Japan Exhibition 2002

In my first week in Japan a timetable of work and study was established. For three days each week I would work in a potter’s studio in Seto, and twice a week attend language classes in Nagoya City. With Gallery Ray arrangements were made for setting up the exhibition and sending invitations to the opening talk. My work was cleared through Customs with less trouble and cost than I had feared. All this was much helped by my Japanese speaking daughter and craftsman son in law.

Amongst tile books I had taken with me was a proof copy of a new history of tiles in Europe to be published by the V and A later in summer.

As I read it I realised that my talk would have to be rather different from the picture show I had envisaged. The history of tiles is so much part of histories of wars and migrations, poverty, affluence and fashion, few of which had directly affected Japan. The use of tiles by earliest European arrivals was taken note of, beautiful roof tiles were made, but there was no decorative cladding of floors or walls.

Discussing why this might be, a potter said he’d noticed in Europe how the hardness of stone buildings needed the brightness of earthenware; in Japan the softness of wood needed the strength of stoneware. I thought, in the mushiatsui rainy season, that dark implies blessed coolness here whilst at home it suggests dank and gloom. Which tiles keep at bay.

The Gallery Ray Exhibition looked well; small panels and single tiles, with large (1x1.5m) photographs of commissioned work in situ. In the first week all the small tiles were sold, and by the end half of the panels. Various commissioning possibilities were discussed. Business people with architecture and development contacts put forward ideas for a sponsored trade show in Tokyo next year. An exhibition of collaborative work in Seto is planned. Gallery Ray invited me back to exhibit again; for several reasons I think this is not a viable idea.

Although I had some knowledge of Japanese gallery systems I was still quite surprised by some aspects. To exhibit in a small commercial gallery can be like hiring a shop for the duration. In fact this is how some artists I met did exhibit; they paid for the venue, staffed the exhibition and provided any publicity. This did not happen at Gallery Ray, but it was clear it was assumed that the clientele followed the artist rather than the gallery. I found that this was a normal expectation. Fortunately I have supportive Japanese friends who came to see me from around the country; most sales were to friends and colleagues. Because of this, I would not wish to impose on their loyalty by exhibiting work from UK a second year running.

But people who did not know me or my work did come into the exhibition, attracted by notices in the press and at the door to Gallery Ray. They bought work simply because they liked it, reassuring me that though from a very different tradition my tiles are to Japanese taste. So I will continue, with help, to promote my work in Japan and return next year to discuss further commissions, and to show work made in Japan. Another year I would hope to exhibit again at the gallery

As well as Seto potters I had contact with Tokoname I.W.C.A.T., and visited Yokkaichi. Two weeks later on my return to Cumbria, met up again with the Banko (Yokkaichi) potters at Cumbria’s Potfest, which I have taken part in since its initiation.

I enjoyed all the work, and enjoyed leisure too. I had time to spend in Kyoto without rushing to see everything in one day. In Tokyo and Kamakura to talk with my prospective agent, admired the Daibutsu, washed my money in the snake shrine, and was delighted to find a museum of prints and paintings by Munakata Shiko,whose work one can seldom see in UK.
A young history professor from Nagoya University took us to, amongst other places, an Edo military governor’s very civilised house in rural Aichi ken; having just read news of discoveries of Roman governors’ domestic luxuries in Carlisle, I felt the connection. Went to Matsumoto and remote mountain strongholds and thought I’d better read more Japanese history; in the mountains enjoyed scenery and onsen.

My daughter and I were invited by Michikawa san to an enormous tea ceremony "homage" to his aged tea master; it took place in a ryotei whose winding passages were hidden by the modern Nagoya hotel that had superseded the old ryokan. Having expected to be anonymous spectators, after drinking tea amongst wearers of most amazing kimonos and wandering through unexplained passages and demonstrations, we were introduced to the master and thrust into the centre of a hall lined with kneeling patrons, to drink tea in front of everyone and introduce ourselves. I never got to know whether the bowls we drank from were Rosanjin or centuries-old Korean.

The last weekend was a peaceful visit to a little onsen on the coast beyond Ise. Sitting on a wooden jetty in the warm dark, calm after monsoon, talking with friends, is a good memory to end this with.

Michikawa Shozo, the potter with whom I worked, and his family recently visited the UK to discuss a proposed residency here in Cumbria and explore exhibition possibilities. He has already exhibited in London (at Galerie Besson) and in New York (Dai Ichi Gallery) and held workshops and residencies in Mongolia and the Philippines, and looks forward to widening his experience here.

My work for the Japanese exhibition consisted mostly of small 4-tile panels called `Summer Faces', and Single Bird Tiles. I was also showing photographs of my larger work in situ.