Natsumehiro [ハイカラ雑貨店 ナツメヒロ]

Evil evil Google it's just as bad as Instagram and Etsy, actually damn you internet! Before I left on Friday I decided to last minute google to see if there was anything else worth checking out while I was out and about. A few stops along the Odakyu line at Higashirinkan Station is ハイカラ雑貨店 ナツメヒロ Natsumehiro, a beautiful zakka shop.

Natsume as well as being a shop hosts pop up events and mini exhibitions mostly displaying Japanese artist, craft makers and designers. This means that for once I had access to all the business card for all the brands or artists they sold/exhibited. It was nice to be able to have more information on my purchases and make some new discoveries. On my visit they had their Traveler's Trunk Exhibition, more information can be found here. It was very cute and with different trunks placed around the shop with different wares from the artist. I wish I could provide more info on each but my Japanese is practically non-existent.  

I made a few impulse buys I now regret but this was due to my excitement of finding somewhere new. Oh well. The owners seemed nice and were photo friendly. I would've taken more photos but more people turned up and and it got a little crowded in there. I will keep an eye on their website for future events. Unfortunately their online shop is not very good I think Natsume is a store that is better to visit than buy online. However it's probably better to look at their event or facebook pages to get an idea of what's in store. As usual I've ended with photos of my purchases again.

Address: 252-0311 Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, Minami-ku, Higashirinkan 5-16-20 

Tel: 042-812-4726 

Mail: info@natsumehiro.com

Hours: 12:00 to 19:00 

 

Moomin Madness

I have always loved Moomin and luckily so do the Japanese so there is Moomin overload. I picked up lots of Moomin themed things since coming to Japan particularly stationery. I have had some Moomin themed mail and IG posts. I luckily found out that there was a Moomin exhibition from a Japanese follower! I had seen something about it before but was unable to find any information so forget about it. But when she saw my IG post of some new purchased Moomin postcards she gave me the information that I had long forgotten about.

The touring exhibition is to celebrate Tove Jansson's 100th birthday in partnership with the Finnish embassy and is currently in Japan . I went to it while it was at Matsuya Gallery in the Matsuya department store a couple of weeks ago. As usually there was no photography inside the exhibition. While I enjoyed it I must admit that I dislike these department store galleries. Thought I am grateful there are such space when compared to the larger and expensive art museums that cannot or will not accommodate such smaller exhibitions.

I think that the gift shop was almost as big as the exhibition space, well I suppose it was in a department store! I was pretty good and only bought things that were 'limited edition'; very dangerous words when shopping. A lot of merchandise I had already seen in the likes of LoFt and Yurindo, so I only bought stuff specifically at the exhibition. This helped me to keep costs down considering I did a bit more shopping after that! 

I'm so glad I got to see original sketches with mistakes and notes. Despite not able to read the information it was cool to see how the characters changed over the decades and how her style changed. The detail was also amazing you can see in the books but there is something about seeing an original sketches and drafts. I opted onlyto buy black and white and picked up postcards with Too-ticki and Snufkin who are a fav characters (along with Fillyjonk unfortunately not many Fillyjonk things). Oh well still happy with the things I picked up and currently rereading the Moomin books! 

Nakahara Junichi Exhibition

So I finally made it to the Nakahara Junichi exhibition at the SOGO Museum of Art in the SOGO Yokohama department store. It had been on my to do list for ages and I'm glad I did. I would have regretted it like the Francis Bacon. It rivalled the ‘All You Need is Love’ exhibition at Mori Art Museum. It's definitely one of my favourite things I've seen so far this year in times of art.

Let me start with the space, being in a department store I was wary of the size of the gallery. I didn't want to end up paying ¥1000 entry for just a room with a few sketches. However I was not to be disappointed the space was a good size and exhibition large and varied. It reminded me of a Klimt exhibition I saw in Budapest there were so sketches, magazines, address books, postcards, art work, notes, posters etc. great examples of Nakahara’s work spanning the decades. Everything being in Japanese (the only downside to the exhibition) I don’t know if there from the Nakahara estate or from private collections or from on loan from other galleries. I’m guessing a mixture of all three. But I couldn’t help but think how amazing to have an original, postcard or magazine featuring his work!

Whether you're into Japanese art and illustration, textiles, dolls, kawaii, fashion (Western or Japanese), the exhibition had something for everyone. Though I must admit and unsurprisingly there were few men at the exhibition.That was lots of black spanning the entire length of his career. I don't think I saw a single dress or sketch design I didn't like. It made me want to look into more about kimonos, yukata and fashion in general, mostly the progression from traditional Japanese clothing particularly during and after WW2. I'm not really much of a fashionista but the detail was just exquisite and just so pretty and lovely. It was also great to see not exactly East meets West but East AND West. There were no dresses trying to be kimonos and no kimonos trying to be dresses. He just very diverse and created works in two very different styles.
Needless to say I bought many postcards. I was tempted to buy the exhibition catalogue but as unsurprisingly it was in Japanese. I don't really have a problem with that as it's really for the pictures. But I would like to know names of pieces further information. All in all I had lots of fun and loved exhibition. However, I would only go back to the SOGO Museum of Art if there was something that I particularly wanted to see. Unlike the Kamakura Museum of Modern Art I would visit there just for the sake of it despite being smaller and the same price entry. It has the added bonus of its location and tranquillity. Yup I'm still missing my National Lottery fund galleries of London!

Kamakura Museum of Modern Art

Today saw two rare things happen first the weather was actually nice on my day off and second and more miraculously I did something with it. Usually I over plan for fear of getting lost, my lack of language and my need to be organised. But for once I was fairly confident and ready to go forth. And today was really good I went to Kamakura, the old capital of Japan and home of the Samurai. Loads of Shrines, heritage sites and natural scenery but today I was off to its main gallery; The Museum of Modern Art Kamakura.

It’s a nice walk from the station down its main shopping street. I bought way too much paper, paper goods and postcards. When I stop think how much I spent on paper it’s shocking but completely worth it. It was nice to see some of shops and places I visited with Kazuki 3 years ago when I first came to Japan on holiday. It’s terrible that I live so close but now don’t explore much locally, something I shall rectify over the summer. There is so much to see and do! I took the Enoden there even though it’s longer and more expensive but it’s the scenic route going along the coast and down narrow little streets.

The gallery is right next to Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū Shrine the biggest and most famous in Kamakura but I hardly glanced at it. Besides today was really busy and there was loads of tourists and school groups were out in force. The exhibition Matsuda Shohei A Centennial  Retrospective was okay. But really I just interested in seeing the space, it’s small but quite nice I liked and would come back again if it was exhibiting something of personal interest.  However, it’s the first gallery I’ve visited where I didn’t even bother with the gift shop. The work was not inspiring enough to buy the obligatory art postcard and I had already spent too much money en route. The sculpture court overlooks a large pond and is very picturesque and relaxing.

I ended my visit by spending time in the café out on the balcony writing out my vintage postcards with an iced coffee. I don’t know if the gallery will get busier over the summer. As an Art Management graduate I of course think that an effort should be made to attract the tourists who will inevitably visit the shrine. But today it was really quiet in the gallery. I was out on the balcony alone and it seemed as if I was miles away for the busy grounds of the Shrine which was literally a minute away. If it doesn’t then it’s a great little escape from a busy tourist spot if you are happy to pay the 900¥ entrance fee. But hey you get to take in a little more culture at the same time. All in all it was a lovely leisurely day off. Post on my paper purchases to follow!