Kind greetings from Tokyo! I've finally had the time to settle down slightly from a rigorous road trip around the world. Waiting for me on my return was an eye-opening exhibition of objects for the tea ceremony by Tamba's Ichino Masahiko.
Opening at Yufuku Gallery from last Thursday, we've had a flurry of Ichino fans flock to Minami-Aoyama to admire Ichino-san's new creations. The response has been far greater than I had expected, yet at the same time, there is no surprise in seeing his works do well at exhibitions. What's perhaps the greatest surprise is that the artist has attempted a chawan exhibition at an objet d'art-oriented gallery like Yufuku.
Perhaps this is testament to the fact that the tea bowl is in itself an object that possesses the outer appearance of a functional vessel, yet retains an inner spirituality that extends far deeper than the sheer space within a teabowl's well.
I must admit, I haven't been this happy with an Ichino exhibition in many years, and many who have taken the time to view the exhibition first-hand have expressed the same. The show runs until Saturday the 28th of November -- please do stop by if you get a chance, and if not, please simply email me for more information/images at info@toku-art.com.
You can view the show in its entirety via the link below.
http://www.yufuku.net/yufuku-gallery/main4.html
Lastly, thank you so much to all those who have extended their kind opinions and comments on my on-going Einin saga. Your words have been a source of great encouragement, and gives me the strength to persevere with the labor of writing. The next installment should be out by the end of this month, so please stay tuned! For those who've missed the stories, you can find Chapters 1 and 2 below.
Chapter 1: Prelude to a Myth
Chapter 2: Into Literature, Enter Infamy
Wishing everyone throughout the world a happy Thanksgiving,
Wahei Aoyama 青山和平
Toku Art Limited
ps: Apologies for the delays in updating our main website! I believe a great deal of this will be accomplished in early 2010. There are many new changes taking place at Toku Art and at Yufuku, so things are going along a bit slowly.... Thank you so much for your kind understanding and support.
