[The Key Is to Be Excited]
Mr. Samiro Yunoki celebrates his 100th birthday in October 2022. He continues to create with a lively spirit under the motto, "If it's not fun, it's boring."
Born in 1922 in Tabata, Tokyo, Yuzuki was introduced to mingei (folk art) by Muneyoshi Yanagi and Keisuke Serizawa's stencil-dyed calendars, and became an apprentice to Serizawa to pursue a career in dyeing. He also worked on picture books, prints, and three-dimensional works. In recent years, she has collaborated with the interior store IDÉE and the Ace Hotel in Kyoto, and he is still an active artist with many fans in Japan and abroad. Just a few years ago, in the fall of 2019, he traveled to Paris to hold a solo exhibition and celebrate his 97th birthday. When his family was suddenly informed that he was going to Paris, they were all surprised and said, "That's impossible......."
Mr. Yunoki was especially attracted to Paris, France. It all started at the end of the Meiji era (1868-1912), when his father, who studied painting in Paris with the aim of becoming a Western-style painter, repeatedly told him how much France valued culture and art, and he grew up with a latent yearning for Paris. His first visit to Paris was in 1967 at the age of 45, when he stopped in Paris during a two-month trip to Europe to show his work in an international exhibition. He continued to hold solo exhibitions of dyed fabrics for three consecutive years starting in 2008, and in 2014, he held a major textile exhibition at the Musée National des Arts Orientales Guimet, which serves as the Louvre Museum's Oriental section. It was a commemorative exhibition that permanently housed some 70 works in Paris. It must have been such a wonderful time, as if love had come true.
In addition to his works of course, each word that Mr. Yunoki speaks is always easy to understand and easily absorbed into one's mind. This is probably due to the accumulation of his many experiences. He says that he became aware of what he liked and at what point in his life he was standing when he was over 80 years old. Until then, he had no time to think about what he liked. In today's busy, repetitive daily life, the past few years when people all over the world have been stuck, I suddenly thought that perhaps it is precisely because we live in such an era that we have been given time to stop and think. And the important thing is to be excited. It is not about special luxuries, but about concentrating on the various "things" and "events" in our daily lives, and finding joy in them, rather than having them given to us by others. I reconfirmed that this is exactly what "mingei" is all about.
Yunoki's work is always warm and inviting, and I feel that it has become more and more sophisticated with time and age. If you have a chance to see his works in person, please visit him. All of his works always wrap you up with a smile and a sense of the exciting rhythm of life. Currently, "Hello Saikachi-kun" is at Gallery TOM in Shibuya, Tokyo. At Muji in Berlin, Germany, a solo exhibition "Hello World! Hello Future!” is being held.
Shokunin.com also offers bags, book covers, pen cases, and other items made of Naoron, which is silk-screen printed in the same size as the original pattern created by Yuzuki, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Siwa. Quantities are limited, so don't delay! Flat Bag Screen Printing S pattern 01 and Book Cover Screen Printing pattern 05 are also on display at our Ginza Showroom, so please stop by. We look forward to seeing you at the over 90-year-old Okuno Building.
SIWA's Screen Printing
https://www.shokunin.com/en/siwa/yunoki.html
Ginza Showroom
https://www.shokunin.com/en/showroom/ginza.html
References
https://www.samiro.net/index1.html
https://www.samiro.net/notebook/2014.html
https://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/118304
https://www.gallerytom.co.jp/exhibition.html
https://www.idee-lifeinart.com
