Fujio Ishimoto continues his artistic activities while being exposed to two cultures: Northern Europe and Japan. He held three exhibitions with different themes in Ehime in 2018, Kyoto in 2019, and Tokyo. Ishimoto has created more than 3 textiles for Marimekko, many of which continue to be loved around the world as Marimekko's representative designs.His great sense and artistry are admired by creators both inside and outside the country. Many people involved in design and art gather under him. Talking with others is fun, warm, and energizing. Apparently, he is attracted not only to his talent but also to his humanity, and wants to meet him. This time, we will talk about his craftsmanship and what he has learned from it, and at the same time introduce the artist Fujio Ishimoto through the eyes of people who can be called Ishimoto's children.

Story: Fujio Ishimoto

Spring has come to Helsinki. Small flowers are starting to bloom by the roadside. Each of them is a manifestation of the life force that has sprouted under the snow for spring.

I started living in Helsinki in 1970, so this year will be my 40th year. It was August when I decided to travel around the world and headed to the west coast of the United States. After that, I moved to New York, then Montreal and London, and then stayed at the design shop Form au Favre in Copenhagen, where I encountered Marimekko textiles again, and this was the beginning of my current life in Helsinki.

I really wanted to become a Marimekko designer, so instead of going to Paris as I had planned next, I headed to Helsinki. The first thing I saw from the plane window was a blanket of snow in Helsinki in early November, and I was filled with joy at seeing it for the first time.

Cloth and ceramics. Enjoy colors, create shapes...
Continue to challenge your own possibilities.

I learned ceramics when I was doing textile design at Marimekko, and since then I have been working in a workshop in the Art Department of Arabia. Here, the clay is kneaded, the glaze colors are experimented with, and the pieces are fired in a kiln inside the building. Occasionally, the glaze will break while trying out different colors and expressions, but sometimes the glaze will have to be made over and over again, changing colors and reheating several times until the desired expression is achieved. It is difficult to carry large and heavy items. This is the opposite of textile design. However, I wanted to see what I could do on my own with my body, so I continued making pottery.

The joy of creating expressions and colors is the same for both cloth and ceramics. Both of these things make me want to have fun while creating them. Playing with cloth and playing with soil.

One of the things I made recently is ``winter melon''. I learned about winter melon, which doesn't exist in Finland, a few years ago during New Year's when I was staying at an inn in Japan with some of my boyfriend's friends. When I saw the winter melon placed respectfully on a sheet of white paper, as if it were a god, I had a strong impression that this was the spirit of Japan. The reason why these scenes remain in my heart is probably because I was born and raised in Japan.

This time, his new works depicting winter melon, plum fruit, bayberry fruit, etc. are on display at solo exhibitions in Ehime, Kyoto, and Tokyo. This spring, at an exhibition at the Hosomi Museum of Art, we put together an exhibition of Rinpa works from Hosomi's collection. There was a folding screen of a duck that Kiiichi Suzuki had painted in the Edo period, so I thought it would be interesting to place a number of ``winter melons'' in front of it.

The exhibition continues in Ehime, Kyoto, and Tokyo.
Feel the Japanese seasons and get inspired to create again

In June, we will be holding another exhibition in Tokyo with a new structure. As I continued to return to Japan for exhibitions, I once again thought about something. This is because of the Rinpa school, which has influenced me long before I started designing or making pottery. I am particularly interested in Sotatsu Tawaraya, and I am truly in love with Sotatsu's world, including works such as ``Ivy Pathway Screen''. While preparing for my solo exhibition at the Hosomi Museum, I once again realized that what I had absorbed was the world of Rinpa.

I also remembered that I had been exposed to Japanese classics since my high school days. At that time, I had picked up Sei Shonagon's ``The Pillow Book,'' and I was reading it with an interest in the way people looked at life and their surroundings at the time. As for haiku, I was attracted to Yosa Buson. While it is generous, it is also a truly visual and painterly depiction. When reading Buson's haiku, the scenery unfolds in his mind.

The last time I returned to Japan was from March to April to prepare for the opening of the Kyoto exhibition and the Tokyo exhibition, and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom when I moved to Tokyo. I had a great time admiring the cherry blossoms with friends from my university days, and I also met some young designers who came to Helsinki as well. The scenery of cherry blossoms in full bloom has now been added to the scenery of mountains, rivers, and mandarin orange fields that I saw as a child, which is a memory of Japan's four seasons.

While the next Tokyo exhibition is being held, the season will turn into summer and we will reach the summer solstice. Midsummer Festival is an important day in Finland, and I was also working on a textile design based on Midsummer Festival at Marimekko. I also have fond memories of celebrating the summer solstice lively with everyone at Marimekko founder Armi Ratia's summer house. My favorite Finnish flower at this time of year is the carp. Although it is a type of weed, its appearance and white flowers have a primitive beauty. When the summer solstice festival approaches, there are ladies selling simple bouquets of flowers at the open-air market, and I go there every year to buy flowers.

When you think of early summer in Japan, the first thing that comes to mind is the scenery of rice fields. For a solo exhibition held in the first year after I set up a studio in the Arabian Art Department, I made a ceramic raft, spread grass on the water, and took a photo of the raft as an information card. This work is based on my memories of playing in the water, when I floated a bamboo boat on the clear water flowing through a rice field ditch and competed with my friends for ranking.

Now, as I am making various kinds of fruits with ceramics, I am also reminded of climbing the mountain peach tree at my parents' house. For me, the scenery of early summer in Japan is associated with the weight of the fallen fruit in my hand on the tree, and the taste of the juicy mountain peach that fills my mouth.

→Next time,Masaru Suzuki (textile designer).
(Titles omitted)

“Fujio Ishimoto Exhibition — From Marimekko flowers to the fruit of pottery”
Following the Ehime Prefectural Museum of Art and Kyoto's Hosomi Museum, the third edition will be held in Tokyo. During the event, there will also be events such as talks and demonstrations by Fujio Ishimoto.
Date and time: June 2019th to June 6th, 19 6:30 to 11:00
Location: Spiral Garden (Spiral 5st floor), 6-23-1 Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
https://www.fujiwo-ishimoto.com/