In early October this year, my husband and I finally had our wedding, years after we got married. The wedding was held at Gallery Yamahon in Iga city, Mie Prefecture, one day after my husband’s exhibition show. The place’s owner, Tadaomi Yamamoto, got tipsy at a party once and told us that he would like to hold the wedding for us. We thought that he would forget all about it after he woke up. But to our surprise, he was actually serious about it.

My husband Masaki Kanamori is a metalware artist. Most of the people that we invited to our wedding were his friends and senpai (seniors) from the industry. Ceramic artist Ando Masanobu, Koichi Uchida and woodware designer Ryuji Mitani, etc. are all industry veterans who really look after us. After receiving our invitation, they even made time for us when having a tight schedule of attending exhibitions. The wedding was small but very intimate. My parents who came all the way from Hong Kong to Japan were relieved to see me surrounded by friends and families. The wedding was a lovely moment to remember. It was also an event that allowed me to have some serious reflection.

Ando was the toast giver at the wedding. When making his toast, he reminded my husband that it is now time for him to take up the responsibility as a senpai in the industry since the senpai in the industry had given him consistent support along his career. He also added that I should utilise my talent in spreading information as a writer to help promote Japan’s lifestyle art, culture and philosophy to overseas. From his perspective, I can make use of my multilingual ability to lay the foundation for emerging artists in the industry.

I nodded my head while listening to his speech. I still constantly thought of what he had said at the wedding even days after we returned home.

My husband decided to walk the path of a metalware artist when he was already twenty-something. He was an apprentice of artists that made doorknob, door frame, lamp, lantern and more. It took him quite an effort to explore the field of metal art. He then became an artist of his own and continued to explore the sector. At one point, my husband finally found the courage to go to the Galerie Momogusa in Tajimi City to show his works to Ando Masanobu, a renowned artist in the industry, in hopes of getting some comments on his works. My husband is a bit different from traditional metalware artists as he does not seek perfection in techniques and restrains his own expression in his works to pursue simplicity. At first glance, one might find his works plain. But if you take a closer look, you will notice my husband’s aesthetics from the materials he used and the inspiring delicacy shown by the details. At that time, my husband had many doubts about his own style because there were very few artists active in the industry that shared similar artistic expression. Ando looked at his works and saw potential in my husband. Subsequently, he allowed my husband to exhibit his works at the gallery, which was an important turning point for my husband.

An exhibition at the Gallery Yamahon

“Simplicity is the best,” Ryuji Mitani once told my husband. His comment encouraged my husband to stick to the direction he was on. Koichi Uchida, on the other hand, invited him for having a co-exhibition. Although Yamahon from the Gallery Yamahon is at the same age as my husband, he got into the metal art industry years earlier, which makes him a senior artist to my husband as well. He was the person who provided my husband with the opportunity to hold an exhibition for the very first time. Looking back, my husband was able to gradually climb up the ladder in the industry with the support of other senior artists. It wasn’t until we heard Ando’s toast at the wedding that we realised we also need to step up and take up responsibilities as they did.

The seniors guide the newcomers to the right track and give them opportunities to explore. Then the newcomers become the seniors in the industry and start to help their next generation. Japan’s metal art industry, whether it is traditional metal art sector or the lifestyle metal art that emerges in the past 20 years, they all nurture talents in this way. From my perspective, the idea of reciprocity and community is one of the reasons why Japan’s creative and art industry can continue to thrive.

But as the senpai in the industry, what exactly can we do? Should we open galleries just like Ando and Ryuji did to provide opportunities for emerging talents? We couldn’t really decide on a concrete solution.

Today’s art environment is quite different from that of earlier years. There is an abundant pool of exhibition platforms for young artists to get exposure for their works. In the past ten years, a number of handicraft markets have appeared in the country. Young artists nowadays can also exhibit their works on social media and gain exposure. They are even able to sell their works through these platforms. This means that young artists no longer rely on galleries like that in the past. On the other hand, besides galleries like Galerie Momogusa, Gallery Yamahon and Matsumoto’s 10cm, most of the galleries in Japan do not put that much efforts in planning exhibitions. They are more like grocery stores than galleries.

Besides providing a place for art trading, galleries also have the function of nurturing the next generation of artists and audience, mapping the development of aesthetics and documenting it. This is why my husband would prioritise his relationship with galleries than his income. We are still wondering whether we have the capacity to build a gallery that we would value and provide a platform for new artists to show their own potential.