Two artists decorate a new temple & an American architect interview

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First some great news for Japan and the end of nuclear weapons (small power reactors only please!!!). The Japanese people won a "collective" Nobel Prize this week and I celebrate with them! The survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki almost 80 years ago were awarded the Nobel peace prize for their sustained and very long campaign to get rid of nuclear weapons worldwide. I bicycled for peace from Osaka to Hiroshima (took 3 days) with a group from Scandinavia that biked around the world to ask for a nuclear-weapon-free world. In Hiroshima we stayed in a large official facility where most of the hibakusha survivors lived. I got to meet a few of them and saw both their horrific physical and emotional scars.

Nihon Hidankyo or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations won their Nobel Prize a year before the 80th anniversary of the bombings in 2025. The Norwegian Nobel Committee stated it awarded the prize to Nihon Hidankyo “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.” The Committee said hibakusha testimony “helped to generate and consolidate widespread opposition to nuclear weapons around the world by drawing on personal stories, creating educational campaigns based on their own experience, and issuing urgent warnings against the spread and use of nuclear weapons . . . The hibakusha help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons.”

The rest of this post consists of two interviews I did in the 1990s for the now-defunct Kyoto Visitor's Guide; I was Editor in Chief of KVG from 1995-2010. The first interview was with artist friends of mine (a Belgian man from Wallonia) and his Japanese wife. They spent 4 years painting the interior of a new Buddhist temple! Amazing work! The second interview is with a young American architect in training who studied wood carving with me at a Japanese studio (3 nights a week for about 3 hours each night; it took me 18 months to pass the knife & chisel sharpening stage!). This young man went on to become a great Japanese-style architect in the Bay Area. Learn more!

Artist couple paint a new Buddhist temple interior;
Young American architect apprentice in Japan interview.

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A couple's 4-year new temple interior decoration

Three of the Jodo Shinshu True Pure Land Buddhist patriarchs. Learn more!

It's not every day that a young foreign artist has the opportunity to enter the ancient often secretive world of the traditional Japanese arts. But for Pierre Yves Dalem and Mikiyo his Japanese wife, such an opportunity came out of nowhere when they got involved in the interior design work for a new Buddhist temple four years ago. Though the initial work only involved painting simple ceiling panels (see above and below), they were soon asked to oversee the entire painting related work in the temple which included intricately carved pillars, large screens, and sliding door paintings. But that was only half of the work, they also had to determine a budget and schedule with the work. An artist's dream perhaps, but a challenging one in every sense of the word.

YJPT: How is it that the two of you were picked to undertake this major project and not professional painters?

P & M): The main reason was the financial situation of the temple. The temple used to be located north of Kyoto Station, and though they got a lot of money for the land, when they sold, and were able to buy a much larger plot west of Katsura, building up a small temple from the ground up is amazingly expensive nowadays. So they didn't really have enough money to hire experts for everything. The painting work we did was a tiny fraction of the cost required for the traditional carpentry work, lighting and the important religious objects like the butsudan altar. All these things were handled by professionals.

YJPT: What kind of people did you work with during the project and how did the different crafts people interrelate with you?

P & M: We worked fairly closed with a number of different craftsmen including urushi (lacquer), gold leaf, fusuma, and Buddhist alter crafts people. In terms of importanance the carpenters are usually always at the top of the pyramid, but at our temple there were two pyramids, one with the carpenters at the top, and the other with the Buddhist altar craftsmen on top. This made it quite difficult to organize the project and decide responsibility. But what made our job the most difficult was the fact that I was a foreigner and Mikiyo a woman, since all the workers were elderly men. This created enormous problems, and often communication was nearly impossible.

YJPT: What or where did you have the most difficulties while you were working on the project?

P & M: My difficulties and Mikiyo's were quite different on the whole. For me it was communication and for her it was handling the overall design and organizational responsibilities. One of the hardest parts of this project was planning how long the different stages would take and to estimate how much we should charge for our work, as well as how many extra workers we would need. It is really hard to employ people efficiently when there is both a lot of spare time and then no time at all to get the work done in. Working as an amateur in such an intimate situation with specialists in traditional Japanese art forms in a culture that is so extremely unique was really a big challenge for me ﾑ technically, from a language/communication standpoint, and in terms of human interrelationships. The temple working environment was totally new for me, which says a lot given my extensive experience as a professional stage set designer in Europe. It's really weird working in tight corners three or four meters off the ground, when you are used to working for the most part at a table. Kyoto's weather extremes were also a big problem. For example, when it was really hot, I had to maintain a steady, even brush stroke in tight corners way up high. And in cold weather, the pigments got hard too quickly to get a smooth stroke. The color pigments we used also had to be mixed by hand, which is a time consuming task since the ingredients include powdered stone or earth and a special animal bone glue. So, as you can imagine, this project was anything but easy.

YJPT: How did you research the design and motifs you used?

P & M: We did most of the research based on motifs we found in books on Buddhist iconography. Because the temple belongs to the Jodoshinshu, the most popular Buddhist sect in Japan, we had to use clear easy-to understand images. However, since this type of Buddhism originated in India and then changed considerably in Tibet and China before arriving in Japan, deciding what motifs and designs to use was not easy.

YJPT: Do you have any personal statements that you would like to make regarding this project?

P & M: Well for me it is a wonderful feeling to have successfully accomplished such a long hard creative journey. It was a highly fascinating experience for both of us. However, since we are both painters, we both welcome the chance to get more involved with our personal work after having devoted ourselves so exclusively and for so long to a single project like this one.

Interview with an American architect in training in Kyoto

Peter Lau is an American architectural designer who has studied extensively traditional Japanese carpentry and architecture. After gaining a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech), he came to Japan in 1991. He has apprenticed with a group of traditional temple carpenters in Osaka, and for the past three years has been working in the field of renovation and preservation of traditional Japanese structures with the Kyoto architect Ryoichi Kinoshita.

YJPT: When did you first become interested in Japan?

Mr. Lau: My interest seriously began when I met the late composer John Cage, and Jiro Okura, a Japanese wood sculptor and artist, in the late 1980s. I was project manager of the Mountain Lake Workshop, which is a community-based interdisciplinary art workshop founded by Ray Kass, an artist and professor at Virgina Tech, where I studied. Basically it was being around Cage and Okura, and seeing how the Japanese aesthetic influenced their work, that really triggered my interest.

YJPT: What drew you to Japanese architecture in particular?

Mr. Lau: I think the best way to be a good architect is to know how to build. And the best examples of craftsmanship and fine building, and the most accessible, are found in Japan. It was very obvious to me after I came here that rather than going straight to work for an architect, I should work for a carpenter to learn how Japanese buildings are put together. Working for someone like Tadao Ando or Shin Takamatsu, would be like working for any architect anywhere in the world who has a Western paradigm of architecture. I was in Japan, and thought I should be learning something about Japanese building and design.

YJPT: And that's why you wanted to work with carpenters first rather than for an architect?

Mr. Lau: Yes. It's somewhat similar to the master builders of the Greek temples—they were both architects and builders. Traditionally, it was the same in Japan. The master builder, the toryo, was also the architect and did all the design work. But that system was largely thrown out after Western models were adopted. Of course, a lot of contemporary master carpenters do design, but if you look at only those who are informed at the level of the great masters of the past, you're looking at a very small number. I wanted to learn about building from the bottom up, not just about design, and I wanted to learn from carpenters who were doing traditional work.

YJPT: Who did you apprentice with?

Mr. Lau: Moriya Mokko, a traditional group of temple carpenters based in Osaka. They don't design their own projects, but of all the carpenters I've seen and worked with, they are definitely at the top. Of the five men who make up Moriya Mokko, four of them are over 65, and so among them they have hundreds of years of experience. They don't work in the very elite world—all the temples they've built have been neighborhood temples—but in terms of skill, they are at quite a high level. It was certainly great for me.

YJPT: Are the skills of these craftsmen being handed down? Do they have apprentices?

Mr. Lau: Well, across the board in Japan the apprentice system is dying out, or changing at least. Generally, these skills are disappearing, but they are being preserved by specialized groups, like those involved with rebuilding Ise Grand Shrine every 20 years. And there will always be a market for tea houses and high-quality traditional Japanese structures. But the most important thing about Japanese carpentry is that it's spreading all over the world. It has influenced so many designers and architects, and has permeated among so many different kinds of craftsmen, that I think it will become something new, while keeping its heritage, too. In North America right now there are many people who want to incorporate a tatami-mat room into their homes, for instance, or who want the sensibility of Japanese architecture. It's perhaps strictly speaking not Japanese architecture or Japanese space, but it promotes these skills.

YJPT: You've worked extensively with the Kyoto architect Ryoichi Kinoshita at Atelier Ryo. What kind of projects have you been involved in?

Mr. Lau: Kinoshita-san specializes in relocating and renovating machiya [town houses] and minka [traditional farmhouses]. Basically, Atelier Ryo does everything involved with the relocation, restoration, and renovation of old structures. Some of our projects are restorations, and others involve relocating buildings to a completely new location for a completely new function. We've done projects all across Japan—north of Tokyo, here in Kyoto, and in Shikoku. Kinoshita-san himself lives in a large relocated gasho-zukuri house, a kind of minka. You walk in and it's open three stories to the ceiling, with massive beam work and an open hearth. Atelier Ryo's machiya projects are mostly rebuilds. We're working an a project right now—on Sakaimachi, just south of Oike—converting an old sake warehouse into a pizzeria, with a pizza oven right in the entryway so customers can watch the pizzas being made. We're gutting the building, and restoring it to its original condition.

YJPT: You've been away in Shikoku for some time recently, haven't you?

Mr. Lau: Yes. I just finished working on the second stage of a project just outside the city of Tokushima, on Shikoku, called Awa no Sato. The first phase, built six years ago, is a center for cultural and eco tourism centered around three relocated minka. Cultural events and art exhibits are held there, and every year a Noh group from Kyoto is invited to perform. I think it's an excellent solution for these buildings. It's not an open-air minka park, just relics sitting in a field. You go there to have fun. It's all about issues of display, about object and observer. Here, the observer becomes a participant.

In Phase II, three more buildings were added, including a large 700-m2 sukiya-style building that is about 90 years old. In addition to doing site management and working as a carpenter on this larger building, I was asked to build a pottery studio, which I did using posts and beams salvaged from other buildings. I had to recut and reconfigure them to make the new building and to incorporate a pottery kiln. The project as a whole has been immensely successful. Awa no Sato is overwhelmed with people. It's not only culturally interesting, and very beautiful, but also a place to eat and spend time.

YJPT: How do you feel about Kyoto as a space, both natural and built?

Mr. Lau: One thing I've always liked about Kyoto is its geographical relationship to the mountains. It gives you a sense of place, which I find to be very settling. It's a good feeling to be able to see the boundaries of where you live. It's like having a room with walls. It not only encloses you and makes you feel comfortable, but it also orients you. And I've always liked the fact that Kyoto is a walking city. One of the first tour guides to Kyoto was written 300-400 years ago, and even then the emphasis was on walking tours.

Unfortunately, it may be too late for the city's machiya. It's not just that individually important houses are going, but so too are ordinary houses, which were also built in the same cohesive architectural language. Those houses are almost all gone. The city is now sponsoring a project to document all pre-war houses in Kyoto. I think this is a sign that people have realized that too many traditional houses have been torn down, and that it's time to see what can be done with what's left.

Note: Mr Lau settled in the San Francisco Bay area and later was commissioned to do work on Larry Elison's large Japanese home in Silicon Valley. His LinkedIn page is: Peter Lau.

Artist couple paint a new Buddhist temple interior;
Young American architect apprentice in Japan interview.