なんだこれや! ~or~ Nanda Koreya! (If the Hiragana doesn't show up on your computer)

I'd been seeing these statues around town for weeks. The first one I saw was in a frame shop window. I was biking along on my way to work when suddenly, I was arrested by this enormous sculpture of a rather corpulent woman clad only in red heels with a mud pack on her face. I was shocked as I'd never seen it in the shop before. I just stared and said, "What the hell is that?" If you've read a couple entries ago, you'll remember a smaller statue I took a picture of with Kanako at Cafe Praktica. Last time I went to Praktica, Ako-san told me a bit about the artist, whose picture was on the cover of a magazine sitting next to the sculpture. I told her I thought it would be fun to visit his studio and see his work.

The very next day, I was returning to work from break and got up to the office and as I set down my bag, Stacy said, "Did you see the car down in the back of the building?"
I replied, "No. Which car?"
"The one filled with the naked fat lady sculptures you've been talking about. I think the artist is here."
So I walked back out of the office and ran down to see if I could catch the artist. When I got to the lobby, I found a guy putting a fat naked lady in the back of a car, so I pointed to the sculpture and asked if he was the artist. He said no and gestured around the corner. I walked around the corner and now recognized the artist from his picture. We chatted for a bit. He showed me the poster for the exhibition and then he told me what Nanda Koreya means. It turns out my initial reaction to his sculpture was rather apt because it was the way he translated the exhibition title: "What the hell is it?" He gave me a poster with his number and name on it and invited me to come to see his studio.

Later in the week when I was telling my excellent Odyssey ladies on Wednesday afternoon about it, Mieko and Tomoko mentioned they'd like to come along (after I hinted a bit that it would be nice to have someone there to translate). So after a couple calls to the artist, Jin Nariyoshi, we settled upon this afternoon for a visit.

I biked down to City Hall and met Tomoko and Mieko at 11 for lunch. They took me to this excellent organic foods restaurant on the east side of Utsunomiya. This place was really great - set in a rural area, it was part house, part restaurant. We came in and were happy to see a woodburning stove burning away cheerfully in the corner (it was a bit drizzly and cold today). I hopped up the stairs to the loft seating and took a couple of pictures of my daytrip companions:
Here's Tomoko and Mieko again, but in sepia - the restaurant seemed very well suited to taking sepia tone photographs (which is why I took this snap):
Here's a shot of my excellent meal. I had a chicken and green onion quiche with onion soup and a plate full of lightly steamed assorted root vegetables and a homemade mustard mayo. There was also a side dish with a tofu mousse which was delicious! Doesn't it just ooze organicness?:
Next we headed to Mashiko to meet Nariyoshi-san at his house. After another call to get specific instructions, we found the house/studio which was set back in a small forest. We wondered at first whether or not we had the right place until we saw one of his large women sitting on the porch. Just as Ako had said, Mr. Nariyoshi was really nice - he invited us into his large, high ceilinged living room in which almost every spot on the floor was filled with stacks of Japanese style pottery - bowls, cups, vases, plates, and sculptures. Then he began to show us some of his works as well as some photographs. It turns out that our host is quite well-respected in the world of Japanese ceramics. One of his pieces sits in the BRITISH MUSEUM and according to the small placard under the photo of this piece, Mr. Nariyoshi is an exponent of a particular style of Korean pottery glazing that dates from the 14th and 15th centuries (if I remember right). After his wife brought in tea for each of us and went back to her studio (she's also a potter, though they both have separate work spaces), we talked more and took some pictures. Here I am with Nariyoshi and Mieko:
And here we are again, this time with Tomoko:
I also snapped a couple shots of some of his large ladies:

He explained that beauty was not just restricted to thin, super model types - he thought that large women were sexy and beautiful and wanted to showcase that sexiness. Then he looked at me and asked if I liked large women (owing I guess to all of my questions about the sculptures) - I smiled and explained that I had so many questions because what intrigued me was that a Japanese artist should choose a large caucasian woman as his subject (he mentioned that she is not based on any particular woman - tho' I thought she looked a bit like Dawn French from BBC comedy fame - but came from his imagination). We had a great visit and at the end, he brought out a small cell phone charm with the exhibition title on it, but even more important, he took out a calligraphy brush and on the back of an exhibition card, he artfully wrote the exhibition name and stamped it with his hanko - we all marveled at his beautiful calligraphic style:
Here's one more shot of Tomoko and Mieko in Mr. Nariyoshi's living room:
After a great visit, and an invitation to go out for drinks in Utsunomiya together, we bid farewell and headed back to the main street of Mashiko where Mieko looked (without result) for a matching green tea cup to replace one that had been chipped. Here's a shot of one of the stores we looked around in:
We stopped at a coffee shop for dessert and tea and coffee. This cafe was located in the same building where I'd made pottery nearly a year ago with Saki, Masaki, and Wasim. But between that and all the tea offered us at nearly every place we went, I had to keep going to the bathroom (even making a stop on our way back to Utsunomiya - I wonder what the kanji is for "He with the little bladder"?) Mieko dropped off Tomoko and I and I walked to City Hall where I'd left my bicycle this morning only to find that my bicycle was missing - I looked and looked and e-mailed Tomoko who met me and took me to the Police station nearby to report it stolen, but without the serial number, there wasn't much they could do about it - they did, however, suggest that perhaps the City Hall security people may have moved it if it was in a restricted place, so tomorrow I'll go look for it. Anyway, I walked home tonight and as I walked past the frame shop, I snapped this picture of the sculpture that resulted in today's great adventure (even if my bike was stolen):

Pott'ry at Mashiko

About a month ago, I visited Mashiko with one of my students, her friend and her former teacher in Oyama. Mashiko is a cool little town in Tochigi that is famous for its pottery. Saki suggested we all go and try our hand at making some stuff. Today, I got the pottery back that I'd made, so I am posting pictures both from the day we made the stuff and ones I took today of the finished products.

Here's Wasim (Oyama teacher who trained with Michel - Hey, Wasim, give me the link to your blog again so I can put it on mine), Saki (my student), and Masaki (her friend and Wasim's student) - we stopped for soba and udon noodles before going to make pottery.

On our way there, Saki took us to this cool indigo operation where thread and cloth are dyed in this really intense indigo - all of these lids cover wells with the dye in them:

This woman gave us a demo on how to make various objet d'art - she made the whole thing look so effortless and I think I learned more from her ten minute demo than the spring I took ceramics in college:

Here's Saki looking tentatively at the wheel - speaking of the wheels, the operation is set up so that you sit either cross-legged or on your knees while you work with the clay - this way of sitting is comfortable for about two seconds after which your feet and legs fall asleep and you almost fall into your clay.

Masaki took to the wheel and created several pieces with aplomb (yes, I know I just used aplomb (and not long after using objet d'art) and I apologize):

Here's the planks with all of our work. We basically paid about $15.00 for unlimited clay and use of the wheels for an hour. Once we decided on the pieces we wanted to keep, we paid an additional fee per piece to have them glazed and fired (I chose three):

Here's Masaki finishing up her last piece:

And Saki and Wasim proudly gazing upon their work:

These are the kilns in which the pottery is (or was - not sure if these were still being used) fired:

Here's the gang at a shrine that Michel told us to check out up in the hills outside of Mashiko - this one was built in 1492:

Tonight Saki came to class and brought me my three pieces (which shrunk down by about 25% with firing). I was so excited as I unwrapped each piece and saw what a great job they did glazing each one. Sayaka, our head teacher loved them and was surprised that I had made them.

Here they are:

First, a squat sort of vase I made - this one is my favorite:

This is a green tea cup that I made - not my favorite after firing, but it holds tea:

And last, a sake pitcher that shrunk down - the shrinkage (to use a Costanza-ism) may disqualify it from being a proper pitcher, so it may have to be a vase

I want to go again soon!