A small gallery located halfway up the winding Yatozaka slope in Yokohama's Yamate district.
Infiltrating an artistic space!
YOKOHAMA ART SPOT FILE
A quiet and cozy space that makes you want to stop by on a whim, halfway up a hill.
Art Gallery Yamate
Yatozaka slope leads up to the Yamate hill in Yokohama, lined with Harbor View Park and exotic Western-style buildings. A little away from the hustle and bustle of the city, bustling with tourists, lies "Art Gallery Yamate," a gallery with windows that offer a view of the slope. It is said to be located in a renovated room of a building that was once a weekly apartment for foreigners.
The day of the interview, the "Metalwork and Woodwork Two-Person Exhibition" was being held.
As I was walking up the stairs to the gallery entrance, I was greeted by Nora-chan (nicknamed Suzuki-san), a stray cat who lives in the neighborhood. (She ran away pretty quickly, though...it was perfect timing!)
Stepping inside the gallery, visitors are greeted by a cozy, not-too-large, white space that somehow puts them at ease.
Soft natural light streams in through the large windows facing the sloping street, breathing life into each and every artwork on display. It's as if you've been invited into the artist's room.
You can see greenery outside the window, so it's especially pleasant on sunny days!
Now, we asked the two artists whose "Metalwork and Woodwork Two-Person Exhibition" was being held at the time of our visit about the appeal of this gallery! The two are both current graduate students working in metalwork and woodworking, respectively. They had been talking for some time about "wanting to create an opportunity to exhibit their work together in the Kanto region someday," and this joint exhibition finally came to fruition during their summer break. Congratulations!!
"This is the first time I've used Art Gallery Yamate, and it's in a really wonderful location. The space is great for displaying three-dimensional objects, so it's easy to exhibit my work, and I'm very happy about that," said metalwork artist Atsushi Tajima (pictured right). Woodwork artist Soma Todoroki also expressed his satisfaction, saying, "We both make completely different things. Everything from the materials onwards is different, but I think we were able to bring it all together well because of this white-based space."
Atsushi Tajima
Todoroki Souma
This gallery apparently exhibits a wide variety of works, regardless of category, including sculptures, paintings, photographs, ceramics, textiles, and more. The artists who use the gallery are also of all ages, from people over 80 to university students like the one featured here. We spoke with the owner and gallerist, Kayoko Furuichi.
"If you climb this Yatozaka slope, you'll find many cultural facilities, including the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Literature, as well as numerous tourist attractions such as the Foreign Cemetery and the Yamate Western-style Houses. We've placed our gallery's flyers and other materials in various places, so many people enjoy visiting these other attractions and then casually drop by, saying, 'I didn't know there was a gallery here!' Our gallery represents a wide range of ages among the artists who use our space, but we also strive to nurture young artists like this one, and we hope to be of some help to them. We would love for everyone to drop by and visit us."
If you look downhill from the gallery window, you can see the Yokohama Marine Tower. "Art Gallery Yamate" is surrounded by the beautiful scenery of Yokohama. When you take a stroll through Yokohama Yamate, a place everyone dreams of visiting, be sure to stop by this little gallery halfway up the hill.
