Ichiyo Show Final Days

Today begins the third and last weekend. 

We have had 2 typhoons and a couple hundred visitors, good visitors, good friends.  Yesterday the director from the Higuchi Ichio Memorial Museum visited.  I wonder what she thought.  Whatever it was, she did not say.

 

It was a lot of fun to put it all together, to explore Ichiyo's life through her diaries, and then with my paint.

 

 

I wonder who will visit today on this chilly last Saturday day of the show, or tomorrow on the last  Sunday in the rain.  It is supposed to rain tomorrow;  perhaps it will be a heavy Kurosawa rain, and the exhibition will end like the Seven Samurai - swordplay, and rolling in the mud; Great heroes fall, evil is vanquished, a few survive, and the hard working, but cheerful farmers inherit the earth. One can only hope.

Exhibition underway, watch out for the stairs.

 

My studio was built in the Taisho Era. Some of the younger visitors have not used these sort of stairs.  Narrow, no hand rail, and slippery as hell, fine wood polished by a thousand feet. 

          I only had one visitor come sliding down, bumping his butt each step and screaming each bump.  Made a wonderful noise in my little studio.  He got every head in the place to turn in horror.  Then, boom, he hit the wall at the bottom and like it was a cartoon or something, the painting above him fell off the wall and he caught it in his lap as he sprawled on the floor.  A dozen people all shouted in Japanese, "Are You All Right!"  as they will.

             He jumped up, holding the painting in one hand and his butt with the other saying, "I'm OK! I'm OK!"  Handed me the painting and ran out the door.  In America I guess he would be running to get his lawyer.  Lucky this is Japan.

 

Today begins the long weekend, middle of the exhibition.  Yanaka should be jumping.  nice weather and some kind of local festival, "Yanaka Matsuri!"  Lots of visitors.  Wonder if  any of them will come sliding down my stairs.

the first week, Ichiyo's shortcut through Yanaka, exhibition begins

The exhibition started last week, lots of visitors, young and old. 

Nice to get a variety of folks stopping by.

a clean room

Like a miracle, got it clean.  Today in the typhoon I will hang the show.  Over a year of ink and ideas on the wall for the first time.  It is exciting.

October exhibition to start?

I have got about a week to change this mess into an exhibition.  Oh No! Wish me luck

 

 

 

Ichiyo’s shortcut through Yanaka

New Paintings

2013 October 5 - 20

JImusoan, Yanaka, Tokyo

　12:00～18:00 closed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

 http://brushink.com/

Urushi - Japanese Lacquer

Japanese urushi is 4 times the price of Chinese urushi, and Chinese urushi is not cheep.   30 dollars  for the Chinese... 120 dollars for the Japanese lacquer.  I'll take the 30.

That is what I usually say, but I started thinking. Japanese tea, good. Chinese tea, good, but really not the same.

Today I bought the Japanese urushi. I will use it on my new Ichio boxes for my October exhibition. I am interested to see how it works.

Last Live painting at Nakanosawa Museum

Two weeks ago I did a live painting.  The live painting accompanied an oude performance by Mr. Tokomi.  It was the Sunday program to close my exhibition.  It was my first time to hear an oude.  He learned in Tunisia, and plays it fine.

 

I had been thinking what to paint.  It seemed that dragons were the sub theme of the exhibition, so I decided to paint some on this mountain overlooking Maibashi.  To point of view of the Lantern was a mountain view of Gunma.  It was inspired by a visit to the museum last January.  The big city of Maibashi looked so small and far away from up in the mountain on that showy eve.

 

 

I started high up in the mountains.   A dragon far away.

then some swirls.  And all the time Mr. Tokomi was playing along on his oude.

soon we had another dragon and another.

And then it was done. 

 

 Thanks to all.  It was a lot of fun having an exhibition and get to do a live painting up in the mountains of Gunma.  Nice space, nice people.  A lot of fun.