Ukishima Diary

November 2004

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Tuesday 30th November, "Tuning Piano"
Mr.Suzuki came to tune our new piano today. (HK)
Sunday 28th November, "Iwate Local Dancing Festival"
Ukishima kenbai(Ukishima Sword Dance) girls on line.(HK)
Saturday 27th November, "Emily's Birthday"
Emily is very happy to wear new presents ready for travel.
Back in Sendai, I was with my sisters and aunts. New built grave for katagiri family. Rainbow I saw on the way.(HK)
Friday 26th November, "Service in Kesennuma"
After only 3 hours sleep I got onto earliest train this morning down to Ichinoseki to meet up with my parents, to go further to Kesennuma, where we have our family graveyard. My uncles and aunts were there already by the time when we arrived to the place. We opened grave and I took oput my grand parents' asch pots to transport to new place in Sendai. Service was held at my father's friend temple(photo) , then we immidiately started back to Sendai. (HK)
Thursday 25th November, "School Reunion"
My Ichiko school friend Kouhei phoned ,and tald me to come down to Morioka to have a drink together with other good friends. We ended up in a little Karaoke Bar singing together '80th pop dongs until 1 O'clock in the morning.(HK)
Tuesday 23rd November, "Hawl's Moving Castle"
We went to see "Hawl's moving Castle" in Morioka. Cinema was packed! This film is certaily as good as "Spirited Away". I really have deep respect to Miyazaki's atitude of being against was and all inhumanity. (HK)
Sunday 21st November, "Kawaguchi project~Celebration Party"
Celebration again. New school building was opened today.
In the photograph from left, Mr. Hashimoto, the chairman of Iwate town Education Board, who is a very good friend of us, me and Dr. Yasumi, director of local hospitals, who sponsored my sculpture.
Kawaguchi is the place where Emily and Sean went to the kindergarten for 10 years all together. So, we know most of the kids and mothers in this school. Between two mountains spread rice fields and the river running through in the middle. Kawaguchi castle park in front of the school area, and you can very well see Mt. Iwate. Typical japanese country side. Beautifull.
After the celemony we had reception party, in which children showed us their famouse "Fox Dance". (HK)
Saturday 20th November, "Choukoku and Machi dukuri Forum(Forum on Sculptures and Townplanning)"
We are holding this forum to generate open public discussion on how to create more local relevance in the future philosophy of the Iwate town International Sculpture Symposium (which was established 30 years ago), the Ishigami no Oka Sculpture Park (established 10 years ago). It should also be an interesting discussion in the wider context of sculpture outwith the big city institutions, addressing many issues relevant to communities and artists everywhere. The unique character of the importance of sculpture in this small town and the large amount of space available means there is huge potential to create a world leading experiment here.

Fram Kitagawa, the Director of Art Front, who organises the Eichigo Tsumari Triennale in Nigata prefecture.
Hidekazu Yokozawa, sculptor and landscape architect who has co-ordinated and participated in many public sculpture projects and parks throughout Japan, Europe and America.
Masakatsu Ono, curator at the Iwate Museum of Art (previously working in Sapporo)
are the invited speakers, and Hideki Nita, art critic and Professor of art history and theory at Miyagi University of Education is the invited co-ordinator for the discussion.(KT)
3 and a half hour discussion.(HK)
Reception was held in the same building with the guests. Then after that we are invited to one of our friend , Mr. Pinewood house for night caps.(HK)
Friday 19th November, "Kawaguchi project~Setting"
At last sculpture gate is set. Weather forecast was rain but we had a bit of luck and dry sky.(HK)
Mr. Yokozawa arrived in town to participate for tomorrow's Forum. We organised dinner at the restaurant in town and then, after that, KARAOKE!
Wednsday 17th November, "Kawaguchi project~Pins"
To the bottom of the sculpture, 3cm diameter and1m long stenless steel bars are set against earthquake. In the evening we had a Wednesday Art Talk at Ishigamino oka Museum. We organise this event every month and today we had Mr. Yasui, a curator from the Iwate prefecture Museum of Art, who gave a talk about Alfred Barr at MOMA in N.Y. The theme about how to run the art museums and tactics to promote artists. Very good talk. Then, he run into Shinkansen to Narita to fly to Amsterdam tomorrow. (HK)
Tuesday 16th November, "Kawaguchi project~Carstopper"
Start making Car stopper for school。(HK)
Thursday 11th November, "iPod Photo 60G"
iPod Photo 60G has arrived in Ukishima. This digital music player has a 60GBHD, so I can store sbout 200 of 500 Mega pixel high resorution photographs taken by Minolta A1everyday for three months without rewash. I was looking for iPod for a while, but since I heard that Apple is going to produce large HD model with colour display, I was very patient! until today. This also changed my wholeday curving session more fun with music!(HK)
Tuesday 9th November, "Kawaguchi project~Kate"
Kate joined to our team.(HK)
Monday 8th November, "Kawaguchi project~"
Tried to see how it is going to stand. School's principal mr. Jin came to bring the schoolsymbol to curve on the stone. (HK)
Sunday 7th November, "Kawaguchi project"
Still working hard. (HK)
Saturday 6th November, "Lightsaver"
Drilling, zigsawing and gringing. All equipments in Ukishima studio's co-produced a light saver at last! Sean painted green,as he wanted. It looks a bit jiant cuccamber to me...(HK)
Wedensday 4th November, "Metal Chip"
When I was chipping off the stone with a hammer and a chizel today, a small piece of the chizel's head broken off and shoot into my forehead inbetween my two eyes. Bllod everywhere but It was not pain, this thig happens sometimes. Worst one I still remember was that it has gone into my right eye ball. It stopped on the surface though, but 5 nurses had to hold down my arms, legs and my head, the doctor put a little metal ring into my eye with a drop of anesthesia so that not to be able to shut, and told me not to look away... No pain but I coud see everythig what he was doing with his needle!! Anyway, soon I went to a local big hospital to get it out. You have to wait in a 'waiting room' with all other hundreds of people in vain, guessing it might be my turn just an hour or so to wait. This is in Japan so this as usual. And nobody there at the hospital can tell you exactly how long you have to sit there and wait. I knew that well. So, I went off hospital for a while to kill the time doing a bit of things in town and after one good hour, when I came back, the cue was not any shorter for some reason today! It is going to be an another hour to wait for the Xray, then another hour to see a doctor again, then I have to book another day for the operation....Absurd! I, then just remembered that one of our very good friend doctor, Mr. Sawatari, is also a surgeon in town. It took me 3min. to drive to his hospital from there and met Mrs. Sawatari at the entrance. She askied me what happened. I told all about it, and she took me immidiately to see her husband with me through 20 other people waiting in the 'waiting room'. After immidiate Xray shot, he showed me the photographs, in which certainly I can see that 3mm metal chip in my forehead. Dr. Sawatari said,"Mr. Katagiri, it will come out by itself naturally sometime, so do not WORRy!" Good to have a doctor friend!! (HK)
Tuesday 3rd November, "Swans"
We are enjoying Autumn colour now.
Today I saw about 70 swans flying over my head to south from Syberia. (HK)
Sean is very busy curving a lightsaver from chank of wood. He says, "This is going to be a green one."(HK)
Monday 2nd November, "Telephone"
Telephone's battery run out. We have Pioneer's TF-X102, which transmit calls over100m wireless. perfect for our studio and house situations. Eventually, I got battery replacement from an internet shop, but because of our telephones are about 8 years old(?) , it was just impossible to reseach type of batterys, no.s and so on, on maker's homepage. There was not anything even on their page of 'old products'. Theses electric things are ment to be 5 years of life! I just ordered blind according to capacity of the battery and fortunately it was O.K.(HK)