Blog - fukuwauchi by SHINDŌ Mitsuo

fukuwauchi by Shindō Mitsuo

Tonight I dropped by Takashimaya to check out art director Shindō Mitsuo's calligraphy exhibition, titled "fukuwauchi" (福は内, from the "oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi" phrase used at Setsubun). It's held in a small space on the 8th floor's Femme Maison part.

I followed various large flower bouquets to the entrance, and carefully looked at each artwork, doing my best to read what I could and then completing by reading the cards beneath each (which had both kanji and rōmaji text). Most have a touch of humor, like the one from the title, 「福は内」 (luck goes inside), where he placed the 福 character inside of 内. It was a funny surprise to find one in English, saying "the world must change".

I made my way to the merchandise counter where square postcards were sold. I got a set of 3, but when I ordered these in Japanese I was met with surprise, and a person at the counter asked me "You understand Japanese? Do you know Shindō-san? He's here!" I said that I'm a big fan and would love to say hi! I was truly surprised and excited. "Wait a minute", the girl told me. It turned out that she's one of his designers at CTPP, and she soon came back together with the man who greeted me kindly and asked me if I'd have coffee with him!! You bet!!

Soon we were all at the small café across. He quickly asked me my name (why did I run out of business cards!), and proceeded to transform it in kanji: 巴都陸 (巴 from Paris, 都 = capital, 陸 = land). I like it! Quite different than what I had got most of the time until now.

For near an hour (not too sure, as I had lost track of time a bit) we talked about all kinds of topics like design, music, Konishi-san, Nomiya Maki's recital, Japanese language, calligraphy, etc. He said that he thinks too many recent designs feel dark and negative, and especially that being that our Earth is deteriorating, he says that we need a lot of happier designs and that's what he tries to do with his work.

He also took time to explain me some of his calligraphy artworks. Like 大福 (daifuku, a Japanese sweet of rice cake filled with red beans paste), for which he stuffed 福 (means "luck") inside of 大 (means "big"), as if the red beans would represent luck. He also said that it was his first time trying this kind of calligraphy, a sort of one-time new experiment. Oh, and I had the good idea to get his autograph while at it!!

About Konishi-san he said that while many people praise mostly his music, he thinks he's Japan's best lyricist. I sure can relate to often having very strong feelings after finally understanding the meaning of P5 lyrics. (Oh and speaking of music, I heard some really amazing music news for this summer, but I'll keep these secret until official press releases come... Patience!)

Well that was a really great time with these very nice people. I'm so happy that I was at the right place at the right time! Thank you so much Shindō-san and A.-san!

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Shindō Mitsuo's "fukuwauchi" exhibition is open until tomorrow Tuesday at 18:30!
Make it if you can!
All details over at my agenda

Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr

Posted on April 14, 2008 at 23:59 | Tweet |

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