When I was going up the escalator of a very nice spacious department store, with a sense of some history, I was remembering that it has been a year since I came here last.

Master Junichi Hakose (箱瀬淳一) was relaxed and happy when I met him at his exhibition at the Art Salon of Tamagawa Takashimaya (玉川高島屋）; a prestigious department store located in Futago-Tamagawa, the suburb of Tokyo metropolitan area, where the city is energized with recently developed high rise business & commercial complex with residential areas, on the other side of the railway station from Takashimaya; who has forty some years of history in the area.

He greeted me soon after he finished talking with a graceful lady, who seemed to be one of his old fans. It was very nice seeing him with his modest smile in his face. He asked me, how I was doing? I smiled and told him, I’m well, and doing “so so”.  We laughed.

It had been a while since I met him last at his epoch making exhibition at the WAKO Department Store in Ginza (銀座和光) last November. It was also because he scheduled a very little exhibition in the Tokyo area in early 2016, since the WAKO exhibition was huge and was planned to draw many of his fans in the Tokyo area.

But for Tamagawa-Takashimaya, he has been holding his exhibition at this Art Salon for many years, it was his routine to have the same this year too.

In this exhibition, I was also happy to meet again with the very Box from his Collage series he created during we visited his work shop Hakose Koubou in Wajima in 2015.

 

With my request to take a good look of the Box , he placed the Box on the table in front.  As you look more you understand how extraordinary  unique in design and in style, even compared to any other contemporary lacquerwork.

I again expressed my feelings how I am amazed with the complexity of the design and the unique finishes he employed in details.

 

Then Master Hakose said with this box in front of us.  “These designs are not selling, or hard to sell. But that’s OK.  It should not be sold in a rush.  It takes time and it should. I also want them in my hands for sometime too.” He said it with his serious eyes, glancing somewhere beyond the Box with the Box in his hands. I agreed and nodded.

I personally feel that this Collage series will be his masterpiece in his history of creation and remembered as one of his epochs of lacquerware art, sometime later in the history when people catches up to to his creativity.  I know, it should take time.

After the exhibition has ended for the day, I had a privilege to have a dinner with Master Hakose.  We moved down from Futago-Tamagawa to Ooimachi, the town where he usually stays while in Tokyo. The area has nice small private restaurants with an atmosphere, here and there, those places that Master Hakose would admit to visit.

That night, he took me to one of his favorite places of small teppanyaki counter restaurant, with an atmosphere of good workmanship and unique menus.

We enjoyed the night fully with the teppanyaki and Hiroshima type okonomiyaki with a very good red wine that Master Hakose asked the restaurant master to keep it for him.

Thank you Hakose-sensei! I look forward to the next visit.

 

The Exhibition:

「箱瀬淳一漆工芸 片口豆小鉢・ぐい呑 いろいろ展」

2016年5月18日（水）～24日（火）/玉川高島屋5階アートサロン