Chihiro Art Museum Tokyo is located in a residential area, just past a small shopping street after getting off the Seibu Shinjuku Line station. Currently, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of painter and picture book author Chihiro Iwasaki, a series of exhibitions are being held by artists inspired by her. Until this weekend, the exhibition "Enjoying Wearing" by the apparel brand Spoken Words Project is being held.
At the venue, works related in color were displayed side by side, such as Iwasaki Chihiro's paintings, spoken clothes, Chihiro's sketches, and spoken textiles. In a separate building, there was a space that reproduced Iwasaki Chihiro's atelier. In the large room that followed, the boldly designed textiles were displayed on four large pieces of cloth, each about 7 or 8 meters long, from wall to floor, which was a spectacular sight.
I feel that what both of their works have in common is how they incorporate chance. First there is a blur, and then Iwasaki Chihiro uses that blur as a motif to draw children. Spoken develops it into a graphic. Because it starts out as a coincidence, the answer has a surprising range.
And what they both have in common is a sense of poetry. There are words that can be conveyed even without words. That's why they stimulate emotions that are not simply pretty or cute. It was a bit far, but I'm glad I went.
But why is there an art museum in such a residential area? This question led me to pick up "The Story of the Chihiro Art Museum" (by Matsumoto Yuriko). A music college student who happens to be married to Iwasaki Chihiro's son becomes involved in planning the creation of a memorial museum after her sudden death. Organizing the enormous collection of paintings she left behind, raising funds to establish the museum, collaborating with young architects, negotiating with government offices, planning exhibitions, and publishing publications... The young couple, who have no social experience, are caught up in and at the mercy of the enormous presence of Iwasaki Chihiro, but they gradually take the museum into shape with their own efforts and run it with their staff, showing us the difficulties of creating a place and the greatness of achievement that comes from that.
There are many similarities to the situation I am currently in. After this, a local Iwasaki Chihiro & Tot-chan boom came along and I read a few of their books.
I was asked to come up with a drink for the "Herb and Beer" event that will be held only on weekend nights during the summer at the complex space Casica in Shinkiba. Rather than creating a new cocktail, I decided to think in terms of breaking down the drinks, rather than combining them, based on the theme of the shop, CASICA (visualization). Another important mission of mitosaya is to use plenty of plants and herbs.
As a result, for example, the Herbal Lemon Sour, which uses as little lemon as possible and enjoys the gentle aroma of lemon myrtle and lemon verbena, the Triple Mint Mojito, served in a pitcher using three types of seasonal mint, and the Visualized Red Eye, a deconstructed version of the Red Eye, made with beer, basil, celery, and cherry tomatoes frozen like ice cubes.
Personally, making non-alcoholic cocktails, mocktails, was a good experience for me. If you remove the base alcohol from a regular cocktail and just use fruit and syrup, it will just be a sweet drink. If you use spices such as cardamom or cinnamon, or rich ingredients such as amazake or koji, it will suddenly feel like a mocktail. I'll ask a professional bartender next time where the line is between a mocktail and just fresh fruit juice.
In the latter half of July, I decided to take an early summer vacation.
After renting a car at New Chitose Airport, we headed first to the Benizakura Distillery, which just opened this spring in Sapporo Benizakura Park. It is said to be Hokkaido's first craft gin distillery.
After paying the entrance fee and entering the park, the lush grounds are chilly. Dandelions are blooming even though it's midsummer. Across from the fishing pond and Genghis Khan restaurant, a former warehouse has been renovated to create a facility where an Italian-made still has been installed, which is a little out of place. Apparently, the intention is to make whiskey in the future.
I sampled it at the counter of a Genghis Khan restaurant before it opened. It had a mysterious flavor that reminded me of dashi, probably due to the kelp and shiitake mushrooms used. Dashi and sea-based botanicals are a recent trend in gin.
Lunch at Haruya. A restaurant run by Chiharu, the younger sister of Chioben's Chiori. Lunch is a spring roll filled with everything during the day, and a la carte dishes at night. Before Chiori came to Tokyo, the two ran the restaurant together for many years, and although the dishes they make are similar, their presentations are almost polar opposites. Looking at the menu carefully written on the blackboard and the dishes neatly stacked on the counter, I think about what looks delicious.
Two people from the Sapporo architectural design firm Torocco run a shop called Torocco Shoten on weekends. One of the purposes of this trip was to visit this store. According to the limited information on the Internet, it is a store that sells products by weight and rulers.
The fact that everything is sold by weight is a good thing. The small shop has a carefully selected range of products, including linen cloth, detergent, olive oil, salt, and electrical cords, all of which are attractive even without the packaging.
Another "ruler". However, they don't sell rulers or tape measures. If rulers were products other than those sold by weight, then the next thing that would catch your eye would be manuscript paper printed using letterpress printing, spouts on the tops of bottles, and empty takeaway bottles. When I think about what these all have in common, I imagine that they point out the way we should interact with things. This is probably what they think of as a ruler.
Sold by weight and a ruler.
Again, a good theme.
We also visit Niban Dori Liquor Store, which sells only natural European wines that the company has traveled to and imported, and Savon de soleil, which makes soap in a workshop attached to the shop.
Sapporo's craft scene is very sophisticated.
The next day, about two hours west of Sapporo, in the Shakotan Peninsula overlooking the Sea of Japan, a project called "Shakotan Spirit" was starting to make gin. The port town, which once thrived on herring fishing, was deserted, but I was greeted with a punchy hospitality, including a cafe renovated from a building called a banya, where fishermen used to sleep, the turquoise blue sea known as Shakotan Blue, and a bowl full of sea urchin, and I immediately became a fan of mantis shrimp.
After the meal, we were shown to the site where the ingredients will be grown. The site, which was originally a ranch, is about 80 hectares on the side of a mountain. Juniper berries, yarrow, peppermint and other ingredients are planted there, and goats walk around and eat weeds (they don't eat herbs because they have a strong smell).
In the area that is about to be cultivated, seven horses are being kept to improve the soil, and I am awed by the sheer scale and elegance of the time span.
After this, I was shown the proposed site for the distillery, which was a wonderful location with a beautiful view of the sea and mountains of Shakotan at the same time. I'm looking forward to Shakotan Spirits.
In Niseko, I visited Bar Gyu+. The counter with a view of the birch forest that appears when you open the small door made of a Coca-Cola vending machine is a masterpiece. During the summer, the second floor becomes a small movie theater.
Gyu+ has been open for 20 years now. It is a comfortable space that clearly shows what the owners, Yamazaki-san and Joanna-san, have built up over a long period of time.
It was a luxurious experience to be guided around Hokkaido using each person's own unique perspective while also experiencing a sense of universal openness.
After getting off the Seibu Shinjuku Line station, I walked through a small shopping street and found the Chihiro Art Museum Tokyo in a corner of a residential area. Currently, a series of exhibitions by artists inspired by Chihiro Iwasaki are being held in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the painter and picture book author. Until this weekend, the apparel brand Spoken words project is holding an exhibition called "Wear it with pleasure".
In the exhibition hall, hue-related works were displayed side by side, such as Chihiro Iwasaki's paintings, Spoken's clothes, Chihiro's sketches, and Spoken's textiles. In a separate building, there was a reproduction of Chihiro Iwasaki's studio. In the large room that followed, the boldly designed textiles that unfolded from wall to floor on four large strips of cloth, each of which was 7 or 8 meters long, were a sight to behold.
What both artists' works have in common, I feel, is the way they incorporate chance. First of all, there is the blur, and then Chihiro Iwasaki uses the blur as a motif to draw children. Spoken's work develops into graphics. Because the beginning is accidental, the answer has a surprising distance.
What both artists have in common is a poetic spirit. Even if there are no words, there are words that come through. That's why they stimulate emotions other than just being pretty or cute. It was a little far, but I'm glad I went.
But why is there a museum in such a residential area? So I picked up a copy of "Chihiro Art Museum Story" (written by Matsumoto Yuriko). A music student, who happened to marry Chihiro Iwasaki's son, became involved in a plan to build a memorial negotiation museum after her sudden death. They have to organize the huge number of paintings left behind, raise funds for the museum, work with a young architect, with the local government, plan exhibitions, and publish publications. A young couple with no social experience, caught up and tossed about by the enormous presence of Chihiro Iwasaki, gradually gave shape to the museum on their own, and managed it with the staff.
There are many similarities to the situation I am currently in. After this, I had a local Chihiro Iwasaki & Totto-chan boom and read several books.
I was asked to come up with a drink for an event called "Herb and Barley Wine," which is held at the complex space casica in Shin-Kiba only on weekend nights during the summer. Rather than trying to create a new cocktail, I decided to go with the theme of the store, CASICA (visualization), and try to break it up rather than combine it. Another important mission of mitosaya is to use a lot of plants and herbs.
For example, the Herbal Lemon Sour, which uses as little lemon as possible and is enjoyed with the gentle aroma of lemon myrtle and lemon verbena, and the Triple Mint Mojito, which uses three kinds of seasonal mint and is served in a pitcher. The Visualized Red Eye, a deconstructed version of the Red Eye, with basil, celery, and small tomatoes frozen like ice cubes in the beer, and more.
Personally, making non-alcoholic cocktails and mocktails was a great experience for me. If you remove the base alcohol from a regular cocktail and just use fruit and syrup, you will inevitably end up with a drink that is just sweet. If you use spices such as cardamom and cinnamon, or rich ingredients such as amazake and koji, it becomes more of a mocktail. I'll have to ask a professional bartender next time where the line is between just fresh fruit juice and a mocktail.
In the second half of July, I decided to take an early summer vacation.
After renting a car at New Chitose Airport, I headed first to the Beni Sakura Distillery, which had just opened this spring in the Sapporo Beni Sakura Park. It is said to be the first craft gin distillery in Hokkaido.
After paying the entrance fee, we entered the park and were celebrated with a cool, chilly feeling in the thickly wooded grounds. Dandelions were in bloom even though it was the middle of summer. Across the street from the fishing pond and the Genghis Khan restaurant, there was a former warehouse that had been remodeled to house a magnificent Italian distillery. Apparently, it is intended to be used for making whiskey in the future.
Borrowing a measure
At the counter of the Jingisukan restaurant before it opened, we were allowed to taste some of the ingredients. It had a strange taste, perhaps due to the kelp and shiitake mushrooms used. The latest trend in gin botanicals is to use soup stock and oceanic ingredients.
Lunch at Haruya, a restaurant run by Chiharu, the sister of Chiori of chioben. Lunch is all about the spring rolls, and at night they have a single item menu. Although the dishes are similar, the presentation is so different that you could say they are complete opposites. As I look at the menu carefully written on the blackboard and the dishes methodically stacked on the counter, I think about how delicious the food looks.
Two members of the Sapporo-based architectural design office, Trocco, run a store called Trocco Shoten only on weekends. One of the purposes of this trip was to visit this store. According to the little information I could find on the Internet, it's a store that sells "food by weight" and "food sashi.
I like the fact that they sell by weight. Hemp cloth, detergent, olive oil, salt, electric cords, etc. In this small store, there are well-chosen items that are attractive even without their packaging.
Another "measure of things". But it doesn't mean they sell rulers or tape measures. If we assume that the products other than those sold by weight are measures, we can see manuscript paper printed by letterpress, spouts attached to the ends of bottles, and empty bottles to take home. When I think about what these things have in common, I imagine that they point to the way we interact with things. I guess this is what they think of as a measure.
Selling by weight and measuring things.
Once again, a good theme.
I also visited the Nibandori Sake Shop, which sells only natural European wines imported by themselves, and Savon de soleil, which has a soap store in the workshop attached to the store.
The craft scene in Sapporo is very sophisticated.
The next day, about two hours west of Sapporo, we started a project called "Shakotan Spirit" to make gin on the Shakotan Peninsula overlooking the Sea of Japan. The port town, which used to be very prosperous for herring fishing, was deserted, but we were treated to some punchy hospitality, including a cafe in a renovated building called a banya, where fishermen used to sleep, the turquoise sea called Shakotan Blue, and a bowl of sea urchin rice topped with a full bowl of sea urchin, which made me an instant Shako fan.
After lunch, we were taken to the site where they plan to grow the raw materials. The site on the mountainside, which used to be a ranch, was about 80 hectares. Juniper berries, yarrow, balm, and other ingredients were planted there, and goats walked around eating the weeds (they don't eat herbs because of their strong smell).
In the area to be cultivated, seven horses are being kept to improve the soil, so the scale of the project and the elegance of the time span are quite impressive.
After this, we were shown the site where the distillery would be built, and it was a wonderful location where we could see the beautiful Shakotan sea and mountains at the same time. I'm looking forward to Shakotan Spirits.
In Niseko, we visited Bar Gyu+. The Coca-Cola vending machine is the door, and when you open the small door, the counter overlooking the birch forest is a sight to behold. During the summer, the second floor becomes a small movie theater.
It's been 20 years since Gyu+ was opened. It was a comfortable space where I could clearly see that the owners, Ms. Yamazaki and Ms. Joanna, have spent a lot of time building it up.
A sense of localness and universal openness. It was a luxurious experience to be guided through Hokkaido by each of their own perspectives.
