PHOTO ESSAY

Over a number of trips to Japan, I made the trek to visit the Kawai Kanjiro museum a half dozen times, twice in one trip and what would never fail to amaze me is that each and every visit yielded new discovers, new details missed the visit prior. This thought lead me to this Youtube slideshow video compiled by Kari Gröhn featuring the music of Bach which uses an assortment of modern and archival images to create a wonderful photo essay of the experience. The video starts out with a short, written introduction regarding Kawai Kanjiro and then proceed to a famous portrait of Kawai before moving on to a thorough tour of the residence, studio and kiln with a focal thoughtfulness that allows you to relive the varying details over and over again. As evidenced in this video, Kawai developed and lived in a simple, honest environment and by glimpsing in to his creative sanctuary, the objects and details that caught his eye, you can get a better insight into his personal work in many mediums on display. The video also shows a small selection of works by Kawai Hirotsugu which shows the relationship between master and student. All in all, I find this to be a wonderful visual introduction to not only the museum but into the nature of Kawai, his environment and his perspective on Mingei as it was displayed during his lifetime and how it continues to resonates today. Thanks for the video Kari.

(I have posted this on my blog and linked it to Youtube with the kind permission of Kari Gröhn.)