Lee Love on sun 10 sep 00
Didn't have time to write my own essay, but I thought that folks involved in
the "what's Mingei and what's not Mingei" topic might find these
interesting:
Shimaoka Sensei. The last paragraphs from his essay in the International
Mingeikan Retrospective catalog:
"On the other hand, I constantly remind myself that I shouldn't pursue novel
effects for their own sake. If I pursue them too much, I know I would start
to attach too much importance to technical details. The basis of my work
always lies in the kind of pieces made of Mashiko Clay, with inlays in white
and fired in a climbing kiln with ash glaze.
These are the very kind of works I can be truly proud of, distinctively my
own and distinctively Mashiko Style.
I believe that I have been appointed a holder of an important intangible
cultural asset in folk craft pottery (rope impressed inlay) exactly because
of this indigenous quality of my work."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>From Yanagi's The Unknown Craftsman, on the place of the artist, to bring
beauty back into "made" things:
"There is so much to learn and to respect-- the true individual, or artist,
craftsman does so, that is why he is a friend. Those who do not do so have
no capacity for self-examination, and that is why their work is poor. The
individual craftsman of today has the potentiality of shepherding
craftsmanship towards a rebirth of true work. Work without innate beauty is
dead work; that is why the artist-craftsman is important to us. The great
need of our time is for the artist-[craftsman not only to produce his own
good work but also to ally himself closely with the artisan, so that
eventually we may have beauty in common things again...
The country craftsman does not know how to deal with the changes of
fashion and their demands in the cities. Exporters and importers of
industrial goods have little thought beyond profit and loss. In both cases
the discriminating eye, which is the faculty of the artist, is not being
called into use. This is the position as I see it."
You see, Yanagi valued his co-founders of the Mingei movement:
Artists like Hamada, Tomimoto, Kawaii, Leach, Serizawa and Munakata. The
movement was not just for the Unknown craftsman living in the outback in
Korea, China and Okinawa.
--
Lee Love
Mashiko JAPAN Ikiru@kami.com
Help E.T. Phone Earth: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
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