his heart’s content, Ohno looked at many other artists’ works with Takashi-san as the guide. He seemed particularly moved at the exhibit of Kojima Ichiro, a photographer often called the Millet of Aomori. While looking at his original photos depicting the intensely cold countryside during the Showa 30s decade, Ohno many times murmured “So cool!” He felt again the power of a photo developed with silver salts, having a quality that digital photos do not.
Incidentally on these trips, the photos taken by the members themselves were all taken with film cameras. Of course digital cameras are convenient and great, but old-fashioned film cameras are great tools for preserving the present, since they burn onto film the image seen right when the button was pressed, rather than saving it as a data file. It was one of the important decisions made for the members who live in the present, to preserve the present Japan that they saw through their travels.
After having lunch at the museum’s café, Ohno headed over to the Sannai Maruyama Ruins next door.
They roamed around the ruins lead by a local volunteer tour guide. The Sannai Maruyama Ruins are the remains of a village from the Jomon era, which stretched from about 5500 years to 4000 years ago, and is well known for changing the Jomon lifestyle centered around hunting with the discovery of agriculture, with crops like gourd, burdock, and beans. While looking at relics like the Jomon pouch, a small bag weaved from rush leaves, and red-lacquered wooden plates, they appreciated that very skilled craftsmen lived in this area even 5500 years ago, and it felt like they saw the origins of the craftsmanship that they saw on this trip.
Now, the trip was coming close to an end. There was only a little bit of time left. They visited a place where they could try a little bit of Kogin embroidery, a traditional folk craft that Aomori is famous for.
Kogin embroidery is a traditional handicraft created by women who lived in the cold regions. First its history was explained by Araki Etsuko-san, a member of the “Maeda Setsu Kogin Research Society.”
“About 200-300 years ago during the times of feudal lords, the samurai would wear silk or cotton, but the farmers and peasants couldn’t wear cotton, so they wore clothing made from hemp. Hemp used to grow wild in Aomori back then. It doesn’t grow here now though. They would cut the hemp to make cloth, and make their clothes from that. But, Aomori is cold as you can see, so to try to make warmer clothes, they quilted them. This idea of quilting to make the clothes even a little bit warmer, and more durable, is how everything started. Also, each of these patterns has a name. The dragonfly is called “danburiko” in Tsugaru dialect, and like this, each of these motifs, closely related to their everyday lives, has a name. For example, cat paws, “tekona” (butterfly), or walnut shells…”
Ohno always puts his all into these types of craftwork. Just like the spoon making, this time he also silently, steadily worked away. And once again, Ohno Satoshi created an original design. If you look closely, it was two stars with the “S” and “A” from “Satoshi.”
Now, the fun trip to Aomori is ending. After leaving the Kogin embroidery place, they stopped by the nearby Utou Shrine to give their thanks for the trip, in the short time they had before their flight left.
An utou is a kind of sea bird. They went to the shrine’s office to ask about the shrine’s history, and Ohno asked, “But what kind of bird is an utou?” Then the shrine maiden brought over a stuffed specimen of an utou bird from the back. It seems that long ago, Aomori used to be called Utou Village, and many utou birds were native to the area.
The group visited the shrine, giving thanks for the 2 day trip and all of the people and things they encountered there. They went back to the shrine’s office to receive a seal (TN: many shrines have them, as keepsakes of the trip there and an “omamori” - protective charm) for their specially-made book, and then headed to the airport. And then, they reflected on the trip once again.
“It was a lot of fun to experience so many different crafts this trip. It was perfect. Last night was really amazing. Everyone was so warm. And, everyone has worked so hard even though they are close to my age. Kosugi-san is 29, right? And Yamazaki-san is young too. There really are so many different jobs and I want to learn more about everything. Man, traveling is great~ This place might fit me well, Aomori. That’s how it felt. Like, I don’t have to live in Tokyo. Just like Kasai-san said, this place is great too. I think it’s great, I’m so jealous. Actually, I’m not great with the cold, but it was so interesting here I didn’t even think about that. There were lots of things I was interested in here. But since I’m not good with the cold, why did I choose to go to Aomori? I’m not sure myself (lol). At any rate, this trip made me want to draw and make things again. Even pottery, or blown glass, I want to try a lot of different things.”
In their various hometowns, the people of Aomori have gradually created their own unique worlds through their crafts. It seems that after experiencing their craftsmanship, Ohno Satoshi himself has been inspired to create his own works as well. While it was only a two-day trip, it was full of rich encounters one after the other, and Ohno left with a very satisfied smile.
Everyone in Aomori, thank you very much!
And there we have it! Hope you guys had fun reading that (and found it interesting!)
Aiba-chan is up next; his part is already translated so I'll put it up next weekend~
Until then, take care all and thanks for reading!!
Masterpost here.