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Art/Photography

A gallery where you can also meet the owner

店主にも会いたいギャラリー

Kanagawa Gallery Stroll
File.13 Utensil rape blossoms
Shino Yamamoto (Galerie Watts)

DMs sent from ``Utsuwa Nanohana'' always include text.
This is the passion of the owner, Daiichi Takahashi, also known as Dai-chan.
Sometimes it's how much I'm in love with the artist, sometimes it's the creator's expectations for the unknown world, and sometimes it's about the light that things emit, etc. It is told in.
He speaks directly and expresses exactly how he feels, so when you read it, you want to go.

Utsuwananohana holds exhibitions by famous artists, but this time it's a gallery walk where you'll want to meet the shopkeeper as well.

After leaving Odawara Station, it takes about 15 minutes to walk along the Odawara Castle Ruins Park, feeling the history, and you will find ``Utsuwa Nanohana'' along the national highway that leads to Hakone.

You can immediately recognize the noren curtains created by Michiyo Mochizuki, who is a dyer, sculptor, and designer.


By the way, the back door looks like this. There is also a noren curtain with "Nano Hana" written in Mochizuki's handwriting.

The exhibition was ``Wireman'' by sculptor Gaku Kanbayashi, who is well-known at Galerie Watts.

Mr. Kambayashi's sculptural ability in balancing the puppets on a dot the size of a pinky fingernail is so impressive that the viewer may mistake them for being stuck to the floor.
As always, I was impressed when I saw his works, saying that this is a technique that can only be achieved by understanding the movement of the human body, the interaction between the skeleton and muscles.

As you pass through the courtyard and go to the back room, you will see drawings by Motoko Yoshida, who was featured in the exhibition until last time, in the background of Kanbayashi's work.
At first glance, both appear to be incomplete. But I feel that there is something out there that I can't see.

For example, in Kanbayashi's works, it's muscles, and in Yoshida's works, it's people in the space where things are placed, or voices. That's probably why I feel so comfortable with the compatibility between the two works.

Mr. Dai (left) and Mr. Kanbayashi (right) have known each other for about 35 years and coincidentally are the same age. And they both like alcohol. It doesn't matter if it's during an exhibition. It started right away.

Odawara was a post town during the Edo period, and during the Meiji period it became a town associated with political, business, and cultural figures who lived in vacation homes or as residences. Mr. Dai, who was born there in 1947, says there were many unique people in his neighborhood.

``When I went to pick up my grandfather who played Go at the nearby Uiro (a famous Chinese herbal medicine in Odawara) house, there was a garden where he could feel relieved.Also, what is now the Kataoka Art Store had white porcelain and works of art from the Lee Dynasty. "As a child, I didn't really understand the meaning of 'beautiful', but I was already wondering why old things are beautiful," says Dai.

On the other hand, ``Galandou'' (*Naotaka Yamauchi of Garandou Kogeisha), who lived in a storage shed on the Odawara coast and appeared in the works of Chotaro Kawasaki and Ango Sakaguchi, who painted the lives and human patterns of the lower class, was in the area. , he has witnessed the dirtiness and purity of humans. Perhaps that's why I feel that Mr. Dai has such an inclusive power.

Now, Mr. Kanbayashi is a tough-guy sculptor and a mountain man who also worked as a keeper of a mountain hut. You told me this a long time ago.

``Comparing sculptors and painters, painters are more likely to commit suicide.Painters must feel limited because they have to fit within a frame.Sculptors are, in a sense, unlimited. There's no limit. That's why sculptors are mentally easy-going (lol)."

I thought that made sense.

However, even though he says he is easy-going, he is strict about how he should be as an artist, and he insists on being honest with himself without flattering himself, no matter what the situation.

Value your intuition and don't lie to yourself. However, since they are such easy-going people, their discussions over drinks cover a wide range of topics, including art theory, materials, and human skills, which is really interesting to listen to. I left ``Utsuwa Nanohana'' in tears and with a feeling of being held back by the time limit.

Then, we headed to ``Nanohana Living Tools Store,'' located in a corner of the underground mall near the east exit of Odawara Station. Here, daily necessities recommended by Dai-san and Nanohana staff are permanently on sale, and exhibitions by artists such as dyers and potters are also held regularly.

A large work by Kanbayashi was floating in the Nanohana Moon Cafe next door.

In fact, ``Nanohana'' is a long-established Japanese confectionery shop that was founded in 1908, and Mr. Dai is the third generation of the shop. (Currently passed on by his son as the fourth generation) Many people may be familiar with the manju ``Hakone no Tsukisama'', having seen it in the Odawara and Hakone areas.
The moist skin and the sweetness of the brown sugar-based red bean paste are indescribably delicious. Even though it's a common manju, there's something slightly classy about it, just like Mr. Dai. If I said that, Mr. Dai would laugh out loud.

(2020.9 interview)

《Gallery information》
Container rape blossoms
1-3-12 Minamimachi, Odawara City, Kanagawa Prefecture
TEL: 0465-24-7020
Business hours: 11:00-18:00
*Open only when special events are held (The Manabu Kanbayashi exhibition has ended)
Parking: None
http://utsuwa-nanohana.com/

"access"
▶︎About 15 minutes walk from JR Odawara Station

sister store
"Nanohana Living Tools Store"
http://kurashinodouguten.com/

"Hakone Nanohana Exhibition Room"
http://nanohana-tenjishitsu.com/

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