Falling in love with glass pieces
Matsushima is known as one of the three scenic beauties of Japan, and is visited by many people. There is a well established Japanese style hotel with ”onsen” called ”Matsushima Ichino Bo”, and adjacent to this hotel is a museum which displays works by an eminent glass artist known throughout the world.
It is the ”Kyohei Fujita Museum of Glass” which Nakata visited. The director of the museum, Shotaro Takahashi, fell in love with the works by Fujita, and offered to build a museum. The offer was accepted, and the museum was opened in 1996. The museum has many pieces of work by Fujita in its collection, from the early period to some recent works, and the exhibits are changed each season. They also hold special exhibitions of works by contemporary glass artists.
Glasswork artist Kyohei Fujita
Kyohei Fujita was born in 1921 in Tokyo. He studied metal engraving at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts (now the Tokyo University of the Arts), and after graduation, he was employed at a glassware manufacturer. He soon left his job and immersed himself in glass craft. In the 1970s, he went to Venice Italy, a city with a long history of glass craftwork, and he acquired the skills of using colored glass and gold foils as he continued to create his pieces. Since then, he continued to study traditional Venetian glass, and devoted his life to glass craftwork production.
He created a variety of forms including vases, boxes, glasses, receptacles, tea utensils and formative art, and his works are fascinatingly elegant and full of colors, as if life was blown into the glass. He expressed his inspiration and Japanese sense of aesthetic in his work, and established his own world of art.
A box for your dreams ”Kazari Bako”
There is a piece by Fujita to which Nakata commented ”I was deeply moved” when he saw it at Glass Workshop SILICA in Kitaibaraki-shi, Ibaraki Prefecture. This piece is also displayed here.
It is a piece from a series called ”Kazari Bako”, expressing the brilliant style of the Rimpa school from the Edo period. The ”Kazari Bako” are made of colored glass and gold and platinum foils, and they depict themes like ”red and white plum blossoms”, ”red leaves” and ”suzaku” in the form of Japanese traditional boxes. They are referred to as ”Fujita’s dreambox” and are ever so enchanting.
”One of the characteristic techniques used by Fujita is the use of a chemical called hydrogen fluoride to make the surface frosted.” explained the staff who showed us around. The texture shows the beauty which transcends the image of glass. In the museum, the ”Kazari Bako” are displayed with light shining through them, so that you can see different aspects of the pieces.
”The pieces produced in Italy and the pieces produced in Japan seem to have a different sense of colors.” said Nakata. Numerous pieces of ”Kanna Pattern” series, which were made in Italy using the traditional Kanna technique of Venetian glass, are also displayed. They are full of charm with unconstrained flowing curves and spontaneous colors.
Kyohei Fujita Museum of Glass is a place where one can take a close look at many glass work pieces, and encounter with the works of art by the artist who lead the glass craftwork of Japan.
