Tokyo Think Sustainability [English Site]: 1月 2013

Welcome!

Our society have so many difficult, stratified problems not only multiple and global issues like climate change, environment, resource and poverty, but also weaken connection of local area in abundant Japanese society. Due to Great East Japan Earthquake, problems like energy, disaster prevention, etc. are shown.　However, this shows only a part of issues in society, isn’t it?　We think we need reconsider a living value that each person act by their own personal, deepen social tie with people who are close to them, has interest toward social basic issues, through experiences and lessons by suffering from the earthquake . Tokyo Think Sustainability (T2S) is platform acting for better society, which many people and organization participate in. Through T2S activities, let’s know ‘difficulty’, have ‘resolution’,and feel ‘pleasure’ of living in this period. We think we would like to expand our activities feeling worth doing and pleasure with citizens who have intention through various activities and people who never meet opportunity of acting.

2013年1月21日月曜日

【Report】 Field trip to an Urushi(lacquer) studio (2011.12.27)

On December 27, I visited a lacquer studio.

I had three amazing points.

1. There is the lacquer studio in the ordinary residential area in the 23 Wards of Tokyo.

2. Usually, artisans are elderly persons, but he is very young. (I don’t ask but I think he is probably in his twenties.)

3. Everything except glass can lacquer. And lacquerware is beautiful.

I think lacquer can be used in various kind of design because of wide range of usage and lacquer’s own texture. The lacquerware is truly beautiful. It has colors not only vermilion or gold but also green, purple and blue etc., glossy like candies, shining in jet black. The lacquerware’s colors become heavy because of lacquer’s own color and quality, but they are having color variation with appearing of titanium oxide.

I visited a lacquerware artisan,Yamaguchi’s studio in Nerima Ward. The studio located at a residential area from Oizumi-gakuen Station by 10minutes walk.

Traditional products like japan have systematic division of work. Each process has each artisan. For example, there has frame process, paint process, decorate process.

Makie is pictures painted by lacquer with gold dust or colored dust.

It’s very stylish, isn’t it?

I have been made a terrestrial globe because I heard everything can lacquer.

How about having made your own lacquerware?

Thank you for your reading.

(These photos of works on this report are ‘Onnmakie Yamauchi’ by Yasuji Yamauchi.)

Reporter: Hasegawa

(Japanese Site)
http://tokyo-think-sustainability.blogspot.jp/2012/01/1227.html

What is ‘sustainable Tokyo?

Sustainability is the concept which represents whether human activities can sustain in the future. We use this word not only in economic and social disciplines, but also in environmental and energy issues. We T2S discuss, think, and act with ‘What is sustainable Tokyo?On ] thinking this theme, we grasp from the fundamental part of sustainability which include not only environment or energy issues but also culture and social diversity to the distribution of resource and security in global society, urban policies in future and the state of public management in Tokyo case.