Nicholas Bornoff - Things Japanese: Everyday Objects of Exceptional Beauty and Significance

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Contents

Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

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Copyright 2002 Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd
Text 2002 Nicholas Bornoff
Photos 2002 Michael Freeman
This paperback edition 2013 Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

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Credits

With special thanks to:
Masami, for her encouragement and
support; Monique Calahan; Leslie
Downer; Michiko Rico Nos; Mrs
Kimura, Casa Kimura, Kokubunji;
Madoka Shiraishi; Tawaraya Inn,
Kyoto.

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Foreword

Outside Japan, the words 'things Japanese' often conjure concepts which the Japanese themselves would greet, at best, with indulgent smiles. Netsuke, inr, iron kettles, swords and so onall items that began to go out of fashion when Japan started to open its doors to the outside world following the Meiji restoration of 1868. You could add things like tea ceremony ceramics, paintings on sliding screen doors, tatami mats, stone lanterns and kimono to the listeven though these are alive and well. Some Japanese construe these attributes as grossly antiquated stereotypes, and are likely to resent it when foreigners acclaim them. "Kimono! Geisha! Fuji-yama", they fume, despite the fact that they all not only still exist, but are also exalted by many Japanese (who still wear kimono on special occasions) themselves. They may scoff at 'Fuji-yama' (the Japanese have never called their most famous mountain anything but 'Fuji-san') but, oh, how often one sees travel posters of Mt Fuji with girls in kimonooften holding paper umbrellas for good measuredeployed in the corridors of train stations!

The cutting edge of high technology is undeniably more the stuff of modern Japan than the samurai sword, but several venerable swordsmiths designated 'Living National Treasures' still forge the world's finest blades, just as they did centuries ago. Although obviously diminished, the proliferation of traditional arts and crafts in modern Japan is astonishing. With the introduction of the three-piece suit in the 1870s, inr (the little tiered medicine boxes hanging from the kimono belt) may have gone the way of netsuke (the amazing miniature sculptures used to toggle them) but the skills of the craftsmen making them remain very much alive, albeit for different applications. Workshops in Kanazawa and Kyoto still make exquisite painted, embroidered or tie-dyed silk textiles; craftsmen all over Honshu and Kyushu continue to produce outstanding ceramics. Japanese lacquerware finds few rivals worldwide; many modern Japanese, whether serious calligraphers or just for writing seasonal greetings, keep a lacquer writing box complete with brushes and ink-stone. Notwithstanding the ferro-concrete urban sprawl, the wooden Japanese house still existsin many cases just as an interior in a high rise apartment. Some people continue to paint traditional screen doors and, during the summer months especially, everyone likes to sprawl on the cool, comfortable smoothness of the tatami floor.