Contemporary Canadian Glass

By Rika Kuroki

Japan is a country sitting on numerous faults, where 10% of all the earthquakes in the world occur, shaking up one place or another constantly.  We have had devastating earthquakes periodically; the last massive one, still fresh in our memory, in Kobe on January 17, 1995, which claimed 6000 precious lives.  But what we had on March 11, 2011 seemed unprecedented in our recorded history.  We have since found out that there are traces of a precedent and an ancient script mentioning an earthquake and monstrous tsunami of the same magnitude, which also destroyed a vast area in the northern Japan a millennium ago, but as it was so far back in our history its impact had been totally forgotten.  This current catastrophe has affected the lives of the Japanese populace in such diverse ways, that the reality in front of our eyes and the world we live in changed forever in one way or the other.

In the glass community, there was of course quite a bit of effect.  I have two friends who have their studio in Miyagi prefecture, close to the epicentre, and it took a while to find out if they survived the quake or not.  One of them is Eiji Shiga, whose Glass Studio Kirlo and home is located about 20 km west of Sendai Airport, which was swallowed by the giant tsunami.  The quake hit his studio just a few days after he started melting glass in his furnace to begin making pieces for a solo show in April.  The furnace went down as soon as the initial quake hit due to the power outage, and all the ceramic roof tiles of the building were shattered.  The power was out for a week and it took ten days to have running water back.  All his exhibition schedules were postponed indefinitely, and two of them were cancelled because the galleries did not exist anymore.  He was able to get back into blowing glass about a month later by melting clear cullet in a small pot placed in the glory hole, and he started exhibiting again in May, though most of his pieces had to be made with simple techniques due to limitations in his facility.

Glass work by Eiji Shiga entitled Flow

Also, as in the rest of Japan, there is a looming fear of nuclear fallout from Fukushima Power Plant.  This has caused some of Eiji’s clients to worry that his pieces might be “contaminated” with radiation as his studio is only about 100 km from the infamous power plant.  Therefore he has less clients buying or even coming to see his work.  But on the other hand, there are movements to give more exhibition opportunities to the earthquake survivor artists, and he says he was offered more opportunities than he could handle at this moment and had to turn down some of them.  Right now, Eiji says he is just happy that both he and his wife and all of his extended family survived the Disaster of the Millennium, and that he is still able to work in his own studio.  Currently he is inviting fellow survivors living in provisional housing to come and experience glass blowing in his studio, and he says hearing their stories of survival simply amaze him and give him courage to go on living each day. 

But there are others who were not as fortunate as Eiji, such as Koji Murayama whose Kaiba Glass Studio is also located about 25 km west of Seidai Airport. He was not able to resume blowing glass in his studio until August because of extensive damage in his home and studio.

Sahara Glass series by Koji Murayama. The glass is made by melting sand from the Sahara Desert. These pieces survived the earthquake.

But even with the facilities unharmed, there were many others who were unable to restart their furnaces due to the power outage or from fear of constantly recurring after shocks, some of which were as big as magnitude 6.  Eiji also mentioned a kiln worker friend, whose inventory of Bullseye glass was shattered into pieces.  And, of course, the power outages have been getting in the way of firings.  Others, farther away from the disaster area, were having issues of their own.  Having been exposed to a constant visual bombardment on TV and the Internet of the total destruction happening up north pushed many into a state of mild depression, affecting their creative activities.  It seems as if the overload of visual information was beyond their imagined reality making them go into deep thoughts concerning the meaning of creating works, which was the complete opposite of what they had been seeing after March 11.

On the other hand, there were artists and galleries actively organizing charity events and exhibitions to raise money for the people in need.  The movement started by Tomohiro Kano is unique.  Tomohiro Kano is a kiln-casting artist whose home and studio are in the heart of Tokyo.

Gate. A kiln cast glass monument developed for 'Rainbow 2000'at Doshi, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan in 1999 by Tomohiro Kano

Tomohiro is a very close friend of Koji Murayama in Sendai, and he went to help his friend out in the beginning of April this year.  What he saw on the way to and back from Murayama’s Kaiba Glass Studio was literally hell on earth, and he felt a strong urge from deep within himself to do something to help the survivors but to do this as an artist.  He came up with the idea to ask people working with glass to make cups for the survivors, each one with a short heart-warming message from the artist to the recipient.  His concept was to gift the survivors something unique and precious, so they can feel the pleasure of owning something again after having their homes and all their belongings destroyed in the earthquake or washed away into the ocean.  He announced this project on Twitter and other social networking sites, as well as on his blog the day after he came home from up north.  This is an ongoing project, which is currently in its second phase, asking artists to make cups which will be delivered to the residents of government-provided provisional housing in Iwate prefecture.  So far, since July, the glasses have been delivered to two communities.  He calls it “My Glass Movement” and the progress is reported periodically in his blog set up for this purpose.

Garden of Gleams. Kiln cast glass and light installation in Tokyo Shiodome Building. Pool dimensions W40m×D21m by Tomohiro Kano

But the earthquake and tsunami might become the least of our problems in the future.  The larger haunting issue is the infamous damaged nuclear power plant in Fukushima, which is still spewing out radioactive matter to this day.  Though the government claims it is not as bad as it seems, many people are sceptical of what they sayas there is a large amount of information saying otherwise all over the Internet.  Nowadays, it is almost impossible to know what is the most accurate information, but what we know for sure is when information closer to the truth is uploaded to the Internet, the government eventually admits that it was actually happening.  In September, they admitted that the situation in Fukushima was beyond melt down, and a “small amount” of molten core had melted through the crucible that contained it.  This announcement happened six months after it happened.  With the haunting fear of radiation looming all over eastern Japan, many people are seriously considering migrating to the western or southern part of the country or even abroad.  Masato and Maho Ota, who moved to the town of Kasama in Ibaragi Prefecture four years ago and built Ota Glass Studio, are now seriously contemplating moving abroad.

Glassware by Ota Glass Studio

Kasama, located north of Tokyo, is the oldest center of ceramic production in eastern Japan, and it is a popular place to live among artists of various media.  Masato and Maho Ota chose this location to build their studio for its creative environment, not only because they could constantly be in touch with artists and their finely crafted works, but also because of the nature around this area.  In the past four years, they have nurtured their studio into quite an establishment, with a constant growth in business.  After the earthquake and melt down in Fukushima, they launched extensive research to find out about the actual threat of radiation to their health because they were afraid for the wellbeing of their twelve year old daughter and five year old son.  Living only 140 km away from the Fukushima power plant, the level of radiation in their area would sometimes become alarmingly high.  After two months, they decided to move out of the country, at least until they are convinced that it is safe to move back and live there again.  They say it is heart wrenching to move away from the place they love so much, but with what is going on only 140 km away, and with the unreliability in what the government is saying and doing for the well being of Japanese populace, they think it is the best choice they can currently make.

Lighting by Ota Glass Studio

At this moment none of us know how things will develop in the future, but it is still far from over, and it will probably take decades or maybe even centuries to restore what the destruction caused by the Disaster of the Millennium has wrought.  On the other hand, I believe that this was a wake up call, not only for us Japanese, but to all of mankind living on the face of this beautiful blue planet, to rethink and re-evaluate our ways of living in regards to how we could create a world in harmony with each other and with the environment we live in.