claystone

my current heart's desire. a cobalt blue claystone pottery teapot. i saw it leafing through old copies of insideout (this is online picture of the insideout spread of teapot - lovely). i hope i can excuse myself for a yakimono post that does not refer directly back to japan, because almost all yakimono reminds me of japan in some way...

ps - i am going to sydney, to see them play saturday. and i really want to go here thanks to ebony, and here thanks to lee tran lam:)

and ps - whilst i am on items of heart's desire unrelated to japan, i didn't know that donna wilson designs sofas too but now i do, her hue sofa for SCP has triggered a very strong craving. they call it 'comfortably familiar'.

the black version with sugar pot

vases

beakers (ちょっと日本っぽいと思います)

sachie muramatsu

and then one thing leads to another. badenbaden sells sachie muramatsu's pendants. she works with washi. these ones are called hanamizuki. which i think is a type of tree, a flowering dogwood? but maybe japanese readers can help?

the above two are custom-made orders

online stores #1 - badenbaden

i have a weird love of structure. of pulling together various threads and putting them in one place. for this, and because i love nice things to have and to hold, i added a new entry on my ever expanding sidebar. it is called online stores. straight to the point. it is all about collecting online japanese stores i find and giving them one home. i come across so many in my wanderings, i wanted to file them carefully away, but not so carefully i never find them again. so they have found a sidebar home. i hope that you can also enjoy them? you will find this growing list in the left hand side bar there, just under on my record player.

i guess the keibunsha post was my first one. so this is my second one: badenbaden.

they have recently featured these extremely cute purses by HIPOTA. i also like their other coloured purses. check out their homepage for more great pictures of their wares. they have an actual store in tokyo as well.

+magnificprosaicoftokyojapan

+fatman+ flickr. via tanburaa.

this is one of my favourite kinds of view.

from:

magnificprosaicoftokyo set: 'reality of japan not paid attention to'.

colour junky set.

hasisi park, korea and japan

i have recently been looking more at the photography of hasisi park (thankyou again to nazara for introducing me to her via +). i find it quite thought provoking. her photography is at times confronting, the below is a description from urban outfitters:

'park is often the subject of her own work, and her portraits evoke the highs, lows and loneliness of someone who lives in her own world. her work is beautiful and occasionally unsettling.'

the above photo is from her project series called the family:

'my cousins are japanese, but we are korean. during colonial times and right before the korean war my grand-uncle went to japan with my grandfather, but my grandfather came back and he didn't. 2 sons and a daughter and wealth, he became very rich in japan. i'd been to japan quite a few times before this trip but this time was very special becasue i had a mission to see whole family, get along with them and keep the connection between japan and korea as well as the family and family.'

looking at hasisi park's story through photographs i am reminded that when living in japan i began to see the complex connected history of japan and korea reverberate in both contemporary societies. an echo through generations. it is one area (along with burakumin and the relationship between china and japan) where i began to question my understanding of japan. i tried to view contemporary japanese society not only from my western gaijin point of view, but to also attempt to see it through the eyes of people whose country or background sometimes has a marked impact on the way they live with, and in, japan.

these photos are maybe a more personal document and discovery of what is family and place, but i guess that is one nice thing about art, photography, it leads you to places...the above and below photos are from the family project. others are from hasisi park's general portfolio.

shokin-tei

shokin-tei (tea house) at katsura-rikyu, kyoto.

top four photos via here.

bottom four photos via here.
and look at hiki's ichimatsu check post here.
this picture via + is what reminded me of shokin-tei's colour