Late last year, Mr. Inagaki of Inagaki Shoten invited me to see his collection, which he was fully displaying, if I was interested.

Inagaki Shoten
http://www.inagakishoten.com/products/photo/611-989.html

I visited the Japan Folk Crafts Museum on the morning of the first day.



Photography was naturally prohibited, so I had no choice but to borrow photos introduced on the Japan Folk Crafts Museum's website. This is the plate that captured my heart.



Blue-patterned Emblem Plate, Spain, 18th Century, 8.0 x 42.

It was usually placed casually in Mr. Inagaki's office,
but every time I saw it, I couldn't help but sigh.



I was overwhelmed. I was awestruck. I crouched down. I examined it closely, from the front and back.

I had previously seen some of Mr. Inagaki's collection
in a special room at Inagaki Shoten and marveled at it,
but seeing the entirety of the Inagaki Collection displayed together like this was truly a magnificent spectacle. Even pieces I thought I knew intimately felt like new discoveries when presented in a curated exhibition by experts. Just as listening to a song versus experiencing it within a carefully constructed arrangement can subtly alter perception, the flow of selection and the narrative of the exhibition are entirely dependent on sensibility. Is this not a grand exhibition, a rare triumph for the Japan Folk Crafts Museum? Though it may be presumptuous for someone like myself to say, among the exhibitions I've visited at the museum over the past decade, this one is a particularly wonderful exhibition that remains etched in my memory.



“...Beautiful things are mysterious. On one hand, there is an endlessly universal quality. There is no contradiction when placed alongside fine things from China and Japan. Though the paths may differ, they all meet at the summit. What is good locally is also good universally. If one can grasp this mystery, that is enough. Let us live in Japan. So that we may meet other countries at the summit.” —Soetsu Yanagi

Japan Folk Crafts Museum
http://www.mingeikan.or.jp/events/special/20120107.html



The desire to admire and possess, the urge to indulge, led me to lose myself,
and I found myself fully enjoying a small happiness.

← Diary-T 195–200