Arts & Craft
The arts & crafts of Hotel Ethnography and the people behind them.
Interior Designs by Inoue Matsumasa
Founded in 1957, the Inoue’s story begins by inheriting the techniques used in restoring numerous cultural properties at the Kyoto National Museum`s National Treasury Repair Center, and even now they are still in the process of renewing and repairing various hanging scrolls, pictures, folding screens, partition screens, and scrolls. Additionally, the Inoue family is also involved in the construction of fusuma and shouji sliding doors as well as interior design using washi paper in relation to sukiya-style buildings and various shrines and temples throughout Japan.The various pieces designed by Inoue Kougadou throughout our hotel capture and generate a sensation of modernity infused with the craftsmanship of the traditional.
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Japanese Paper by Sakamoto Naoki
Mr. Naoki Sakamoto has fused his art with his passion for traveling around the world. By having visited many places, he decided to unify the atmosphere, the air he found during his trips like a writer would do by writing words to form a novel. Being a painter, he specialized in paper dying techniques, producing amazing artworks which are indeed well known around Japan.
From gentle textures to powerfully hard ones, Mr. Sakamoto uses many color gradations to represent natural environments: from bright and clear silver shining white to the jet-black to the indigo of the Sky, together with burning vermillion. The Nature, Water, Air and Land are expressed as they really are.
In 1984 he opened a paper store named "Paper Ron", and he helped the re-usage of the Hoshikawa Ikemi paper in Towa Village (Kochi Prefecture) where production of that kind of paper was originally discontinued. He also supported the resurgence of the "Yin Yang paper" (from Korea).
Works that put together on a sheet of paper the air and climate of the land of a country are indeed highly appreciated not only in Japan but also overseas.
Sample from: PAPER NAO
Furniture by Mori no Koubou Inwood
Forest studio Inwood in is a craft design house that produces and sells tables of solid wood, wooden toys, and clippings in Kitayama, Kyoto City. The tenderness and wonderfulness of the trees are modern, with simple designs, the designers will put the finishing touches on each design.
Grand Cobra
Grand Cobra is an artist/craftsman who loves to work with natural materials and bright metal. His art pieces are mainly of familiar objects that are molded or made into lighting. His artwork is created solely from inspiration and is done free hand meaning he does not make tracings and drafts, and therefore no mistakes.
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Horie Mika
Born in Kyoto in 1984, Horie Mika’s interest in photography and Japanese paper-making began when she was earning her BA at Kyoto University of Art and Design. In 2008, she enrolled in the Master’s program of contemporary art at Kingston University in London. Throughout her time in Europe, she developed an interest in exploring the different points of view regarding Japanese aesthetics as well as the ever-present Japanese sense of humor in daily life through various expressive techniques in her artwork.
In 2013, she established her own studio space in a small mountain village in the Yamanaka Onsen/Kaga area of Japan. It is there that she started to pursue her paper making based around the concept of realistic expressions of nature and this concept is best symbolized through her use of the highest quality local, organic materials in her works.
ZENONE［GRAFFITI ARTIST］
Born in Osaka Prefecture in 1973, from the moment ZENONE started using spray paint in the 90s he became known as the “Old School Graffiti Writer” and became a representative of Osaka’s original graphic scene. With his fluid style, he has worked on several solo and joint projects, some of which have seen him collaborating with famous fashion brands and creating murals all around the world. His works harmonize traditional Japanese style with American style and sell for very high prices all over the world.