Entitled WA: The Spirit of Harmony and Japanese Design Today, the exhibition shows almost 200 objects, ranging from a rice cooker to chairs.
The Japanese Foundation, which organised the exhibition, describes the character of contemporary Japanese design as a mix between tradition and the modern, between the country's national heritage and that which is Western.
"There is a tendency today to fuse traditional crafts with the latest technology, forge new connections between manual trades and machine production, facilitate exchanges between design activities in urban centers and craft work in outlying regions, promote interaction between Japanese and Western things, develop new uses for recycled materials and blend awareness of the natural environment with technological expertise. Symbiosis and linkages between these opposing terms are found more frequently within the Japanese design world, and the expansion of digital technology is resonating with the growth of a network society both domestically and internationally."
Indeed, the automatic rice cooker is disguised as a traditional wooden food carrier. But the Buddhist altar is unquestionably modern. And the Tatami-covered chairs look as if they were half-grown furniture from IKEA.
The exhibition is extraordinary, not only because of the objects it presents, but in the way it presents them. The exhibition is organised by keyword, a wonderful concept which reflects well on Japanese society. And there's a kind of petting zoo for industrial design in one corner of the museum.
Author: Bálint Kovács / Photo: Dániel Kováts
