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 Lees verder
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 Lees verder
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 Lees verder
Sitting on a tatami mat and looking outside into the garden is one of the most beautiful ways to wash away daily frustration. It takes some time, but than you can experience all the senses to relax and enjoy the japanese tradition. – Overlook the garden though the bamboo blinds or with the sliding paperdoors half open – Feel the fresh wind finding its way inside from the trees in the garden – Hear the Lees verder
The size of a tatami mat (90 x180 cm) is not only an acre, but also the dimensions for the altitude of the space. This makes the space in the tatami room so elegant and simple. Roland Barthes wrote in his book L’Empire des signes: “This means the space without a center is also reversible: you can change the corridor of Shikidai upside-down without something happening, except that up and down and left and right Lees verder
When I asked Nihonga painter (traditional japanese painter) Taro Yamamoto, if making a copy of one of his paintings would be a problem, he answered ‘no, I sometimes reuse parts of my paintings or copy them if people ask so’. He stated that art and crafts are very much related to each other. So if making a new bowl or paper roll with the same shape or calligraphy is not a problem. Why should making Lees verder
For traditional carpenters looking at the wood joints of the machiya, old wooden houses and temples must be like heaven. And ‘fortunately’ most of the houses and temples are burned down or rebuilt. So this technique is still alive and passed to future generations. I attended a meeting for people living in a machiya. Several different wood joints were exposed: for vertical beam, horizontal beams, corner joints. They looked like a puzzle and took for Lees verder
For years I’ve been interesting in what people take with them when they have to leave, what kind of immaterial things like memories, thoughts, images, smells are important for people’s memory and future. I made cupboards and suitcases for them. Although people in Japan try to keep their rooms empty, they have a lot of storage space and they’re fully packed. The concept of ‘mottanai’ (don’t waste) is very common and a big tradition. On Lees verder
What is beauty? Should art be beautiful? Last week during the presentation of Alex de Wolf’s work (one of the participants in this AIR project) we had an interesting discussion about beauty and art. He showed a temple surrounded by electricity wires. He painted exactly the image he saw in his framing. But the painting was not so much appreciated by the Japanese audience. They appreciate the beauty in a painting, when it’s an idealistic Lees verder
One of the nicknames for the machiya is ‘eel beds’ (unagi no nedoko) Taxes in Kyoto were paid according to the plot’s width. So most of the houses have a small front and are deep to the back. This explains this nickname. But Japanese also have a concept for creating depth oku. The oku concept is one where there is always something in front of us, which encourages people to keep moving forward and search deeper. Lees verder