Every so often I get a little kick up the pants that reminds me where I am.
(Click on the image below for a decent size version.)
On Suturday 4th of November, 2006, the Free Hugs Campaign came to Shibuya.
After 3 free hugs and managing to completely confuse them, I gave them a free map and continued with my journey…
and the video appears on YouTube:
Come back home; start to open front door; hear loudspeaker below; peer over railing; there’s a band. It’s not moving. Band starts moving and it’s LOUD! Grab camera; start filming; battery dies.
I have now embarked on a tour of Tokyo.
My guide is a map from the back of a gallery postcard, with all the labels surgically removed.
My starting point is every station on the Yamanote railway line.
I’ve been doing it for 2 days now, and I’m halfway round. I don’t know where the map will take me, but there’s always something interesting to be found at the other end…
Update: this became the Sites of Potentiality: Yamanote Line project.
Shortly after an observation that the art in Japan often happens outside of the art scene, Felicity took me to a toyshop.
By that stage the conversation had moved on to architecture and the toyshop was to be an example of a building that, let’s face it, probably wouldn’t be around for much longer.
Yes the toyshop sold toys. But it also sold customised jeans.
It was a toys and jeans shop.
After purchasing a song book (from the toys and jeans shop) we were invited to have a look upstairs.
To what is the jeans customiser’s studio.
The previous owner had been in the building for 50 years and never used the upper floor. But the jeans customiser had cleared it out. The paper screens were brown with age, and there were ancient newspapers pasted onto the walls.
Bloody marvellous, but I bet it’s Baltic in the Winter.
[Oh, and recently the studio of the toys and jeans shop had also been turned into a tea shop.]
Having excused myself early from the last segment of Johnny Hillwalker’s walking tour of Kyoto, I made a (not so) quick dash over to the Shimogamo Shrine to meet artist Markuz Wernli Saitô.
The last time we’d met was on the Kamo Obashi bridge when, having randomly followed a link from this article, and discovering the momentarium website I thought it would be great to invite Markuz to be a starting point for the Peer-to-Peer Sketchbooks project.
This time, however, was to be much more involved…
Wednesdays in Markuz’s programme are city canal tour days where “surprises and wet feet are guaranteed”. Well, I certainly got both, starting with performing the opening ceremony!
A condensed version of the tour can be viewed here http://momentarium.org/service/popup/1025.html (Quicktime format), but the actual event lasted about 2 hours.
It was fascinating to peer into people’s gardens from what was effectively ground level, and there were some nice little discoveries within the limbo territory of the canal itself: sights, sounds and smells.
Mostly the people we saw did a double-take but recovered enough to give us a friendly “konnichiwa” or “kombanwa”. There were a few quality encounters though, such as the woman throwing food across the canal and two fences to a dog in a garden on the other side, and The Guy in the Red T-Shirt.
I didn’t catch his name, but he just sort of appeared alongside the canal on his bike. After a brief introductory chat with Markuz, he left his bike propped up at the side and came down to join us. …but only for a few seconds before he started sprinting down the canal path!
He reappeared some time later completely out of breath and stopped to chat some more. We saw him a few more times after that as he cycled over various bridges and gave us a friendly wave. I wonder if he ever got back in touch with Markuz later by email?
I’m very much intrigued by how encounters like this can be documented. I was repeatedly amazed by the fact that, in Japan, Markuz has been able to leave his video camera set up on a tripod on the other side of busy bridges and in railway stations etc unattended and without fear that it would get stolen. How would you manage this in the UK or elsewhere? Some sort of hidden camera? An entourage of beefy cameramen?
Is there some other way of documenting the process besides video? Does the record need to be visual and time-based?
Maybe a more comforting way to regard my dozens of mosquito bites is as some form of alternative documentary record…
I’d heard great things about his tour, so when I got the chance I joined Johnny Hillwalker for a stroll around Kyoto.
After starting with the main Bhuddist (this-one-only-cares-if-you’re-dead) headquarters, where even the concrete looks good, we went on to visit a range of smaller shops and workshops that I’d otherwise have been completly oblivious to.
Folding-fans being assembled and pressed; sweet-makers making assorted things out of beans and sugar; and tatami mats being re-covered.
All this on top of the usual collection of lanterns, torii and prayer-boards that you’d expect from this corner of Japan.
Here’s his web page again in case you missed it first time around: http://web.kyoto-inet.or.jp/people/h-s-love/
Kiyomizu: pure water.
Kiyomizu dera: temple complex built on the site of a mountain spring… and ultraviolet sterilizer
Known as the Grandmothers’ Harajuku, in Sugamo you can buy knicker elastic in unlimited quantities at the flea-market in the shrine grounds.
However, it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, Granny Jumpers are always the same…
Rather marvelous.
I’ve always been impressed by the amount of leg-room available on Japan’s shinkansen services, however when these 3 sleeeping beauties turned around the set of chairs in front and stretched out I was quietly amazed.
click on images for lager versions…
Exodus of obasan from the jinja:
A stroll around the park:
The biggest koi carp you have ever seen:
A 400 year old castle complete with concrete stairs and air conditioning throughout:
Collecting fresh spring water:
…and fresh fruit:
Weather forecasting courtesy of 4-stick mountain:
Relaxing walks around the village (mosquitoes not withstanding):
Random foodstuffs:
An early morning drive to see Aso-san:
And the volcano up close:
A Noh performance in front of the floodlit castle:
Former residence of Hosokawa Gyobu (and when the current owners are finished with it, I’ll have it!)
Many thanks to everyone in the zoo for their hospitality:
As far as I could make out…
Everyone from the local area gathers together in and around a shrine conveniently located next to a large open area (and the hospital…) and has a bit of a jolly in the still-quite-hot autumn afternoon: food, music, games, more food.
Each neighbourhood has a team of young gents that limber up during the afternoon…
…in preparation for all hell breaking loose once it gets dark.
Each team has a large omikoshi carriage thing (but no wheels and no horses!) that weighs about 2 tonnes and must be carried out of the shrine, out into the large open and then used to try and nudge an opposing team into submission.
As you can see from this video clip, the crowd is right in there supporting their team, so it gets a bit hairy when the omikoshi suddenly launches itself in a particular direction: people have to try and scatter out of the way. It gets really interesting when you find yourself trapped between three of them all converging towards you!
and then the next day you’re back to seeing men with flashing beacons emplyed to safely guide you around completely fenced off road-workings…
Garyoro (Reclining Dragon Corridor) and Otama-ya (Sanctuary):
Temple Garden:
Gion house:
Gion tree:
Shrine and cars:
Gion lanterns:
Iho-an (The Cottage of Lingering Fragrance, tea house):
I spotted an old friend from last year:
Good food, cooked on the table in front of you and eaten with friends.
Even the stuff that’s not cooked in front of you is quite impressive….
After 4 weeks based at Joshibi, I have now left my rented room in Sagamiono with its views of the mountains and the vegetables on one side…
…and the crazy firemen on the other.
This week I will stay at a friend’s house in the North of Tokyo and then on Friday I will start my travels: Kyoto, Kobe, Hyogo and Kumamoto.
All the everything is always punctuated by lots of food with friends, but this week I have also had a chance to start thinking about my own work as well as continuing to see some interesting exhibitions.
Let’s see what happens in phase 2…
Last weekend I was invited to the awards ceremony for the 42nd Kanagawa Prefecture Exhibition of Fine Art.
A lot of people, a lot of art and a lot of speeches…
Congratulations to those who received awards.
For some reason, I took most of my photos in Kawagoe without looking.
(Cick on the pictures below for larger images.)
Normal service will be resumed once the birthday celebrations have finished and I’ve stopped needing to use the laptop for editing ultrasound footage.
A taxi farm:
General state of things at Ono Garou:
Just liked it as an abstract collection of lines and colours:
A moderate obsession with the stairs at Ono Garou:
The cast of Tonari no Totoro, shrinkwrapped:
Small cars:
Making onigiri with exchange students past and present:
Okonimiyaki and slippers:
Tower block by night:
Fun with shiny things:
Pedestrians in Ginza reclaim the road on a national holiday:
Empty billboard:
Shrine to stillborn children by night:
As a follow-up to the contemporary art galleries in the industrial unit, yesterday Ami took me to several art galleries in Ginza.
My favourite was Ono Garou. One of the artists told us this is the oldest building in Ginza – an area associated with expensive shopping – and I can well believe it.
Formerly an apartment building, it is fairly crumbly inside and now inhabited by artists. Most of the rooms (typically about 2.5m square) are individual gallery spaces, even the old bath room!
We spent most time in the two basement spaces.
TYPE-TRACE, part of divvydual teased out ideas about language, authorship and production: three sets of laptops, chairs and projectors where visitors were invited to type their thoughts whilst having the process of their typing logged. The document was then played back in real time with letterforms having differing sizing depending on how long it took before the corresponding key had been pressed.
http://spinn-aker.co.jp/kobo/t-guide.htm
www.inexhale.net
www.phonethica.net
www.tokyoartbeat.com
Next to the room bathed in the cold light from the monitors and projectors was the work of Saito Juichi. Dressed formally in suit, tie and white cotton gloves, the artist welcomed visitors at an equally formally dressed table outside his space. With soft voice and great solemnity we were then shown into what is essentially the cupboard under the stairs.
Only being able to stand upright immediately inside the door, we then had to stoop and shuffle over the rabbit pelts to view the sculpture at the far end that also provided the only lighting in the space.
Marvellous.
Once outside and back at the table again, we were ushered through the process of signing our names (with a fountain pen, naturally) on visitors cards that were then put away in a lidded box.
Shortly afterwards we returned and, with Ami’s help with translation, Saito-san became the first person in Japan invited to participate in the Peer-to-Peer Sketchbooks project.
After the sumo last weekend, Tomoko and I explored a nearby shrine… in the dark!
After being startled by the resident cat who suddenly decided she wanted to be somewhere else, we found a particular stone that Tomoko had been looking for.
It has become a custom for visitors to scrape off some of the stone and keep is as a charm for good health. We obliged, but being dark it all felt strangely furtive! Also the photo isn’t very good…
A few days later, this was echoed across the road from Spiral.
The area is getting a bit of a face-lift and, making the most of the Japanese language’s huge number of homophones, they’ve come up with Au to play off the place name, the verb to meet and the colour blue.
In addition to the new logo (of course!) they had covered a huge area with marble chippings and strung up a load of flags across the side nearest the street. It was catching everyone’s attention and whilst not many people knew what it was about, they were all keen to grab a handful of the stones which we were told had healing properties and were invited to take away with us!
After going to Kiyosumishirakawa we went to Spiral in/near Omotesando. I was really keen to see Spiral having already come across their Independent Creators Festival via Ami’s work.
Music shop, coffee shop, gift shop and Lumps and Bumps by lang/bauman in the atrium:
A few days ago a friend took me to see some galleries in the Kiyosumishirakawa area of downtown Tokyo.
Tucked in between a cement factory and a taxi ranch, is a building that houses a dispatch warehouse, a lighting manufacturer and, oh, 3 floors of commercial galleries!
After finding your way past the palettes to the industrially sized lift, you come out in a slightly different world of pristine white cubes! (ie the type of place you’re blatantly not going to be allowed to take any photos…)
There was a real mix of contemporary artists being represented: Japanese, international, emerging and more established. We even came across a Damien Hurst in one of the galleries!
Other than the complete serendipity of walking out of the lift, I think the nicest touch for me was the little reception desk just inside the entrance that just sort of pulled the whole thing together.
www.tomiokoyamagallery.com
www.shugoarts.com
www.zenshi.com
www.takaishiigallery.com
www.hiromiyoshii.com
A collection of various folk houses dating back several hundred years have been transported to this valley and restored.
Most of the buildings, no matter how old, seemed to be quintassentially Japanese to my gaijin eyes: sliding doors, shyouji screens, raised floors, tatami mats etc etc. I wasn’t expecting the thatched rooves though, but it was quite nice to see that the process and the tools used are just like the ones back home!
90% of the hearths had a sculpture of a fish attached to the main chain and supported so as to be angled slightly down. Sachie told me that these are how old fires are shown in all the story books. We found out why! Fish are used to keep watch over the fire because they never blink! Faultless logic.
We spent hours here, so here are just a tiny fraction of the photos I took.
(The discerning viewer may notice a general disposition towards fixtures and fittings…)
The thing I often find most disturbing about the city ofTokyo is that it just doesn’t seem to have any edges.
Last year we just missed out on the sumo tournament in Nagoya (I think), but yesterday we were lucky enough to wander over to the sumo district and get some of the remaining tickets.
I’m not going to pretend to know much about the sport, but it was very entertaining and impressive.
They’re all trying to be a little bit higher up in the rankings for when the next tournament comes around.
A few champions will become immortalised in bronze…
… or in scarily realistic plastic effigies.
After a few false starts that actually worked out rather well, we made it to the Hama-Rikyu Gardens: a shogun family garden/duck hunting bonanza type place in the past, and now something of an oasis sandwiched between the skyscrapers and the port.
[as ever you can click on each image for a larger version]
We ate good food, fed the cat, snoozed, mingled with the wildlife…
and joined the heads bobbing among the flowers.
My botanical knowledge is somewhat lacking, but I’m going to call these chrysanthemums until somebody corrects me.
The chrysanthemums were a fabulous orange.
Also, I think I found what is probably my new most favouritist building. Here are a few photos that don’t even come close to showing why!
I’m sure every one of these people was merely carefully considering the options for a future purchase…
The weekend just gone was a long one thanks to the annual holiday Respect for the Aged Day on Monday.
All three days were great: various people taking me to Hama-Rikyu Gardens, Nihon Minka En and to the sumo tournament. Photos to follow shortly and many thanks to all involved for the little extras that made each day a little bit more special than just joining ranks with the other tourists.
Last night a friend took me to an izakaya.
The amazingly delicious food,
subdued lighting,
and restrained atmosphere,
were followed by a quick game of pachinko:
Welcome to Japan.
Because she is
this week I have mostly been smearing my friend with Vaseline and flicking stuff at her:
A Geidai door; an extraordinarily large baby (how large? this large); a section of roof at Charles de Gaul airport; some small cherry-flavoured desserts that looked really unappetising, not least because they’d probably been sitting around in this claw machine in a 50p shop for a long, long time; the moon, a plane and a hotel; a street scene in rainy Machida; novelty architecture in Ueno; stools in the painting department of Geidai; emerging from Ueno park into the bright lights of the city…
Yesterday I went to the festival of Tokyo University of Music and Arts (Geidai) in Ueno.
http://www.geidai.ac.jp/english/index.html
Part open day:
…part exhibition:
… part car boot sale:
…and part barbeque and music festival:
a good time was had by all!
The students kept asking me how it compared to festivals in the UK, and I had to say that I’d never seen anything like this in the UK. But then maybe my experiences in Bournville aren’t particularly representative.
I tried asking them what the festival was for and who came etc etc. It seems that many students from all the other Tokyo art universities come to these things, as well as families of Geidai students. In addition to showing and selling some of their work, each department has its own batch of beer and food stalls as well as two or three student bands playing throughout the evening. After which, apparently it is traditional for the students to decide to go for a swim in the pond of the nearby park.
Now that part at least sounds familiar!
I’m in a different part of Sagamiono compared to where I was last year so this morning I went for a short walk to see what’s what.
I can now confirm that I live above a shop called Dog Style [ed:it’s a pet shop]; next to a fire station (calm down Cath!); and just around the corner from the Co-op (you still get carved up by trolleys in the aisles, but people will bow and apologise profusely whilst they’re doing it!)
Oh, and I’m not sure where it’s coming from, but somewhere close by plays the Westminster chimes over a loud speaker at noon each day. If I remember correctly, this is also what they use at Joshibi University to signal the start and finish of lunch, so I wonder if I’m going to start developing some sort of Pavlovian response to it…
Not much in the way of excitement between Southampton and Narita, although I did spill my orange juice halfway over the Urals and had to spend the rest of the flight sat on a plastic bag. Classy.
We decided to dive into an Internet cafe on our way back from the supermarket, so I’m currently on a plush black leather(ish) sofa in a small booth amongst many in what seems to be something of a veritable manga emporium. Whilst in the supermarket we met two of the Joshibi students who came to Brum last February and the 2 Finnish exchange students who are just starting their 4 week stint at Joshibi and, it seems, could well have been on the same flight as me this morning!
I don’t didn’t have any of the camera cables with me to upload photos (although I do have 5kg of rice and some fish-cake type things on the sofa next to me) so possibly photos to get added to this at a later stage but I’ve now uploaded a couple of photos.
… or it would do if I’d finished started packing yet.
