We held an award ceremony and reception party for the ‘Imakara Mamesara 2013’ competition on Saturday 21st, from six o’clock in the evening. Many of the exhibitors joined in too.
This large round tray-shaped artwork is made up of several pieces, similar to a puzzle, with each piece containing parts of a town’s map.
The map of Kyoto City can be seen emerging from the plates pattern. As each piece is very similar in appearance, it became quite a difficult puzzle to complete. One piece of the puzzle contains a star which can be stuck anywhere, for example to mark your favourite or memorable places.
The map of Kyoto was chosen because of Seikado’s competition, but it could have been anywhere in the world, which gives this work endless possibilities.
For our second exhibition, we also awarded a special prize called the ‘Life Beyond Tourism Prize’, on behalf of the Romualdo Del Bianco Foundation from Florence, a sister city of Kyoto. Established in 1998, this cultural foundation cooperates with 59 UNESCO countries, holding cultural events such as exhibitions, concerts, the restoration of museum collections, as well as supporting archaeological research around the world, for the mutual promotion of those activities and tourism. The mutually confirm that Florence and Kyoto, as the same historical cities, will continue a cultural exchange with each other in the future, so leading to the creation of this award.
Paolo Del Bianco, président de la fondation, explique dans cette video le choix de décerner le prix a Mr Koutaro Uranaka de la ville de Kanazawa, pour son oeuvre “Kin Iro Mame Sara”. La fondation a aussi offert à Mr Uranaka 2 nuits gratuites dans l’hôtel que Mr Pablo Del Bianco lui-même dirige à Florence.
We received commendation from the Chairman of Romualdo Del Bianco Foundation, Paolo Del Bianco. The ‘Life Beyond Tourism Prize’ was awarded to Kotaro Uranaka from Kanazawa for his work ‘Kin, Iro, Mame, Sara.’ He received the prize of two nights stay in Florence.
We made a special exhibit for the following artworks in our Tea Ceremony Room, with each artwork representing the finest points of mamesara, showing great use of material and technique.
Copper / Japanese Lacquer
Atuko Horie
Heat up copper, creating a characteristic pattern, with a distinctive red colour.
SUZU MAME SARA
Pewter
Yuki Nishihara
Small and pretty, the height of mamesara. It has height and depth, can be useful for daily life.
YATUREGANE MAMESARA
Iron
Kosuke Kato
This artwork uses iron which had been left outside for years so it is nicely aged.
Roughness on the surface can be obtained by rusting which is the original texture of iron.
Worked on the material created by nature.
SHIZUKU
Silver
Chikako Ueda
Good balance of humorous shape and sharpened gloss of silver.
Greetings of Imakara Mamesara 2013
We established our own method of metalwork in the Heian period since which time have been used in various fields like architecture, religion, luxury items and weapons. We have a good and satisfying educational environment like a university. However, the difficulty in preparation of workplace, and setting up a specialized studio, there are very fewer workers compared to other industrial arts. Seikado will be holding the second competition ‘Imakara Mamesara 2013’.
We are delighted to show 41 exhibitors, including overseas exhibitors’ art works regardless of their positions. I hope this exhibition will be a good opportunity for many people to become acquainted with the metalwork world. I would like to thank all the people involved in holding this exhibition, who have supported our concept, the exhibitors, giving precious advice. Thank you very much.
Head of SEIKADO Genbei Yamanaka the seventh
