"English is not my native language" 30 April 2008 Au Bougnat Blanc Recently I produced a Art In A Box work "Au Bougnat Blanc" (a white coal merchant). It is a actual cafe bar in Paris from World War 2. I copied the bar as shown in the photograph below. I used the photograph to copy it as is shown in the photo. There is a large sign with the name Au Bougnat Blanc. I completed the work a few months ago. It took me a long time to show this here because I did not understand the meaning on the sign. I needed to examine it closely. I inquired to some friends that are familiar with French for the meaning of Au Bougnat Blanc however they were unable to help me. Suddenly I remembered the name of a miniaturist, Ms Anny Dubois who lives in Belgium. I emailed her with my question. She herself did not know either but she asked a French friend. Au Bougnat Blanc means coal merchant and Blanc means white. So white coal merchant did not make much sense, especially for a restaurant. BUT a Bougnat Blanc is a typical drink in a part of France named Auvergne (white wine plus blackcurrant liquor). Now I understand!! Au Bougnat Blac is the name of a alcohol. That is why they have it mentioned on the sign board. My work "Au Bougnat Blanc" is pictured in the section of Art In A Box on the back page. I participated in the miniature show in Chicago held the beginning of April. I plan to attend again in 2010. 30 April 2008 31 March 2008 Nicorette Pub The year before last I made a background to be used for the quit smoking chewing gum, Nicorette TV CM. The pub is the traditional style Japanese bar restaurant. As a child there were many restaurants like this, but these days there are few. Most being replaced by modern restaurants. Recently I made the new section. There are a lot of pictures here so please click the button on the lower right of the front page of my "Works" to have a look. I will be participating in the Tom Bishop International show the first weekend of April. My English is not that good but please stop by and say hello to me, I look forward to seeing you there. Nicorette Pub 31 March 2008 10 February 2008 Miniature Collector Miniature Collector magazine has two of my works in their January 2008 issue. I am very pleased to be represented in their magazine. I will have these two works Le Pingouin Bar and Boulangerie at the Chicago International show the first weekend in April. 10 February 2008 2 January 2008 A Happy New Year I had a lot of exhibitions last year. The year has ended with my running around different sites so I was not able to finish up some of my work. My New Year target is to get them finished. In the picture below, I am standing at the gate of a old temple. The big white characters read Hon-nouji which a very famous temple in Kyoto. The greatest lord, Nobunaga Oda died in this temple in the old times. Nobunaga is a general that is loved most by all Japanese to this day. 2 January 2008 19 December 2007 Ameyoko Ameyoko in Ueno is one of the most famous markets in Tokyo. When December comes the market is vigorous. A lot of small shops sell in a open air line up, as shown in the photograph. Various goods are sold, such as food and clothing all at reasonable prices. In the bag I am holding I have purchased dried cuttlefish squid from North Korea. It is very delicious with Chochu ( a kind of alcohol ) one of my favorites. This year will be over soon. Have a Merry Christmas!! 19 December 2007 28 November 2007 My work is in the museum in France The miniature museum, Muse International de la Miniature in Lyon France is now showing my small structure, A Solitary World. They have the piece exhibited at the entrance of the museum. Their website: http://www.mimlyon.com/. A Japanese friend of mine, Mrs. Miyuki Mori went to the museum and took pictures of my work and sent them to me. She said in French "I came from Japan to take pictures of my friend Ichiyoh Haga's work, is that all right?" She was kindly greeted and entered the museum free. I want to thank Miyuki for sending me the much appreciated pictures shown below. I hope to see the exhibit myself one day. Photography: Miyuki Mori 28 November 2007 15 October 2007 The Party The other day my students and I opened the reception party for our exhibition at Kotsu-kaikan in Yurakucho. It was very much fun. Here is the picture, I am in the center. Photography: Itaru Watanave 15 October 2007 25 September 2007 It's still hot! For the last three months I have been running around Tokyo having my exhibitions. Starting in June at Aoyama, followed by Ginza in July and in August Nihonbashi. I just finished participating in the Mono Creation 2007, held in Tokyo Big Sight on September 9th and 10th. The picture below was taken at the event. There were twenty thousand visitors for the two days. Now I am preparing for the next exhibition at Kotsu-kaikan in Yurakucho scheduled to begin the end of this month. So I am still busy and it is still hot in Tokyo. Now it is 30 degrees centigrade (86F) during the day. 25 September 2007 12 August 2007 It's Terribly Hot On July 29th the National Elections were held. Resulting in the National Democratic Party taking a historical crushing defeat. Prime Minister as usual suffers the consequences and is resigning. However, Prime Minister Mr. Shinzou Abe declared he would never resign. Media is covering this almost everyday now. I went to see the Prime Minister when he made a speech near the town where I live ( picture below ). The person with the hands raised is Mr. Abe, the one with the microphone giving the speech is the Governor of Tokyo Mr. Shintarou Ishihara. It has bee terribly hot in Tokyo every day with the temperatures reaching 35C and 95F. With a exhibition scheduled for Aug 22nd at Takashimaya Department store in Nihonbashi the heat is making my preparations more difficult. I am making many small things to sell and repairing some larger works to exhibit in the hall. The area is large so I will have a lot to display. For details on seeing this exhibit click on the left index 12 August 2007 16 June 2007 I am opening a exhibition My exhibition at Aoyama is now opening until June 30th. I just finished participating in the Tom Bishop InternationalMiniature Show this last weekend. Mr Bishop did not attend the show himself and there were not many foreign dealers however there were a good number of visitors. I carried my works into the show hall on Friday. The article in the Asahi newspaper came out that morning . Asahi is a first class newspaper in Japan and the article was a good size. I received a phone call from the gallery saying "So many customers are coming please come and help". Unfortunately, I was busy at the miniature show and could not leave to go help at that time. The article has increased my business at Aoyama making me very happy. My Exhibition at Aoyama 16 June 2007 23 May 2007 Exhibition My exhibition of my work will open at Aoyama Titled: " The Exhibition of Dioramart" Place: Gallery Space Intart Address:2-9-15 Kita-Aoyama Minato-ku, Tokyo Phone:03-347-8606 URL:http://www.forza.co.jp/intart/ Date June 1st-30th 2007 Open: 12:AM-21:00PM ( 12:00 AM-18:00PM only on the final day) Admission: Free The Gallery owner gave it the name Dioramart. meaning Diorama plus Art. Since this is a long exhibit we are dividing it into two parts, the first part will focus mainly on the structures works on (June 1st -15th). The second part will be the Art In A Box on (June16th-30th). Aoyama is a trendy district in Tokyo where there is a well known baseball stadium near the gallery. Honda also has their main office building there. If you live in the area please stop and see the exhibit 23 May 2007 26 April 2007 AKIHABARA Akihabara has been the hottest place in Tokyo for years. The town has been known for all things electronic. Recently the young people have been coming from all over the world due to the increase in computer games and their figures, including plastic models and comic books. They visit Akihabara from China, India and the USA. Tokyo is redeveloping this district so you see many new huge buildings in succession. The picture below was taken in front of JR Akihabara station at 5PM. The evenings are always this crowded. A large yellow neon sign located in the center of the picture has letters in red and blue saying "The Radio Building in The World Though at Akihabara". It seems old fashion to me! I go to this building often since this is where my shelves of small works and miniature parts are kept in the hobby shop, the Yellow Submarine locate on the 7th floor. Please stop by and see for yourself this growing area of Tokyo. The address is 1-15 -16 Soto-kanda Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. Phone number for the Yellow Submarine: 03-3526-3071. 26 April 2007 25 March 2007 The most famous ramen restaurant. For several weeks the news has been covering the story of a tiny ramen restaurant called Taishyo-ken in downtown Tokyo will be closing on March 20th. I couldn't wait after hearing that news to get to the restaurant before it closed since I love the restaurant. The first picture shows a led tent in the center. The entrance of the restaurant is under the tent. The entrance is out of view because of the crowds of people. The second picture shows the entrance behind me. There were over a hundred media people representing TV, radio and newspapers while I was there. Since there were three hundred meters or more of people that day I didn't eat there. This is the most famous ramen restaurant in Japan now. 25 March 2007 5 March 2007 Wonder Festival I participated in the Wonder Festival last Sunday, the biggest hobby show in Japan. Held a few times each year. I have visited the show several times but this time I had a booth as a dealer. There are always exhibits at the show of computer game figures, plastic models and toys. Never feeling that my work would fit in I never participated. Having a dealer had cancel right before the show they requested me. Being very nervous before the show I was pleasantly surprised at how many people crowded my booth all wanting to take pictures of my work. Name cards disappeared right away and many of my books and small things sold well. Some people wanted to sign on as students for my craft class. This show is always held in the huge facility called the Tokyo Big Sight, which faces Tokyo Bay. The numbers visiting the show, held for only one day reaches numbers from thirty to forty thousands from all over the world. Now I am hoping to participate again. Pictured behind my work is a one of my students that helped me for the day. 5 March 2007 9 February 2007 The Pictures of the Exhibition The picture below is the scene at the Kotsu-Kaikan in Yurakucho, May 2006. At this exhibition I did the performance demonstration in the corner of the gallery. I made may miniatures such as chairs, stepladders etc. while the visitors watched. In the center of the picture is my wife. I recently put a lot of pictures of this exhibition in the Scenes form Exhibition section. I expect the frequency of the exhibition to increase this year. Only two of the Next Exhibitions are on this site at this time. We are discussing three or four other opportunities for my exhibition. There will be a lot of pressure this year. Photography: Itaru Watanave 9 February 2007 29 January 2007 My Favorite Restaurant Across the street from my studio is a small but wonderful Korean roast meat style restaurant. The owner of the restaurant has started to decorate his restaurant walls with pictures of my work. When I have visitors to my studio I often take them there. Since my work was shown on the TV last December, there have been a lot of visitors to my studio. I have been there five times just last week. Making this restaurant my most frequented. The owner of the restaurant (left) and my wife (center). 29 January 2007 31 December 2006 TV Commercial for Nicorette I said I would make the Japanese restaurant ( tavern) to use as the background for the TV commercial for Nicorette anti smoking medicine. The picture below shows one view. It was taken in my studio showing the back door looking toward the entrance. The following morning I completed the work and carried it to the production studio where it was professionally photographed. This photograph was then used for the background of the commercial. You can view a sample of the commercial by clicking the link below. Due to the design and direction of the entrance there was some editing done. This may make the atmosphere different from the picture below. Many people attempt to quit smoking on January 1st so the commercial started airing on December 16th. It will run frequently through the middle of January. http://www.nicorette-j.com/cminfo/tvcm/daydream.mpeg Photography: Seiichi Ito 31 December 2006 20 November 2006 TV Crew Came On November 16th 2006 The Japan TV Inc crew came to my studio to do a report on my work. The title of the program is Easy Trip in Stopover. Here in Japan Easy Trip Stopover is the hit Sat morning program. I put dirty clothes on and waited for them to come to the studio. The director appeared in a bad mood and informed me my studio was too clean and that would not be interesting. I proceeded to try and mess it up. I took out a electric saw and cut up some plywood scattering sawdust and boards on the floor. I even sprinkled some sawdust on myself. He finally said "it is good". The movie actor came in with the TV camera. I wasn't told the name of the interviewer. I was surprised to see the interviewer was a movie actor Mr. Hiroshi Katsuno a rather famous actor. My wife was very pleased and got his autograph and had her picture taken with him. I liked the picture very much and wanted to show you but she said "you cant show the picture" what a shame. So instead I wil l show you the picture of me with the actor. The program plans to be telecast in Japan on Dec. 9th 2006. The actor and myself 20 November 2006 30 October 2006 I am making a Japanese Restaurant now. Tokiwa-Sou Apartment House in 1:80 was completed around October 15th. The work is on exhibit at Manga-Kan museum in Ishinomaki city now. I am making a background to use the work for a TV commercial. The commercial is for a medication to stop smoking. The scene shows the restaurant that I will make in 1:12 scale. The main character finishes his lunch in the restaurant and then wants to have a cigarette. I am working full speed because the movie is November 10th. Tokiwa-Sou in 1:80 photography: Seiich Ito 30 October 2006 18 September 2006 Tokiwa-Sou Again Now I am making Tokiwa-sou Apartment House again. You may remember the Tokiwa-sou from my site. I made it in 2001 in 1/15th scale. This time I am making it in 1/80th scale. This is a very well known apartment house in Japan. Made famous because of all the comic book writers that lived there including Mr. Syoutarou Ishinomori. Mr. Ishinomori's room one of the most important is on the upper level on the left side in the picture below. Being in 1/80th scale the entire structure is very small. The width of each room is 32mm (1 1/4"). All 24 sides are completed next I will start the outside walls followed by the roof. Ground and base are the last to be done. October 20th is my date for completion. PS I completed "LE PINGOUIN BAR" last month. We published the pictures in the Art In A Box section on this site. Please check it later. 18 September 2006 8 September 2006 A short trip to Yamanakako Last week our craft club and I went to a beautiful lake called Yamanakako. Yamanakako is located in the skirts of MT. Fuji, about 75 miles west of Tokyo. We all enjoyed a barbecue at the lake side in the wonderful nature. I left from my house for the lake on my bicycle at 8:00 AM. When I approached the city of Hachioji the trip became difficult because my rear tire on my bike exploded. I looked for a bicycle shop for more then 30 minutes. The clerk informed me that they did not have the tire I needed so I had to take a train back to Tokyo to find one. After all my bicycle trouble I didn't arrive at the lake until 10:30 at night. Fortunately the party was still going and all were surprised to see me arrive so late by bicycle. The picture below was taken as soon as I arrived. The picture doesn't show how exhausted I really was. My return trip was made much easier by getting a ride in one of my students cars. Photography: Itaru Watanabe 8 September 2006 5 August 2006 Yukata Recently I have been diligently working on structure pieces. In the last month I have completed about ten small works. One of them is "A Paint Store at Sendagi" It has a round base only 13 centimeters ( 5 inches) in diameter with the building height being 7 centimeters (3 inches). The model is a old paint store on 50th and Sendagi in downtown Tokyo. I put pictures in the structure section on my site. Please take a look. By the way, do you know what a Yukata is? Yukata is a kind of Kimomo we put on in summer. Kimono and Yukata are very close to being the same but there are subtle differences. Since Yukata is not usually worn in the daytime more often after the bath in the evening and into the night. You hardly ever saw anyone wearing the Yukata however lately that has changed. Now I am seeing young people (especially young woman) wearing Yukata in the evening on the street even on the train in Tokyo. I see this as a good change. My daughter wearing Yukata 5 August 2006 23 July 2006 I love CHOCHU I work until midnight almost every day. When I finish my work day I always have alcohle. It is always the happiest time for me. As I am Japanese I am occasionally asked by foreigners, " Do you like Sake?" Sake is not bad but I don't have it very often because it is very high in calories and is sticky. Instead I drink CHOCHU a kind of Japanese alcohol. It is made from wheat or potatoes and is healthier. I love the wheat variety. My favorite brand is IICHIKO. Pictured below. I don't like the label design but the price is right ( only $7.00 US ) and the taste is good. I always mix it with grapefruit juice. In Japan chochu became very popular over the last 10 to 20 years particularly among the young people. 23 July 2006 10 July 2006 I made the work "A Graveyard " My first exhibition was at the Rogos Gallery in Shibuya Parco (department store) in 1996. For the exhibition, I made several structure works with very heavy iron bases. Over the years I have sold almost all those works except for one. This is a graveyard piece, a work that attached the strange shaped heavy iron base and also a unusual shaped ground. There were two gravestones, a utility pole and a bicycle next to the pole on the ground. Since my skill level then is not what it is now I didn't think it was as good. I didn't want to throw it away so I put it on display on my shelves with the Yellow Submarine. I have had them there for a long time. The other day a customer finally came in who wanted to buy that work. I told the customer I would like to repair the work before he took it. He paid for it then, and was to pick it up later so I was obligated to do the repairs now! I took it down and carried it to my studio to look it over closely. I discovered the ground had warped on the iron base over the years and the arrangement of the two gravestones didn't look right to me. Reluctantly I decided to leave the base as it is and make the other repairs. First I made new ground, then a large tree and placed it in the center on the ground. I added two more gravestones giving it now four instead of two. I was bored doing it at first but then I became enthused and started to see that it had the atmosphere of old Japan. After a long time I was able to get great satisfaction from the piece. So delighted with my work I took a photograph myself for first time. Surprisingly pleased with the photographs I put them in the structure section on my site. The title is "A Graveyard" Please take a look at it. In this small work I tried to convey the traditional graveyard in Japan. This is a country graveyard. Some thin wooden boards stand behind the gravestones. It is To-ba (in Japanese). We set them up behind the gravestones during the ceremony of the dead person. A Graveyard 10 July 2006 17 June 2006 Miniature Collector Magazine The last three months have been very busy for me. Beginning with the Tom Bishop International show in Chicago in April. May was my exhibition of our craft club in Tokyo. In June I again participated in the Tom Bishop Tokyo International miniature show. Now the feeling of relief. I have completed the shows, put the things back in order and now can rest. Since it is the rainy season in Japan it is raining. The low grade tin roof of my tiny studio makes the raindrops annoying. I am wearing headphones as I work at my keyboard to quiet the sound of the rain. In a airmail package from the United States the day before the craft club exhibition I received three copies ofMiniature Collector Magazine. I hurried to open and see the article on my work The Stone House. They gave my Stone House six pages , I was very pleased. The article was wonderful and so was the timing of their arrival as it allowed me to take one to the club exhibition and place it next to the Stone House. I want to sincerely thank the editor of Miniature Collector Magazine Barbara Aardema. Please read the July 2006 issue. We have short movies on my site on the front page and final one too. Thank you for looking. Miniature Collector Magazine 17 June 2006 14 May 2006 Information of our Exhibition May arrived. In Japan it is a comfortable season. We have a lot of national holidays from late April to the beginning of May. We are calling it the Golden Week. Most of the company employees are taking a long vacation of 10 days. With the weather being wonderful they enjoyed the time off. I however didn't make special plans for my time off and it turned into work in my studio as usual. With a exhibition scheduled for the end of the month I am in the process of preparing now. Details below. Next Exhibition Titled: "Ichiyoh Haga & Shibuya Craft Club Exhibition" Place: Yurakucho Tokyo Kotsu-Kaikan B1F GOLD SALON Kotsu- Kaikan is in front of JR Yamanote Line Yurakucho station. Contact: Tel 03-3215-7933 (direct) Date: May 28 th ~ June 3rd 2006 Open: 11.00am ~ 19.00pm (13:00pm only on May28th) Admission: Free Opening Function starts at 18.00pm on May28th. You are INVITED! This is a joint exhibition of myself and my students. Shibuya Craft Club is the students groups name. I have finished mailing to the list. The list now numbers more than 2,000. I have checked and it doesn't seem that any names overlap. Many of the people should change their address Some should be deleted and others added.I have been continuing to work all year and have finally been able to complete it. Next I will repair some of my works and start plans for the next exhibition's fixtures and furniture and illumination. You see I am considerably busy right now. Good news on my work THE STONE HOUSE, it may be borrowed for a exhibition. If so then I am sure it will be a good display in the center of the gallery. If you live in the area please come and see it. You may remember about The Stone House. It was a request from the Fuji TV Broadcaster in 2005. The Stone House actualy belongs to Fuji TV so I humbly asked the other day if I could rent the works. I am happy to say the answer was yes making it a wonderful day . There were no photos on the site of The Stone House however we put some up in the Works recently section so please take a look at it there as well. The Stone House and myself Photography: Itaru Watanabe 14 May 2006 6 April 2006 I went back I arrived safely back in Tokyo on April 4th after participating in Tom Bishop's Chicago International show. This time I tried to sell some of my miniature parts such as buckets and mops. It brought me the greatest pleasure to realize how many Americans knew my name and about my web site. When setting up my display the night before the show a beautiful woman from Alabama also a dealer told me she was a big fan of my site. I met another dealer from New Jersey that told me the same thing. I was very surprised and honored by that. Many customers were familiar with my work and very friendly. I would like to thank all of them very much for making the show such a success for me. I hope to do the show again someday. Photography: Kazuo Kubota I am on the left side. 6 April 2006 16 March 2006 Chicago International I am going to have a table at the Chicago International Miniatures show this year . The show is in Shamburg Chicago at the Hyatt Regency. Show dates that I will be there are March 31st through April 2nd. Go to http://www.bishopshow.com for more information on the workshops being offered. My journey will begin on March 28th as I have to travel to New York to pick up some of my work that I left there from my exhibition last fall. Load them in the car and start my drive to Chicago. Chicago from New York is approximately 800 miles. Driving is really my only option since I have to transport my works. My only worry is my English is not very good yet. I look very forward to meeting all of you in the United States. Please stop by and say hello to me. I will do my best to communicate with you. At The Show Time 2004, New York 16 March 2006 15 March 2006 Maruike House For the last year or two my wife Toshiko has been spending all day every day into the evening working at Maruike House. Maruike House is the name of a apartment house she owns. The apartment is a very old tiny two story wooden building about five minutes from JR Komagome station. There are four and a half tatami mat rooms, six tatami rooms and about a dozen other rooms in the house. In the old days we were able to see such tiny apartment houses in the old part of Tokyo. I used to make one of them TOKIWA-SOU. Now most of the habitants are from Nepal so the Marukie House is very well known in Katmandu. My wife takes care of everything collecting rent cleaning and even carrying out the tatami mats and making a new wood floor. Painting the walls and ceiling room by room all on her own. Despite how hard it is and how much time it takes she loves the work. The picture below is a hallway upstairs. I was very surprised that my daughter Chihiro and her fellow university art students are planning to open a art exhibition using the hallway and a vacant room as their gallery. She is quite serious and has already made a website titled MARUIKE HOUSE showing the apartment house and schedule of the exhibition. Unfortunately the site is in Japanese but you can see some pictures of the apartment house. http://www.maruike-house.com The exhibition will start May 6th Photography: Chihiro Haga 15 March 2006 27 January 2006 Accomplishment Picture of AZUMA-YA I previously mentioned that I was making a old stationery store, AZUMA-YA, it is very near ITO-YA. I completed AZUMA-YA last autumn. My cameraman came yesterday to photograph it. See the picture below. I am going to enter this one in a competition " Asahi Contemporary Craft Art Competition" held in Osaka. Photography: Noriyuki Sato / SATO FOTO 27 January 2006 14 January 2006 "A Happy New Year" In the afternoon on Jan 1st I took a bike ride to send some New Year postcards. Before I started my ride I looked at the cyclometer (small instrument showing distance). It read 534 Kilometers. This is the total distance I road since last Sept. through Dec.2005. I reset the meter so I can see how far I ride this year. Almost every day I ride to the variety store Ikebukuro Tokyu Hands for tools and materials. It is 10 Kilometers to and from the store. If I run 10 Kilometers a day it will be 300 a month calculated that would be 3600 Kilometers a year. Considering weather and reasons beyond my control I can't go each and every day so I have given myself a target number this year. I hope to ride 2000 Kilometers ( approximately 1.250 miles ). I bought this bike ( pictured below) the year before last. I have ridden it a lot since last summer. Installing the meter lets me use this as a way to get exercise and control weight. My moped was my transportation for shopping until I sold it last autumn. Now my bicycle is my only transportation. My Bicycle Photography: Kouichi Kamio 14 January 2006 25 December 2005 "We enjoyed an end of the year party" On the last day of our craft club we celebrated a end of the year party at a restaurant, ISOTAROU, near JR Komagome Station. Twenty-eight members came, including seven woman and twenty-one men. After the party at the restaurant, most of the young members continued to party at a nearby bar until midnight. In the picture I am sitting in front of a set of armor facing the right. Time goes by so quickly another year is coming to an end. My hope is next year will be a very good one. Photography: Itaru Watanabe 25 December 2005 15 December 2005 "BOULANGERIE" Recently I made a small Art In A Box, titled Boulangerie (bakery). Pictured below. I really like this one because of the size 25cm (10") wide and 45cm (18") high. This work was made to teach my class, so using a smaller scale made it easier for the students to bring the work to the studio. Most Japanese homes are also small. The students haven't done this one yet but it won't take them very long. I am already looking for the next subject for them to work on in this small scale. Being busy with other classes makes me wonder if I will be working in this scale more often. Small work has many advantages and one is traveling with the work. I have 10 small Art In The Box works done now. Looking to the future I would like to take them to the Tom Bishop show one day. Photography: Itaru Watanabe 15 December 2005 21 November 2005 "Rikugien" Suddenly the weather turned cold here in Tokyo. Reaching 5-6 degrees centigrade (41-42 Fahrenheit). The leaves have already turned their autumn colors. Only 15 minutes from my home where I also work, is a 300-year-old traditional Japanese garden called Rikugien. When I was a child I often went there because it was one of our playgrounds. Below you will see a picture of the beautiful leaves. The garden is centrally located in Tokyo. When I am tired I sometimes go to the garden for the peace and tranquility it holds. http://junko55.web.infoseek.co.jp/04teien/0311rikugien.htm Rikugien Photography: Shinichirou Niwa 21 November 2005 12 November 2005 " I went to MANGA-KAN" I had the opportunity to go to MANGA-KAN on November 9th. This was my first visit since my work TOKIMA SOU was put on display there. It was very nice to see it after such a long time. MANGA-KAN is in Ishinomaki City about 250 miles north of Tokyo. MANGA-KAN is a museum of a Japanese charisma comic writer Mr. Syoutarou Ishinomori. The museum was built in 2001. That same year I made a model of the apartment house in Tokiwa Sou where Mr. Ishinomori used to live. After the model was moved to the MANGA - KAN I tried many times to go see it. After 5 long years I made it. The museum was just as I imagined. Sometimes when I see my work after many years I see things I would change or improve but not this time. Nothing was broken and I was still satisfied with the work. Below is a photograph that Ms. Tomoko Sakuma the curator allowed me to take. At the MANGA-KAN 12 November 2005 22 October 2005 "UNISON" I mentioned before that a few of my works were going to be on display at Unison art gallery in New Paltz, a suburb of New York City. My student Mr. Takeshi Sugiyama and I left for New York on Oct. 4th 2005. Two days later we arrived at New York city, we carried my works to New Paltz and it was on display at Unison between 12 and 2 PM. Pictured below is the gallery just closing the display. It was a perfect autumn day in New Paltz so we enjoyed the work. See previous TALKS for exhibition details. I returned to Unison again on Sun Oct.9th to participate in the reception. Unfortunately due to the hard rains the previous night we were unable to use the bridge leading to New Paltz. We were greeted by a large pond where the bridge and road should have been. This was our fist time seeing such a sight so we were both very surprised. After many attempts to phone the Unison gallery only to get the answering machine we set off to fine another way to get there. Thanks to a New Paltz police officer that showed us an alternative route taking us 15 miles out of our way we arrived just before the reception was closing. We returned to Tokyo Thurs Oct. 13th. The exhibition at Unison gallery will run through Nov. 6th 2005. Unison Art Gallery 22 October 2005 27 August 2005 "A Small Exhibition" I have a small exhibition with Mr. Yoshikatsu Tamekane at Unison Gallery in New York city. I will be there for the opening reception. Please come and see the exhibition and say hi. I will have three of my Art In A Box and three small structures on display. Titled Yoshikatsu Tamekane & Ichiyoh Haga Contemporary Japanese Artists Location Unison Gallery 68 Mountain Rest Rd. New Paltz NY 12561 USA Phone: 845-255-1559 Date: 10-9- to 11-6 -2005 Opening reception Sun. 10-9-2005 4-6 PM www.unisonarts.org 27 August 2005 2 August 2005 "My Classes" I now have two classes for making Art In A Box. In July I started a rather easy class making an old Paris Bakery in 1/12 scale. The picture is a scene from that class. The other is a stationary store like Ito-Ya. Mr. Sano ( he made the rickshaw for Ito-Ya) and I are teaching a class on Saturdays making structure works in 1/80 scale. I have twenty students for these Saturday classes. Men and woman young and old. Photography: Itaru Watanabe 2 August 2005 24 July 2005 "My Shelves in Akihabara" Without even noticing my miniatures became crowded in my cabinet. Since they are near they are convenient to use however they multiply rapidly. Being in small boxes makes it difficult to find what I want when I need it. Recently I received a pack of miniature parts from the USA. This alone took me a day to arrange. If I had shelves I could have them displayed and see what was there easier. My studio is small making shelving here out of the question. Suddenly I had a great idea. I could take all my miniature parts to the shelving area I have in the hobby shop of the Yellow Submarine ( a well known hobby shop here ). I have a corner of the shop with glass shelves that only hold my small works now. I had completely forgotten about those shelves. With that in mind the clean up and arranging of those shelves began. Being only a 20-minute bike ride to the Yellow Submarine in Akihabara made it even more convenient. Now when I need some parts I can get some exercise going there and it's easier to find what I need. This is the reason I am pricing small things and carrying them to the Yellow Submarine. I already am half done with this large job. See the pictures below. The title is Ichiyoh Haga Miniature Collection. There is a mixture of hand made and store made things. I will include some of my works on the shelves however it looks pretty good already. There are no doll house miniature shops in Tokyo so if your in need of some parts please come and see this corner of work and parts in the Yellow Submarine Scale Shop located on the 7th floor in the Radio Kaikan Building. The building is in front of the Denki-Gai gate of the Akihabara St. on JR Yamanote Line. The address is 1-15-16 Soto-Kanda Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, phone number is 03-3526-3071 My Shelves in Akihabara Photography: Itaru Watanabe 24 July 2005 1 July 2005 "Rickshaw" In the Ito-Ya section you can see a Rickshaw that was made by Mr.Kyoushirou Sano. I have made a rickshaw by myself now. When I made the Ito-Ya I didn't have a lot of time so I asked Mr. Sano. Since I found I needed another rickshaw for Azumaya I made it on my own. By the way Mr. Kyoushirou Sano was born in 1935. He graduated from the national university. He still is a wonderful craftsman going into his home studio each day at 9 am until the evening hours. He makes railroad locomotives by hand from brass. With a hand jig saw he cuts simple brass plate to make the parts of the locomotives. With only his hands he makes smooth moving locomotives with unbelievable detail. There are no words to describe his locomotives. He makes electric trains including passenger cars. A recent long train he made arrives on the platform with all the doors automatically opening. His trains are 1/80 scale so the door is less then 2" high and less then 1" wide with the ability to open on either side of the platform. His great idea and complicated plans are all drawn by him. Mr. Kyoushirou Sano is a well known person in the model railroad field here in Japan. His work is often featured here in the railroad magazines. I have some of his work on the final page of the structures section on my site. I love his work so I wanted to tell you all about it. I am fortunate that he is a member of our craft club and an instructor at my craft school. I go to him for help whenever I have a difficult project. This is how he came about giving me a wonderful rickshaw for in front of Ito-Ya. Now I am making Azumaya very close to Ito-Ya. There is already an article about Azumaya in the Talks from May 10th. This is a 100 year old stationary store from the Meiji era. There is where the need for another rickshaw came in. The rickshaw is a good symbol of the Meiji era for us. I hesitated at first, looking for another symbol to use because of the difficulty in making a rickshaw. I decided I must try and make one myself for the Azumaya work. I've put a picture below of the one I made. I used brass pipe for the wheels using a motor tool to slice it to get two wheels. The other parts are also brass. Mr Sano's rickshaw is also all brass we have the same design mine, being a little lower at the top. His roof was made from very thin cloth that he sewed with a very fine stitch. My sewing was not good so I used plastic that I glued on the frame. Turned out well I think. Mr. Sano and I were able to get all the information on rickshaws that we needed from the rickshaw museum of Jidaiya Inc. in Asakusa, Tokyo. http://www.asakusa-e.com/jidaiya/jidaiya.htm The site is in Japanese but maybe you can get an idea from all the pictures. They have sightseeing tours by Rickshaw in todayÅæs Asakusa area. In the museum there are many examples of traditional Japanese clothing for rent. I went to their small rickshaw museum many times last year becoming good friends with the owner Ms.Fujiwara. I was able to get a good draft about the rickshaw from her. The museum has a rickshaw displayed unfortunately it has rubber wheels not wooden as the traditional would have had. Suspended from the ceiling are some of the original wooden wheels. If your familiar with the movie Twilight Samurai you may have noticed the final disappointing scene where the rickshaw is carrying the heroine away the wheels are rubber. I'm not alone in my feeling that this scene would have been better left out. I want to thank Ms. Fujiwara for all the data she provided me on rickshaws. Asked how long it took to make his rickshaw Mr. Sano said smiling two weeks. It took me 10 days having the advantage of the great model he made for me. If asked which one is better I must say his is much better. There are many pictures of my rickshaw on the final page of the Plastic models but as I told you it is brass not plastic. Hope you enjoy seeing mine and to see Mr. Sano's there are many pictures in the Ito-Ya section. Photography: Kouichi Kamio 1 July 2005 30 May 2005 "Dollshouse Miniature Show" We will take part in the International Doll's House Tokyo Miniature Show Place: Tokyo Trade Center 5F 1-7-8 Minatoku Kaigan, Tokyo tel. 03-3434-4241 Date: Saturday, June 11,2005 10:00 am-5:00 pm. Sunday, June 12 2005 11:00 am- 4:00 pm Admission with advanced reservations-1200 yen Admission at the door ­±500 yen High school students and younger- Free We have participated six of the seven times the Tokyo Show has been held. Sat is always the first day of the show and since my craft class is on Sat I won't be there until Sun. Come and say hello when you see me there. 30 May 2005 28 May 2005 "Mr. Simon Hilton" The photographer of the picture shown below is a friend of mine, Simon Hilton from Australia. About five years ago he came to Tokyo, so his Japanese is terrific. He told me a amazing story about how he learned Japanese at the University in Australia. That is how popular Japanese is in Australia. He is very busy in Tokyo with photography, short movie acting and teaching English. In fact he is one of my English teachers. Producing short movies himself also keeps him busy. On May 17th he came to my studio to photograph and interview me for a article about my work. I'm not sure what he will use the article for maybe magazine, web site or even something else. Regardless of the use I am looking forward to it. When it is done I hope to be able to show you. Simon and me 28 May 2005 10 May 2005 "AZUMA-YA" The two pictures on the cover of the web site are of a scene I made last spring of ITO-YA which was an old stationery store. In the works section of this site you can see the work on ITO-YA. I used this last summer to teach the techniques to my students. Since I learned a lot of new techniques myself while making the store and now find I have enough parts left over I thought it was a good idea to make another one. My students were happy to have the challenge. First I let them watch me use some of the parts taking my time so they can see closely my technique. When making the original ITO-YA it took three to four months so I anticipate this small edition to take more then a year. It has gotten far enough so I will show the picture today of the progress. You may think it is almost the same as ITO-YA and it has progressed further then the front page picture. Before starting the small edition I asked permission from Mr. Ito because this is very similar to ITO-YA. I can't use their stores name so I am naming ours AZUMA-YA. Azuma means East in Japanese and Ya means store. Store was a popular name in the old days. We are almost finished with the inside, the most difficult part of this work. Now starting the exterior which is the most interesting and the easiest. This is my passion and I am enjoying it, however for the first time I am feeling some anxiety, wondering if any students will give up before its done due to the difficulty. In fact two students have retired leaving three including my web master we still hope for completion by the end of the year. AZUMAYA Photography: Chihiro Haga 10 May 2005 9 May 2005 "The Exhibition is finished" My exhibition, The Third Dimension Art by Ichiyoh Haga, at the Doll Garden museum in Izu highland finished on April 30th. It has been running since Oct.2004. It went very well. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the customers that came. On May 8th my student and I went by lorry car to collect my works form the museum. I wanted a picture to remember the event so I asked the manager Ms.Yukiko Yoshioka to be pictured with me. She replied no I don't like my picture taken. She disappeared for some time and I was very disappointed. Soon she reappeared with a cat mask . See the picture of her next to me with the cat mask on. Ms.Yukiko Yoshioka took very good care of my exhibition while it was at the museum. I want to thank both her and Ms. Hisae Ayukawa the curator of the museum AZUMAYA Photography: Takeshi Sugiyama 9 May 2005 16 April 2005 "We had a picnic under the cherry blossoms" Since long ago it has been a loved tradition for Japanese people to picnic under the cherry blossoms. Last Sunday April 10th was perfect timing to see the blossoms, so the members of our craft club gathered in Koganei Park. The park is in the West area of Tokyo one of the famous spots to see the flowers. On this breezy day the park was very full of people all enjoying the petals raining down in the breeze. It was as if the air was full of pink smoke of floating flowers. Simply amazing there were no words to describe the scene we all witnessed. When I got off the bus at the West gate of the park at 11am I was greeted by one of my students. He showed me the space he had saved us by getting there early. This was necessary because of the expected crowds. He had a blue blanket down and there were already seven of my students eating and drinking and having a joyful time. Having a commitment for the evening I left the park early at 4 pm. They continued to have the party at a bar near the Koganei station until 10 pm. The participating members are as follows Ms. Miki Ogawa Ms. Michiko Inaba Ms. Eri Sakai Ms. Mami Sunada Mr. Yukifumi Makino Mr. Kyoushirou Sano Mr. Kouji Nakamura Mr. Itaru Watanabe Mr. Toshiaki Takatani Mr. Uchyu Mukai Mr. Shinichi Sakata Mr. Takao Miyake & myself The cherry flower is our national flower. When I was young I used to think the flower was a gaudy pink color. It was used in many ways. Often as decorations on shopping arcades and old fashion stages for Japanese singers. It looked cheap. Several years ago I was suddenly awakened. One beautiful spring day I saw what a gift from God it was to be able to be amongst these beautiful pink flowers. It is hard for me to express in English the profound change of heart I had that day. I can feel the old Japan when I look at the flowers. It is good. I am in the bandanna and to my left is Mr. Makino my web master Photography : Itaru Watanabe 16 April 2005 9 April 2005 "Cherry flowers are blooming" In Japan when the Cherry blossoms season comes our meteorological agency calculates and announces the opening of the blossoms. This is always a top news story in our country. In Tokyo the date was March 31st. We can look forward to enjoying these for about 2 weeks. Somei Yoshino is a predominant type of Cherry tree by about 80%. Somei is a place in Tokyo and Yoshino is believed to be a name of a gardener from the Edo era 1603~1867. So this is the birthplace of the trees. The present name of Somei is Komagome which is my home town. There is a narrow street from JR Komagome station to the Somei Graveyard. It's only 1500 feet long but said there were a lot of gardeners on the south side of the street in Edo era. Somei Yoshino was the greatest master piece of improved bred Cherry tree and it quickly spread over all of Japan, and even to the USA. The wonderful well known Cherry blossoms along the Potomac river in Washington DC were a gift from Japan. Unfortunately the Cherry trees numbers have diminished on the Somei street today. Our town Komagome is a preserved old area in Tokyo so there are a lot of traditional Japanese gardens and Buddhist Temples. Rikugien Garden, Asuka-yama, Furukawa Garden are some of the famous spots to see these flowers. Our craft class is planning a picnic under the Cherry blossoms at the Koganei Park next Sunday located in East Tokyo. If someone takes a good picture I will show it to you. Cherry flowers at Chidorigafuchi Photography: Shinichirou Niwa 9 April 2005 23 March 2005 "David Malcolm Rose" Occasionally I receive an email from David Malcolm Rose, a miniaturist from the USA. I really think his work is great! His work and mine share a similar feeling for me. David recently updated his web site with better pictures of his Lost Highway. I want to introduce David's web site here to you today. http://www.davidmalcolmrose.com/ On his site David has links to some of his friends that also do wonderful work. Hope you enjoy David and his friend sites. THE LOST HIGHWAY By DAVID MALCOLM ROSE 23 March 2005 11 March 2005 "Elevator Video" Fuji TV made a short video to advertise my work, The Stony House. I want to share the video with you. Click the button at the end of today's Talks and you will see the Elevator Video. Unfortunate for me my portrait is on the video as well. Mr. Masanori Umeda producer of the art department at Fuji TV directed the video. He made the original Stony House many years ago by carrying stones from the river side. He and his colleagues carried by car the individual stones and piled them one after the other. The video first shows the original stony house and the second half shows my model of the structure. Included in the video are many handwritten letters in Japanese by Mr. Umeda. From the North Country is the title of the script. We can see his handwriting on the calendar in the souvenir shop and on the North Country post cards. He kindly invited us to use the Elevator Video on our web site. I am so grateful for this offer because Fuji TV has the copyright. Getting permission to use the music is more difficult so we can't use the theme song for the drama. "Click here" 11 March 2005 2 March 2005 "Winter In New York" I experienced cold New York for a week. In the movies the steam coming up for the manhole covers in Manhattan, covering the cabs, people and streets is a fantastic scene. A scene I was anxious to see in person. However the day I arrived in New York it was raining so too warm for that. The following day I got my wish because I heard the News man say it was 17 degrees Fahrenheit that is cold enough to see a lot of steam. There was one behind a building in Times Square that was reaching the sky it was so large. I wasn't sure how cold 17 Fahrenheit was so I investigated and discovered it is minus 8 centigrade. The day after I arrived I was working in the evening around 9 PM on a street in the East Village. I was in a bar there to meet a friend when it started to snow, a light powder snow not the same as in Tokyo because New York is much colder. I found New York very interesting and I loved the steam but my friend doesn't share my opinion on the cold or the steam. He says the steam has a bad odor and that New York is cold. I returned to Tokyo last Friday. I am in the right side in the picture Photography: Takeshi Sugiyama 2 March 2005 15 February 2005 Notice of Exhibition "The Stony House" Today, I received a good news from the producer of Fuji TV, he said that they will exhibit "The Stony House" at the headquarter of Fuji TV from Feb 22 (Tue). Place: In the corridor on 24th floor in Fuji Television Network Inc. Address: 4-8, Daiba 2-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo Time: 10:00am ~ 20:00pm (closed on Monday) Period: For some time from February 22, 2005 Admission: Free The tube-escalator will lead you from the ground (1st) floor to Fuji TV Plaza on the 7th floor, where you change to the see-through elevator to reach the 24th floor. The Stony House is located on the other side of the floor when you get off. Please come to see it. Photography: Takao Miyake 15 February 2005 14 February 2005 "Thank you for coming to our exhibition" Our exhibition Ichiyoh Haga & Shibuya Craft Club at the Yurakucho Kotsu-Kaikan closed Sat. I think it went very well. I'd like to thank all the people that came. This exhibition was a way for my students to show their work. The students used their own money to rent the gallery space. The Shibuya Craft Club opened the exhibition in the summer of 2000 in an attempt to gather visitors and customers. At first none of my works were displayed and you couldn't see my name on the signboard, I didn't go to the gallery because it was their exhibition. This was the way it was for the first three years. We joined our works to exhibit in one place this is how our exhibition grew over time. In the large gallery in Yurakucho Kotsu-Kaikan the students displayed 25 works in structures and Art In A Box including 20 of my works. The students works are very high quality and supported by Ginza ITO-YA. The core of the exhibit is titled "The Shop of Ito Shotaro" the founder. That was wonderful for us so I want to thank the president of ITO-YA, Mr. Takayuki Ito. We didn't take a count of the visitors but there was always a crowd particularly on the Opening Party. At times it was too crowded for some to get inside. I had 100 of my cards printed at Tokyu Hands to put on the table at the gallery. From the first morning until the next evening they were almost gone. On the morning of the third day I brought in about 200 of my Happy New Year post cards with a picture of ITO-YA works and my address and phone number. Unfortunately by the end of the fourth day they were gone too. On the fifth day I brought in 200 more post cards. Almost 400 of these combined cards were taken by the end of the seven days. This is a first for me. I greeted people at the gallery and tried to get an idea of how they found out about the exhibit. There were many answers as you can imagine but the biggest surprise to me was they saw my web site. From that I determined about 50 - 100 people came to Yurakucho from seeing the web site. Not all the sites fans live in Tokyo so I realize I have fans all over and need to keep the TALKS coming. At the Yurakucho Kotsu-Kaikan Photography: Itaru Watanabe 14 February 2005 24 January 2005 Stoney House Completed! It's taken a lot of hard work and a long time to complete this work I call "Stoney House". Since the Autumn of last year. Just a few days ago it has been completed. (A picture is shown below). The Stoney House is intended to add a new page to the (Works) on my web site including many photos of the work. I made the Stoney House because it was specifically requested by Fuji Television Network Inc. Reference (TALKS August 23rd 2004) It is temporarily being exhibited in the head office of Fuji TV in Odaiba, Tokyo. It may take some time to complete the final arrangements for the final exhibition including a glass case. I will let you all know in the TALKS when this takes place. At any rate, it's done! Now I am devoted to the preparations for the upcoming Exhibition "Ichiyoh Haga & Shibuya Craft Club" Details to attend are as follows; Titled: "Ichiyoh Haga & Shibuya Craft Club Exhibition" Place: Yurakucho Tokyo Kotsu-Kaikan B1F GOLD SALON Kotsu- Kaikan is in front of JR Yamanote Line Yurakucho station. Contact: Tel 03-3215-7933 (direct) Date: January 30 - February 5, 2005 Open: 11:00am - 19:00pm (13:00pm -19:00pm only on January 30) Admission Free Opening Function starting at 18:00pm on January 30 - You are INVITED! Kindly supported by GINZA ITO-YA, the Work titled "The Shop of Ito Shotaro the founder" is also to be exhibited. Looking forward to receiving your visit! Mostly, I will be there. Photography: Kouichi Kamio 24 January 2005 4 January 2005 " A Happy New Year " Every year on the first of Jan my younger sister Yoko, her husband Shinichirou Niwa and their daughter Ayako come to visit our house. My brother in law Shinichirou likes to take photographs, this is a hobby for him so he has taken a family photograph on New Years day for about 30 years now. Below is the 2005 photograph. Pictured in the photo from right to left is Mr. Shinichirou Niwa , Yoko Niwa, Ayako Niwa, myself, my daughter Chihiro, my mother Eiko, my son Takayuki and my wife Toshiko. We are all laughing behind the stone house I am currently working on. I started work that morning at 6 AM my sister and her family arrived at 5 PM so I put the work aside and said " Let's take our photograph ". We gathered behind my work for the photo. Usually we take the photo after dinner but this year we changed the tradition to before dinner thinking we would look fresher . The past year has brought with it many misfortunes but we have hope for a bright and happy year ahead. Our bright laughter represents this hope. You can see the stone house in front of us looks like there is many hours of work left before it is complete. My goal is to have it finished by the middle of Jan so I can have it delivered to my client for the exhibition exhibit is the end of Jan and I can't do any preparations for the exhibit if this one is still here at that time. First of January in 2005 Photography: Shinichirou Niwa 4 January 2005 13 December 2004 "Izu Newspaper" As I already mentioned I am currently opening my exhibition at the Doll Garden in Izu highland (see my Talks November 2nd 2004). Fortunately for us Izu Newspaper reported it and included an article in the November 7th 2004 issue. I plan on inviting the newspaper to show my exhibits again. It was written in Japanese so as usual I will translate all the articles. The exhibition of Third Dimension Art Picture Using the same material of actual buildings Doll Garden in Izu highland The Doll Garden Museum in Izu highland Yahatano Ito city is opening now with Mr. Ichiyoh Haga's exhibition. Mr. Haga 56 lives in Nakazato Kita-ku Tokyo. The title is "Scenery in sepia color, The World of Third Dimension Art Pictures". The exhibition will be open until April 30th 2005. Mr. Haga uses materials that closely as possible resemble the actual building material such as woods, metals, and plasters.etc. His style is to use these materials to create his three dimensional art pictures. This gives an atmosphere of the good old days in the sepia color. This time 5 of his "Art In A Box" works are being displayed. The corner of the street in old Paris France (from 1930 to 1940) in the flat boxes, and one big diorama (structures) work that shows an old Japanese Co., Nihon Keiseki Kigyo In. with a circuit view of the building. The company actually existed in Karuizawa Nagano prefecture about fifty years ago, the Showa era in Japan. Mr. Haga has been making his artwork since 1996 and in 1997 made an old Mouka station as a commissioned piece from the Mouka city. In 2001 he was commissioned by Ishinomaki city to make a very well known apartment house of Japanese comic fans, Tokiwa-Sou Apartment House. This year he was commissioned to make an old stationary store ITO-YA. This work shows the store in 1904 and is used to celebrate the 100th anniversary of ITO-YA. Mr. Haga has said that many spectators tell him they have never experienced anything like his work so he's sure you will find it very interesting as well. This is a wonderful opportunity to see his work so please if you have any questions call the museum. Their phone number is 0465224604 On the left side of my article you can see a short comic story written by Ryuzan Aki a great comic artist in our country. I enjoy his comics very much so it's an honor to have our articles next to each other. In the interview I was asked to give a message to the readers from the artist. I gave this thought all night and in the morning I faxed the story, " The spectators often said -----" Because they displayed six of my pieces at first, this is what the article said, after that I added four more pieces you can see all nine Art In A Box works along with one diorama (structure) on display at the museum now. From the Izu Newspaper November 7th issue 2004 13 December 2004 9 December 2004 " I often go to Tokyu Hands " Tokyu Hands is the most well known variety store here for the Sunday carpenter and craft workers. They have so many materials, tools, electrical parts, kitchen goods, stationeries, and even miniature parts, almost everything except clothes. I am currently working on the stone house (see my Talks on August 23rd and November 16th 2004) I go there everyday sometimes twice in one day because the store is one of my material cabinets. In Tokyo there are three Tokyu Hands, one is in Shibuya, one in Shinjuku and one in Ikebukuro. All are very big and if you visit Tokyo you should stop in one they are very interesting to miniaturists. The one I go to usually is Ikebukuro because it is fifteen minutes by moved from my studio. I went there today to purchase hemp thread and a syringe. I use the hemp thread to make grass on the miniature ground. This time I have already made more then one thousand grasses but it's still not enough because the base ground for this work is pretty large. I found myself in need of more hemp thread. I use the syringe to sprinkle the water on the ground to make it hard. The first thing I do is put a lot of powder plaster on the ground. I sprinkle a fog water softly from above again and again. I've done this the last two or three days so the ground is already pretty hard. I found today I had to do it again with the syringe directly on the ground because it needed just a little more. That will finish this part of the work. I did this with the new syringe when I returned from the store at noon. Now at three AM the ground is perfectly dry and hard and ready for me to small hale in preparation for planting the thread grasses. This will probably take me two or three weeks. Tokyu Hands Ikebukuro Store Photography: Itaru Watanabe 9 December 2004 24 November 2004 "ASHIDORI" When I was young, I often went to the modern bars like a Cafe bar. Recently I have not been enjoying the gorgeous restaurants or bars instead I have been going to Aka- Cyouchin, a small restaurant bar for the commoner (proletariat) in our country. My favorite Aka-Cyouchin is "ASHIDORI" located in Harajuku, the most fashionable area in Tokyo. I have frequented this shop for more then twenty years. It's a small Sashimi Bar. The fish are fresh and they are fairly kind to me, because when they see me come in they always make a special menu for me, which is a huge hiyayakkeo (a kind of tofu) with a lot of katuobushisi (dried bonito) and a bowl of na-tou (I can't explain this) with many brands of negis (leeks). I finish with a wooden geta (rest) of fresh sashimi with shochu (alcohol). That is so nice! A couple of days before, I went with a student and he took a photograph. See below is the picture of the very small sushi counter in the store. This is a traditional style of Aka -Cyouchin. The width of this store is only six feet and inside the first floor is approximately thirty by fifteen feet. Upstairs is a room that is eight tatami mats. We sometimes have our party in this tiny upstairs room. The owner of this shop is seventy-five. She is Japanese but she was born in China. She has lived in Tokyo since she was twenty. She is now called "The Great Mother of Harajuku" she became a very well known lady, you can see a little of her behind a customer in the photograph. The sashimi was cooked by her two sons. In the old days, there were a lot of small sashimi bars in Tokyo just like this one but now there are fewer all the time. "ASHIDORI" Photography: Itaru Watanabe 24 November 2004 16 November 2004 "The Windmill" In a previous post (August 23rd 2004) I told you that I was making the Stone House. This is a custom piece for the TV Company in Japan. There is a big Windmill in the backyard of the house, used for making electricity. When this work is finished it will be the most impressive work to date. I started work on the windmill first and have already finished this last month. See below the picture one of my students took of this very important part of this commission. All the pillars are made of plaster. I used four small ball bearings on the quill root of the wings, this way with a small breath it will turn lightly to appear blowing in the wind. I found the most difficult part to create was the barrel, because there are no barrel makers in Tokyo. Making the barrel project even more difficult is the classic style. Having three bamboo hoops on the top and bottom not seen in some time. Having no choice I turned to study the technique on my own. I was pleased to see that my results were not that bad. Included in the project is a large terrace in front of the house made of driftwoods. Appearing to be a very important part of the piece I have included it as well and will show pictures as soon as I can get them done. Keep looking, as I will keep updating the project. The Windmill Photography: Akio Ueda 16 November 2004 12 November 2004 "The Miniature Collector Magazine" Last week I received an airmail from one of my American friends, Lucy T Maloney. (See her website http://www.yourdogforever.com) In the mail there were two Miniature Collector Magazines, July and November issue of 2004. You know that is the best miniature magazine in USA; it was made in very good quality I think. In before, sometimes they put the pictures of my work twice or three times, and this time, they put my pictures again on July and November issue in 2004, particularly they showed four large my pictures in three pages of the November issue. I am very glad. See the picture (below). I guess it is very good. I would like to give thanks to the editor of the magazine, Barbara Aardema, and my friend, Lucy. From Miniature Collector Magazine November issue in 2004 12 November 2004 5 November 2004 "We met an earthquake at a restaurant" This summer I received an email from John; "My mother will be visiting Tokyo in October. She is a fan, and wants to know if there is a place where she can see your work. I checked your website, but the next exhibition is not scheduled until January in Yurakucho". Unfortunately I didn't have an exhibition in October (at that time, I didn't plan the exhibit at the Doll Garden in October), so I answered, "If you don't mind you could see my tiny studio". On the 23rd of October, two Americans, Mr. John Robson and his mother Carole, came to see my studio. While we were beginning our craft class, they watched my performance too. They were so pleased. John introduced himself to me. He has lived in Tokyo for three years because he works for the Embassy of the United States of America in Japan and he is a chief of the Military Liaison Group. (I was very surprised because his job is too great for my tiny studio.) His mother came to see him from their hometown Michigan. After our class, we had a dinner together with them, my wife and my students at a restaurant near the JR Komagome station. Have you heard that there was a strong earthquake in October in Japan? It just happened when we were having the dinner. A waiter told us "We turned off all cooking fires at the moment". We were so surprised, and I thought especially John's mother was because there are no earthquakes in Michigan. It continued for about ten or fifteen minutes. When it finished, John said to one of my students, Kenji Yamashita, who is an architect, "If this one happened in Iran, probably all buildings would break because they make their houses by stone and mud, and it will be big disaster, but Japanese buildings never break because you are great." But because he spoke it in English of course, Kenji didn't understand the story directly, so I translated it to him. After that, suddenly Kenji shouted in bright face "THANK YOU!" Then fortunately in Tokyo we didn't have any damage, but it made serious damage in some cities in our country. Next morning, they took a short trip to Kyoto. p.s. There was the biggest damage of the earthquake in Niigata prefecture. (Niigata is about 150 miles north from Tokyo.) Because the ground in the area is still moving a little, many people can't go into their houses. Many refugees are sleeping in their car every night. We are so sorry to hear that. After the Earthquake Photography: Kenji Yamashita 5 November 2004 2 November 2004 "The Doll Garden" The Doll Garden Museum in Izu highland is three hours west of Tokyo by car, and there are so many museums in that area: the doll house miniature museum, the museum of cats, the glass art museum, the wooden craft goods museum, the wax dolls museum, the museum for unusual boys and girls (It is an abnormal museum) etc., the number of museums is about fifty they say. The Doll Garden Museum is one of them, and they have very good art dolls (Japanese style's art dolls and western styles), a wonderful western style garden, a coffee restaurant and nice space to exhibit artwork. A couple of days before, we went there with several of my pieces (about ten pieces) to exhibit, and we displayed them in their entrance hall. I have to say thank you to the curator of the museum, Ms. Hisae Ayukawa, and the manager, Ms. Yukiko Yoshioka, because they gave us a wonderful space. My exhibition is going to last until 30th April in next year. If you have a time to go to Izu, see them please. Their map and the other information are in their Website. http://www.dollgarden.co.jp Title: The Third Dimension Art by ICHIYOH HAGA Place: DOLL GARDEN in Izu highland. Address: 1118-2 Yahatano, Ito city, Shizuoka prefecture Tel: 0557-54-5515 Date: October 28, 2004~April 30, 2005 Time: 9:30 a.m.~17:30 p.m. Since Izu is one of good resorts in our country, I am sure you would be enjoy driving there and you can see the ocean, mountains and forests too. At the Doll Garden Photography: Itaru Watanabe 2 November 2004 7 October 2004 The Great Box for My Art In A Box Last day two beautiful women came from Australia, Kelli Cato and Claire Brach. They are miniature fans and running a miniature business in Sydney. Then I showed them my ITO-YA piece in the president room of ITO-YA. They were so pleased and I was surprised because the president, Mr. ITO, explained about my piece to them in very good English at that time. His English is extremely good, of course much better than I. After that, he showed us "The Great Box." See the picture in below, which was made by ITO-YA for my piece to carry to the Event Hall of their 100th Anniversary. (They will open their anniversary at 14th October at the Teikoku Hotel in Tokyo.) Claire shouted, "It's like a safe box of a bank!" I heard that it was very expensive. The inside was very gorgeous too. I send this picture to one of my American friends and she said, "You should put the picture on your website. I think it is very interesting! I am sure others will too!" So I showed it to you. The Great Box 7 October 2004 27 September 2004 My daughter at Gion in Kyoto We have two children, a son and a daughter. Our daughter, Chihiro, lives with us in our house in Tokyo, but our son, Takayuki, lives in Kyoto now, because he works for the company, NINTENDO, in Kyoto. (NINTENDO Inc. is a computer game's company.) Since their main office is in Kyoto, he left there about four years ago. Now he is twenty-seven years old, not married yet. Therefore, this September my wife and my daughter went to Kyoto to see my son's new apartment rooms. While their short trip, my daughter tried to wear the Geisha costume of Kimono at the costume house in Gion. The picture (below) shows that. Probably it's very interesting for you. The picture was taken by my wife. She said it took more than three hours to make up for Kimono for the Geisha style. They have a lot of traditional Japanese costumes in many varieties except the Geisha style: several Samurai costumes, Shogun styles etc. so there were so many foreigners in the costume house and very crowded, my wife said. The cost of that was 13000 yen (approximately $100 in US dollar). By the way, my daughter, Chihiro, is twenty years old and she is in Japan University in the art department. In general, she is always wearing jeans of course. My daughter, Chihiro At Gion 27 September 2004 17 September 2004 "The pictures of ITO-YA" This spring, I made one model, which is an old Japanese stationery store, ITO-YA. Last week, we put a lot of pictures of that in the section of works. Please check them later. I am sure you will really enjoy them. By the way, I never take any pictures by myself; I don't have any cameras because I am not confident of taking good pictures. Instead, I have five photographers for my works. When I finish one work, I call one of them to take the pictures. This time, ITO-YA was taken by three of my photographers, Kouichi Kamio, Noriyuki Sato (SATO FOTO) and Seiichi Ito. Mr. Kouichi Kamio, professional photographer, is a friend of mine for long time. When he was young, he was a fashion photographer, after that he became a photographer of goods such as watches and furniture etc. for company's brochures. So he has a good technique to take the details of my models. (His son, Daigo Kamio is in Cornell University, lives in Ithaca Ct. NY USA.) Mr. Noriyuki Sato is a professional photographer too. One day, he happened to visit my exhibition gallery at the Keio Plaza Hotel, several years before, at that time he wanted to try to take the picture of my works in there, then he became one of my photographers since that. Although he is still young, he is very busy at his professional jobs because he has a great talent I guess. In general, he takes advertisement pictures for big companies. I feel that there are nice atmospheres on his photographs. www.satofoto.net Mr. Seiichi Ito, who was one of my students before, is not a professional photographer, but very good at taking the pictures of miniature models because he is a professional modeler of railway models and he is a well-known person in that field. I think Mr. Ito's pictures are a little rough and usually too brown. However, they have a good touch having a feeling of power or aura. I would like to thank all their help; I was not able to make the Web page without them. Professional photographer Kouichi Kamio 17 September 2004 23 August 2004 "The Stone House" Recently I received a new commission from Fuji TV, which is a making "The Stone House" in Hokkaido. Hokkaido is the most North Island in our country, and the Fuji TV is the greatest TV Company of Japanese commercial broadcasting field. They have a very good TV drama program, the title is "From the North Country" located in Hokkaido. The hero of the story built the house of stone by himself in the natural setting in the suburbs of Frano, a town in Hokkaido. Their family is living in that house. Because this TV drama has been continuing for more than 20 years, all Japanese know the story. One of my students in my Craft Class, Mr. Takao Miyake, is a great fan of this drama. One day he sent a fan letter to the producer of that TV drama in his very best hand writing. Unbelievably, his letter caught the great producer's eye, because "Mr. Miyake's letters were so beautiful" the producer said. Then my student, Miyake, and the producer, Mr. Masanori Umeda, became friends. After that, in the summer of 2002, Mr. Miyake brought Mr. Umeda to my exhibition gallery. That was very lucky because the great TV producer liked my work very much and we both felt very compatible with each other. The next year (2003), Mr. Umeda, Mr. Miyake and I went to Hokkaido to see the Stone House because at that time they had decided that they wanted me to make a miniature of it. That was the reason, I got such a great job. They are probably going to display my piece at their show room in Odaiba, their main office in Tokyo. I wish to thank the producer, Mr. Masanori Umeda, and my student, Mr. Takeo Miyake. I am extremely glad and honored. Anyway, I am already starting some of the preparation for this miniature. I am going to make it in 1/12 or 1/15, and I think it's going to take me until the end of this year or next spring to finish. Now I am in highly motivated; but on the other hand, I am feeling a big pressure. The stone House I'm standing in front of the Stone House Photography: Takeo Miyake 23 August 2004 17 August 2004 "LULU" I had a cat named LILY, before. She was so gentle, and since she was mixed Persian blood, her gray hair was quite soft and smooth. One rainy night she died of a sudden illness. Next morning it was raining cats and dogs; I dug a small hole in our tiny yard to put her. After that, we didn't have any cats for a while, but the trouble was the number of mice became more and more. Finally they were running to my bedside. At time, my daughter (she is 20 years old) picked a kitty up on the roadside. It was early May this year. Since the kitty was so tiny and cute, we decided to keep it and I gave her the name, LULU. Now she is my best friend. I will show her picture in the below. As the picture was taken a couple of months ago, she was still so tiny. But now, she has grown more than the picture shows. However, the problem is she still doesn't catch any mice yet. "LULU" Photography: Seiich Ito 17 August 2004 6 August 2004 "We gathered at Hon-gou" Last 31 June, my students and I took a saunter in Hon-gou area that is one of the most traditional areas in our city. We gathered in front of the Red Gate of the Tokyo University in Hon-gou at 5:00 p.m. It is the most prestigious university in our country. After that, we saw a water well of Ichiyou Higuchi near there. It was about tem minutes from the Tokyo University by walking. Do you know the name of Ichiyou Higuchi? She was really one of the greatest novelists in Japan. She lived about 100 years ago in her poor life and she died in 1896, at that time she was 24 years old. But she left several great novels in her short life. Her portrait is being printed on our bill's face since this autumn. She used to live in Kikuzaka in Hon-gou, and she left the water-well that she used. It has very nice atmosphere. We also saw several very old Japanese buildings made of wood in a neighboring area. After that, we rapidly went toward a traditional Japanese restaurant to have dinner and some alcohol. All the members Miss. Eri Sakai (Comic-book artist) Mr. Koji Nakamura (Accountant) Mr. Kyoushirou Sano (He retired from a General Contractor) Mr. Shinichi Sakata (Works for an American company, Prudential Financial) Mr. Hiroshi Yamashita (Works for Flower company, used in ceremonies) Mrs. Izumi Miyata (an advocate for World Peace) Mr. Takeshi Sugiyama (He is a retired Lumberman) Mrs. Taeko Tagami (Editor) Mr. Kouichi Kamio (Photographer) Mr. Miyoshi Matsumoto (President of his printing company) Mrs. Nozomi Matsumoto (Miniature dealer) Mr. Itaru Watanabe (Web designer) Miss. Michiko Inaba (Works for AVON) Mrs. Mayumi Tayama (President her craft studio, MAMAYA) Mrs. Miki Ogawa (Housewife) Mr. Kenji Yamashita (Architect) Mrs. Toshiko Haga (My wife) And me After the dinner, as I am not so young, I went back home of course. But some young persons went to a bar restaurant to want more alcohol. They always continue drink until early morning, but at that day Mr. Makino (he is a webmaster of this Web site) was absent. So fortunately they did not drink until in the morning, because "No Makino is boring" they said. In front of the Red Gate of the Tokyo University 31 July 2004 Photography: Itaru Watanabe 6 August 2004 2 August 2004 "Dollhouse Miniatures Magazine" I am Ichiyoh Haga, a miniature artisan. I have lived in Komagome for long time that is a north area in Tokyo. I am glad to meet you. We will start this section, Ichiyoh Talks, in English version since today. We already have been running this in Japanese since 2001, then we decided to open English version of that. But unfortunately my English is not good, so I hope you can understand my bad English. I am going to try to write something for this section once or twice a month. I hope you will check back. Today, I'd like to introduce an article on my miniatures from the American magazine Doll House Miniatures. They have an article about me and my works in vol. 34 September 2004 issue. I have found articles on my miniatures in some foreign magazines before: in America, in France and in Spain. But they were only one or two pictures on the page, or in the case of maximum, it was facing two pages. This time Dollhouse Miniatures used 6 pages and they also included about ten pictures of my works in it. So I am very glad. I'd like to say thank you to the editor of the magazine, Ms. Melanie Buellesbach, and to the writer of my article, Ms. Jane Freeman. Jane wrote very good article. That is bellow. Thank you Ms. Buellesbach for allowing me to print the article here. Stunning miniature scenes Created by Japanese artist Ichiyoh Haga By Jane Freeman After you recover a bit from seeing these marvelous scenes, you may with to reflect on an important lesson from their creator, Mr. Ichiyoh Haga, master artisan: It is never too late to begin making miniatures. When I met Ichiyoh in August 2003, he had been creating miniatures like these for only seven years! Born in Tokyo in 1948, he was almost 50 when he discovered his genius for the small. He has also produced illustrated books about his work. Good from bad Haga's story, about bad luck turning into good fortune, represents an important attribute of all miniaturists, namely resourcefulness. Here's how it happened. Until the mid -1990s, Ichiyoh Haga, ran seven retail clothing stores. In Tokyo, it's customary to close up shop every summer. But in 1995, with Japan in a severe recession and business declining, Ichiyoh decided to keep one of his stores open that summer. He sent his sales clerk on vacation for a week and manned the shop alone. With no customers to tend to, there was little to do. To kill time, Ichiyoh began fiddling with some price tags that were lying about. Cutting them into shapes, he soon had walls, a door, and a window frame. Matchsticks became pillars; sticky seals turned into tiny roof tiles; a food container was sliced into window panes. Before he realized it, Ichiyoh had constructed his very first miniature -- a house smaller than a cigarette pack. He says, "Gradually I became absorbed, and I completed a nice small miniature house by that evening." The next day he made a miniature warehouse. On the third day, a tiny toilet. By the end of the week he had completed five structures out of odds and ends. Modestly he commented, " It was a bit of surprise even to myself that the works had been done so well." At the end of the week, he rushed to the model shops to look for better materials. Then he set to work on a wooden locomotive shed (1:80 scale). When the train shed was finished he photographed it and showed the picture to a friend, who was so impressed that he advised Haga to quit his career as a retailer and devote himself to miniatures professionally. Within the year the same friend sponsored an exhibition of Haga's train sheds in a trendy Tokyo department store. The show received a lot of publicity, and Haga was on his way. By the summer of 1996, Ichiyoh closed all his retail shops and had stepped into the miniature world as an artist. Sharing ideas I had the honor of meeting Ichiyoh Haga while he was in New York for the 2003 Tom Bishop International Miniature Show. After watching Ichiyoh set up some of his breathtaking dioramas, I brought him downtown to my studio for an interview, along with a few friends from Japan who tagged along. Though Ichiyoh speaks good English, these friends proved invaluable in helping me understand some intriguing ideas. I wanted to know, for starters, how he made everything! We communicated partly by Ichiyoh drawing thumbnail sketches of his techniques. Exchanging ideas and advice was fun, despite the sweltering heat that day. When I apologized for the smallness of my apartment, which doubles as a studio, Haga one-upped me, saying his studio is only eighteen feet square. He's in that small space every day from early morning until midnight, sometimes into the wee hours, taking time off only to shop for materials or tools. Series of coincidences Ichiyoh is very tall and usually quite serious. He often wears a bandanna around his head. He is very generous with information and loves to share his great enthusiasm. He gave me a set of gorgeous, eerie, atmospheric photos of miniature railway structures. His tableau of factories, warehouses, and train stations is based on the real city Mouka (about 50 miles north of Tokyo), which boasts the Mouka Rail Line, where steam locomotives run. This city is of special significance to Ichiyoh, for a thousand years ago his ancestor, Lord Takazumi Haga, lived there in a castle. In fact, the county was called Haga County. A series of coincidences led Haga to create the miniature Mouka Rail Line. In 1996, Professor Toyoyuki Tamura read about the first exhibition of Haga's work. He went to the show, met Haga, and the two men discovered they had something unusual in common. A thousand years before, Tamura said, one of his ancestors worked for Lord Haga, about whom the professor was now writing a book. This was Ichiyoh's ancient relative! On another note, the doctor said he was nostalgic for "the good old days" of the Mouka Rail Line. After their meeting, Professor Tamura introduced Ichiyoh to the mayor of Mouka, who encouraged him to re-create Mouka Station in miniature. Ichiyoh complied, and even documented the project in a book, Making Mouka station. Today the tableau is on permanent display at the center of the Mouka Station concourse. Ichiyoh Haga has produced other books as well. His exquisite picture book, Ichiyoh, contains images of dioramas from a series called "Art-in-Box," the European term for boxed art meant to hang on a wall. Miniatures from scratch During Ichiyoh's visit, I referred to the dioramas in the book, deluging him with questions. He gets his ideas from actual buildings, pictures, and his imagination, and he tries to make everything from scratch. Whenever possible, he makes an object out of the same material it's made of in actual scale. For example, he'll use wood to make wooden window frames and metal for door hinges. However, when he finds something in a store that's better than what he can make, he buys it, a concession that saves lots of time. So his scenes do contain some store-bought pieces. In "Le Bain," everything is handmade, like the broom, which started out as a small wire brush not much bigger than a toothbrush. Haga removed the handle and repositioned it in the middle of the ferrule holding the bristles. The bucket was fabricated from a sheet of extremely thin metal cut to size with a blade. How amazing to create the illusion of heaviness out of something so thin and light! This is an example of Haga's gift for tricking the eye. The bottom of the bucket was made from one of the two circular pinch- handles of a common metal paper-clamp. He weathered the bucket with chemicals to produce oxidation and rust when heated. I asked how one chemical solution can have so many effects, and Ichiyoh explained that deviations in temperature and humidity will determine the results. Exterior detail Each box has a different type of exterior treatment, always realistic down to the finest detail. To make stucco, Haga cut real bricks and stones to size, then partially covered them with ordinary plaster, thinned to the consistency of mud. In "The Kid" (also called "Parapluie," for the umbrellas), Haga made 1/4-thick bricks from plaster that had been poured into a pan, allowed to dry, and then cut into squares like brownies. The flowers are dried. The pots came from a miniatures store, but Haga made their liners. The mullions were cut of brass as thin as a line on a legal pad! The umbrella spokes are straight pins, and for the canes, Haga cut lengths of brass dowel, heated them red-hot, and let them cool. Winding the softened brass around a ballpoint pen gave the canes their curve. The canisters in the window and the door hardware are thin metal. I was astonished to discover that Ichiyoh does not use glue; he solders all components. For "Le Calvet," he made signage letters out of brass, which he cut into tiny pieces, assembled, then soldered onto a facade. The wall mural, which is an interesting two-dimensional element in a three-dimensional miniature, was painted with acrylic and oil paints. Ambitious contributions The "Tokiwa-Sou Apartment House" is one of Haga's most ambitious buildings. In the actual building which inspired it, there lived a number of famous comic-book artists, including the creator of Pokemon. I've covered just a few of the many ideas Ichiyoh Haga has contributed to the world of miniature-making. You can access his spectacular Web site to lean more. I wish to thank Ichiyoh Haga for demonstrating that it's never too late to begin something new. Jane Freeman writes a monthly column for Dollhouse Miniatures. She is also the author of The Art of the Miniature (Watson-Guptill). To contact Ichiyoh Haga, visit his Web site, www. Ichiyoh-haga.com, or e-mail webmaster@ichiyoh-haga.com. "Copyright 2004, Dollhouse Miniatures Magazine, dhminiatures.com." That is the entire article. Almost all of that is quite correct. But I will need to say only one point. Although the article says, "The creator of Pokemon was included in the Tokiwa-Sou Apartment House", that is not correct. Because Pokemon is originally a computer game created by a Japanese company, NINTENDO, so its characters were made by the company, not by a member of Tokiwa-Sou. From the Dollhouse Miniatures Magazine Vol.34 September 2004 issue 2 August 2004