Photo left：Mikuni, Chest of Drawers with wheels
Photo right：Tsuruoka, Costume Chest of Drawers

June 24 – August 4, 2022
The Nippon Club WEB Gallery

 
The Nippon Club WEB Gallery will hold the exhibition “TANSU” from June 24 to August 4 as the 11th special exhibition, introducing a Japanese chest of drawers representing Japan’s furniture.

Japanese Chest of drawers has a rich regional color and a rich sense of humanity, and it is a powerful piece of furniture full of a sense of life created by Japanese people from their daily lives. Born in the Edo period, many elaborate Japanese chests of drawers were made from the Meiji era to the Taisho period and now remain as a heritage of historical and cultural value. In this exhibition, we will introduce about 40 chests of drawers that developed in each region from the Edo period to the Taisho period and a chest of drawers remade from an antique chest drawer in a modern style.

At the virtual opening reception to be held from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm on the first day of the exhibition (June 24), Ms. Kazuko Koizumi, a former professor at Kyoto Women’s University and President of The Japan Society for the History of Interiors, Furniture, and Tools will talk about the history of the Chest of drawers. Mr. Yoshihiro Takishita, an architect who relocated old private houses, will discuss the similarities in making the old private houses. Mr. Gense Nagano, representative of the NPO “Engawa,” will talk about the Chest of drawers that have been remodeled with innovative ideas.

As an entertainment, violinist Ms. Mari Kimura, who has an innovative idea using modern AI and has been praised by the New York Times as “a master who plays the cutting edge of the times,” will perform a few tunes.

Organized by The Nippon Club
Sponsored by J.C.C. Fund (Philanthropic Fund of Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in New York),
Supported by The Japan Society for the History of Interiors, Furniture and Tools
In cooperation with Research Institute for Lifestyle History, Morohashi Bijyutsuten, TOMIESENSHINDOU, Gallery Shima, KYOWA Classic Car & Life Station, and Photographer Kyon Takenaka
Directed by Kazuko Koizumi
Curated by Shoko Hayashi

Virtual Opening Reception
“TANSU”

Friday, June 24, 2022, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Admission Free

（A suggested donation for Let’s Support COVID-19 Fighters!）
※up to 500 people, first come, first served

Register Here

■ KAZUKO KOIZUMI

Historian of Japanese Life History.Representative of the “Kazuko Koizumi Life History Institute.”
Director of the “Museum of Life in the Showa era .”Chairperson of the “Museum of Life in the Showa era” NPO organization. Chairperson of “The Japan Society for the History of Interiors, Furniture and Tools” and Director of the “Kumagai Residence: National Important Cultural Property”, a former professor at Kyoto Women’s University

Prominent Publications: “Tansu” Hosei University Publication, 1982, “Traditional Japanese Furniture: A Definitive Guide” Kodansha USA, Inc., 1986, “Traditional Japanese Chests: A Definitive Guide” Kodansha International, 2010, *Numerous publications and lectures

■ Yoshihiro Takishita

Born in 1945 in Gifu prefecture. In 1967 he graduated from Waseda University with a law degree. While still a student, he learned of a 250-year-old farmhouse (Minka) near his hometown that was about to be submerged in construction of a local reservoir. He bought the house and moved it to Kamakura to live in. As an architect, he developed an avid interest in relocating and preserving old Minka. He has overseen the restoration of thirty-six Minka (four abroad). A first-class registered architect, he is also the curator of the Shiguchi-do.

Prominent Publications: Japanese Country Style- Putting New Life into Old Houses (Kodansha International, 2022), *Solo exhibition of Shiguchi in “The Gamble House” in Pasadena, California.

■ Gense Nagano

Born into a family running a wholesaler of traditional Japanese woodworking tools. He was raised in a typical Japanese house with many types of conventional Japanese chests or tansu. While the need for tansu is lessening, he is redesigning the tansu to meet the storage needs of the current lifestyle.

■ Mari Kimura

a violinist/composer and a leading figure in interactive computer music. As a violinist, Mari is renowned for her mastery of subharmonics—the production of pitches that sound up to an octave below the violin’s lowest string—and her dynamic performances as an improviser premiere of many notable compositions by today’s composers. She has received numerous awards and grants, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fromm Commission Award, a residency at IRCAM, and a Composers Now creative living at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. In recognition of her ground-breaking work, Mari was named one of “Immigrants: Pride of America” by the Carnegie Corporation, published in the New York Times. Mari’s works have been supported by numerous commissions and awards, including New York Foundation for the Arts, Arts International, New Music USA/Meet, The Composer, International Computer Music Association, Music from Japan, Harvest works, Japan Foundation, Argosy Foundation, Vilcek Foundation, and New York State Council on the Arts. As an educator, Mari has been the founding chair of Future Music Lab at the Atlantic Music Festival since 2013. A graduate faculty at Juilliard since 1998, she was appointed as a Full Professor of Music in the “Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology” program (ICIT) at the University of California, Irvine.

Contact： gallery@nipponclub.org