Curated by Martha Longenecker, the exhibition was held in conjunction with the San Diego – Yokohama Sister City Society’s celebration of a visit to San Diego by Yokohama’s Mayor and the bi-national celebration of 150 years of relations between Japan and the United States of America. The exhibition was funded in part by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture and the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Program.
This was an exhibition of select objects from Mingei International’s collection of more than 2500 works by known and unknown craftsmen from throughout Japan. The all-media exhibition included a broad diversity of historical and contemporary objects – tansu (chests), pottery, calligraphy, woodblock prints and paintings, stencil work, kimono and other textiles, lacquer, metal, handmade paper, baskets and toys.
Many objects were created by artists designated as National Treasures – potters Shōji Hamada and Tatsuzo Shimaoka and stencil artist Keisuke Serizawa. Also on view were works by printmaker and painter Shiko Munakata, recipient of the Imperial Order of Culture.
Mingei, a special word used throughout the world for “art of the people,” was coined by the Japanese scholar Dr. Sōetsu Yanagi, who combined the Japanese words min (all people) and gei (art). Observing that many useful, pre-industrial objects made by unknown craftsmen were of a beauty seldom equaled by artists of modern societies,Yanagi realized that to balance the weight of increasing technology, there was a growing urgency for man to continue to make and use objects that express one’s whole being. Joined by potters Shōji Hamada and Kanjiro Kawai, Dr. Yanagi founded the Mingei Association of Japan to preserve the best of the past and to ensure the continuation of the craft traditions of Japan and the world.
Curated by Martha Longenecker, the exhibition was held in conjunction with the San Diego – Yokohama Sister City Society’s celebration of a visit to San Diego by Yokohama’s Mayor and the bi-national celebration of 150 years of relations between Japan and the United States of America. The exhibition was funded in part by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture and the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Program.