What is reflected is the person's heart and history

Kanagawa Gallery Walk
File.11 UMI Yuigahama Beach
Yamamoto Shino (Gallery Watts)

This time, I would like to take you to a gallery that I have wanted to visit for many years.
This is a gallery in Kamakura called "Gallery Shozan." Gallery Shozan has two locations, YAMA and UMI, but this time we're going to "UMI Shozan Yuigahama." As the name suggests, when you get off at Kamakura Station, head towards the sea. It's a bit of a walk, but on a nice day the streetscape is pleasant!

Having said that, it was raining on the day I visited, so I ended up hopping in a taxi.
It's a bit of a side street, so a local taxi driver was surprised to find a gallery in such a place, but it turns out it's a corner of the studio of Western-style painter Kan'emon Asai (1901-1983). It was apparently a room for the caretaker.

The lush green courtyard looked great in the drizzling rain. The building visible across the courtyard is Asai Kan'emon's studio. The interior of the house, including the art supplies he collected, has been left as it was at the time, and is sometimes open to the public.
Asai Kan'emon's works are also housed at the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Art. Many people are probably familiar with his thickly painted oil paints of roses and circus-like landscapes.

*We had endless conversations about handicrafts with embroidery artist Hitomi Usuya (right), who was exhibiting her work.

"At Gallery Shozan, we introduce old tools related to food, clothing and shelter, as well as works by contemporary artists," says owner Yasuyo Watanabe (left in photo). She is a wonderful person with a unique aura. She graduated from an art university in the design department, and is interested in the background of how things are created.
She loves fabrics and seems to be particularly fascinated with fabrics from Central Asia, such as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, and her collection is impressive.
"The texture of the fabric is unique to each region, and the patterns and embroidery techniques unique to each ethnic group are reflected in the fabric, and I find this profound and fascinating."
Maybe that's why there seem to be a lot of exhibitions by textile artists here. When I visited, Hitomi Usuya's "Poetry and Embroidery Exhibition" was being held.

The main motif of Usuya Hitomi's embroidery is letters.
"When I saw the Hebrew Bible, I just saw beautiful patterns and I wanted to sew them!"
Hitomi, who has always loved reading and writes her own lyrics, says she feels even more excited when embroidering lyrics by the poet Patti Smith, known as the Queen of Punk, or Jack Kerouac, a representative novelist of the Beat Generation.

"When I'm feeling down, reading poetry helps me; it's as if the words are comforting me. So perhaps by writing the words one stitch at a time, I am expressing something that is somewhere in my heart."
Rather than being neat letters, through Hitomi's work they seem like symbols, or perhaps a little randomly strung together, which gives a sense of rhythm and a pleasant impression.

The white embroidery was also attractive. In particular, the roots of a large tree were embroidered with silk thread on linen cloth, which looked as if it was stitched with beads, adding to the beauty of the piece.

On the chair is a work in progress. Next to it is a pincushioned mouse made from felt. "This mouse has been my constant companion."

"What is right for me? What is living life to my fullest?"
Hitomi tried various handicrafts such as glass crafts, weaving and dyeing, but she never stuck with any of them for long. However, embroidery, which she had been doing since elementary school, was the one that she continued with the longest, and she realized, "Ah, this is it for me."

Each of the small pieces of art stitched onto the scraps had its own unique presence.
In fact, Hitomi has been coming to Gallery Shozan since she was in junior high school, accompanied by her mother, who is a dyer.
Watanabe apparently told Hitomi, "Just make what you want to make."

"Maybe it would sell better if you gave it a tangible form. But don't think too much about it. Just keep stitching away as you please. That's how you can bring out the individuality of the person."

We added Hitomi's embroidery, which looked like the Snow Queen, to this year's Christmas display.

EVAM EVA
The embroidered Sanskrit word is said to be related to "as it is."

Coincidentally, that's my theme for next year.

(Interviewed in December 2019)

Gallery Information
UMI Yuigahama Beach
4-3-14 Yuigahama, Kamakura City
TEL: 0467-55-5999
Opening hours: 11:00-17:00 Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays (and other irregular holidays)
https://www.shouzan.org/

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