The Wa in Wandering

Longtime UNS Member, Sharon Meyers, is currently studying ceramics in Japan for several months. This is a glimpse into her world and journey.

Konichjwa!

One of my favorite pastimes when in a new place is to simply wander. Kyoto offers so many spaces “hidden in plain sight”, hidden unless one takes the opportunity to get lost in them. The style of living spaces here offers not just “food for thought”, but for contemplation. Both exterior structures and interior details are designed with intentionality for the enhancement of mental and physical well being, which literally lies at the heart of Japanese architecture. So, what am I drawn to as I wander the many neighborhoods in Kyoto and beyond? I am so enjoying the concept of “Japanese tradition meets experimental architecture” – both have the power to move us, literally, emotionally and psychologically.

Machiya/ traditional wooden townhouses and noka/ farmhouse dwellings are what my son, Ryan, calls “two categories of the vernacular”, known here as minka/ folk dwellings. Once used as shop houses for wealthy merchants and their businesses in traditional arts such as kimono wasai/tailoring and embroidery, minkas are now prized as elegant residences, tea houses and galleries. My ceramics studio is housed in a machiya, of structural subtlety with sand colored textured walls, beams the color of burnt sienna and an enclosed garden of rock pools, stepping stones, moss and flowering trees I gaze upon from my work table every day. So inspiring!

Issey Miyake’s clothing store here is housed in a machiya, its interior redesigned by a contemporary architect only last year in the color of ink. This rather minimalistic approach is intriguingly effective as a backdrop for Miyake’s fashions. Beyond these dwellings, temples and other structures of history in Kyoto are known for their simple, dignified and beautiful design of wooden frame, vertical columns, horizontal beams and diagonal braces, elevated slightly off the ground and graced by a sweeping roof of ceramic tile. Fusama sliding doors and shoji screens enable rooms to be customized for varied uses (so clever). This is profound design, because respect for the natural world through materials and harmonic placement is considered an offspring of spiritual enlightenment. Beyond the use of wood, tile, fusama and shoji, Kyoto structures have additional elements in common:

• tatami rice straw mats, traditionally covering the floors of an entire space, now in at least one room in a house or shop, where one wears tabi socks to walk upon the softly padded surface,
• engawa, Japanese veranda, meaning “edge side” made of bamboo or wood connecting the outside with the inside,
• genkan, sunken entryway, where one removes shoes before entering. Even my tiny apartment has its own genkan,
• wa, harmony, as a relationship between structure and the natural world.

These elements are used in modern structures here as well, especially museums. My favorites include the Fukuda Museum in Arashiyama, designed in 2019 by Koichi Yasuda, based on the essential qualities of traditional machiya. Its features are imbued with the distinctiveness of Kyoto in its gallery spaces and veranda like corridor.

Zenbi Kagizen Art Museum is a private museum designed in 2021 in a Zen-like interior style, with a traditional exterior that blends in with its historic Gion neighborhood of the 17th century Edo period.

The National Museum of Kyoto reflects a notable collaboration between architects Katayama Tokuma, and Taniguchi Yoshio, who used machiya inspired coloration within the galleries surrounded by spacious gardens as a nod to the past, along with an open layout front lobby and gift court of current trend.

The Kyocera Museum of Art offers an innovative concept by Aoki Jun and Nishizawa Tezzo, using a fresh approach to gallery space while preserving original elements of this oldest public art museum in Japan, first built in 1933 to commemorate the enthronement of Emperor Showa.

The flow of mutual understanding between man-made and natural, along with a consideration of the past and an open eye to the present, make wandering Kyoto such a pleasure!

Arigato,
Sharon

P.S. Please click the downloads below to read Sharon's original newsletter and see all her photos with descriptions, as well as her recipe from Garden Chat.