Tijdens mijn verblijf in Kyoto heb ik verschillende workshops Japans boekbinden gedaan. Deze Japanse bindwijze is eenvoudig, sterk en elegant.
Ik verkoop boekjes, maak ze in opdracht en geef workshops.
Deze boekjes zijn handig om mee te nemen voor aantekeningen, foto’s in te plakken, tekeningen in te maken. Of om cadeau te geven.
Prijzen boekjes 10 – 40 euro
Ik geef ook workshops in mijn studio in Amsterdam.
Kosten 80 euro
Zaterdag 25 februari presenteert Hannie van den Bergh haar onderzoek naar de Machiya (traditioneel japans koopmanshuis). Een zoektocht naar de kwaliteiten van de Machiya en hoe deze over te dragen aan toekomstige generaties in Japan en te introduceren in het buitenland. Van 1 oktober t/m 2 december verbleef zij in Kyoto om op verschillende manieren gegevens te verzamelen over de specifieke kwaliteiten van wonen en werken in een Machiya.
while i was reading a book with lectures and articles by wim crouwel ‘ways of thinking’ i thought about the absence of capitals in japanese writing.
in the beginning of the 20th century in europe we had an interesting discussion about the use of lower case and capitals. designers wanted to give expression to the utopian ideal of equality, capitals meant traditional hierarchy.
the other source was functional-rational. bauhaus wrote: ‘wir schreiben alles klein, denn wir sparen damit zeit’.
but also visually i prefer as less capitals as possible in a text. mostly i don’t use capitals in e-mails, that allows for wandering and avoids jumping.
this softness for the eye (and brain) is perfectly understood by japanese typography.
During the processing of the data, I gathered through the surveys, I was wandering how I could present this in an elegant way and with humility.
Although the graphs look like hard facts, I wanted to make them soft and personal.
One way was the use of washi (handmade paper).
Than I wanted to put my handwriting in it with the ‘facts’.
So every page has a second layer from thin washi where I’m now drawing the graphs on.
Eiko, the lady where I did two book binding courses said the books are really wabi-sabi * (I talked about this concept yesterday – 20th november). This was a great compliment for me.
*Characteristics of the wabi-sabi aesthetic include asymmetry, asperity (roughness or irregularity), simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes.
sketch for book with graphs about different issues
The flyers and posters which attract my attention most are those with a combination of computer made straight forward design (font types and photographs) and hand made drawings. Those images make a link between handcraft and modern culture.
This way of working is also expressed in theatre and animation films. Using life drawing/painting on stage with video projection, sometimes even life performance or life music.
An elegant way of wandering around: touching without grasping, thinking without judging, encircle without pointing.
Advertisement poster for Bal building (kind of Bijenkorf)
performance Urbanguild - Oto Ehon
Urban Guild - Traveling Puppet Theatre Troupe Kagyusha
This is the cup from which I take tea everyday day. You can see clearly that’s handmade: the shape of the cup is irregular, the surface has little cracks (raku fired) and the painting is rustic. With our western values we should say it’s not a piece of beauty, with a lack of symmetric, not perfectly shaped and a bit decayed.
But more and more I feel all around me the appreciation for pottery and other handcrafts. The qualities for making things beautiful are not based on our principle, but on an aesthetic sensibility that finds a melancholic beauty in the impermanence, imperfection and incompleteness of all things.
This is the quintessence of wabi-sabi (Japanese aesthetics), an intuitive appreciation of a transient beauty in the physical world that reflects the irreversible flow of life in the spiritual world.
When people say “there’s no communication between parents and children”, this is an American way of thinking. In Japan we didn’t need spoken communication between parents and children. A glance at the face, a glance at the back and we understood enough. That was our way of thinking, and it was because we had true communication of the heart. It’s when we took as our model a culture relying on words with problems that things went wrong. Although we live in a society replete with problems that words cannot ever solve, we think we can solve with words, and this is where things go wrong.
Hayashi Chimio (statistics professor)
An astonishing quote in Dogs and Demons written by Alex Kerr.
Last months I realized how difficult it is to communicate in Kyoto with young and elderly people. I rarely meet people speaking english and the communication by the heart is sometimes even more difficult, because of traditional and cultural differences. But I think and hope that the younger generation will discuss about their problems and fascination. Language is not the most elegant way of communication but it helps to overcome entrenched ideas and loosen the traditional ties.
Cheergirls and boys on the schoolyard
Parade on junior highschool with loud marching music
children taking lunch in the park of the Imperial Palace
One of my daily routines is taking my bike, opening the entrance door, taking out my bike and closing the door. Sometimes the door is slightly open, but then I close it afterwards.No locks in my house, so no problem with lost or forgotten keys.
This sliding door only a few centimeters open is a sign for people that the dwellers are at home. Then they can walk directly, without invitation, into the corridor to drop off goods or to go to the house of the owners.
The dark lattice (koshi) makes the house closed to the front. Ones inside there are two more ‘barrieres to overcome’: the textile curtains (noren) and the plastic curtain. After those physical and mental steps you enter the private house.
step 1: the heavy sliding door
step 2: through the noren, you pass the small garden
step 3: the plastic curtain
Last month I described two teahouses, one by Terunobu Fujimori (30-10-2011) and the other by students of the art academy (31-10-2011), where you had to crawl through a low entrance door to get in. It felt rather uncomfortable and a bit like a joke.
But lately I had a discussion at the Kohrin-in temple, where we visited the teahouse in the garden of the temple complex. There where two entrances: one with sliding doors and one low, small one.
I thought the lower one would be for the servants, to bring the tea and to express the difference in rank. It was just the opposite way. The low entranceway (nijiriguchi) was for the guests, to show their humility and social equality.
Than I saw the nice path with stones coming from the temple and heading to the small entranceway of the teahouse.
Kohrin-in teahouse
In the survey that I did last weeks, I asked about the activities mostly related to the machiya. Ikebana (flower arrangement) and tea ceremony ended both on the first place. Zen meditation and calligraphy both on the second.
I would have expected that far more people would have chosen for tea ceremony. Not only because I see it everywhere in town, but also because tea ceremony includes all arts.
The bowl that goes around to appreciate, the paper roll with calligraphy that is specially chosen for that occasion, the flowers represent the seasons and the conversation between the guests and the teamster is arranged.
A lot of unwritten rules, which seem elegant and polite when naturally done. This is an art in itself.
Junior teamaster, son of Hamaya-san
and of cause don't miss the beautiful sweets