Recently, cooler breezes can be felt
in the mornings and evenings.

In about a month’s time,
as the lingering heat of summer softens
and the season of harvest arrives,
we will be holding our second special exhibition at our shop,
beginning on Friday, September 16.

The exhibition is titled
“Iwate Sawagurumi Baskets
—A World of Walnut Baskets Woven Front and Back—.”

We began carrying these sawagurumi baskets
at our shop about five years ago,
and since then have introduced them regularly,
receiving a warm response each time.
They have become one of our long-selling items.

Until now, we have usually presented them
in small numbers at a time,
but for this exhibition,
an unprecedented number of baskets
will be gathered together.

Even though they are all made from the same material, sawagurumi,
each piece of bark shows differences
in tone, texture, and natural pattern.

The baskets made from these materials—
especially the basket bags—
are also, almost without exception, each different in design.
As a result, the lineup displayed in the shop
will be rich in expression
and is sure to be a pleasure to look at.

We also hope you will enjoy
the distinctive, gentle fragrance unique to sawagurumi.

The texture and scent of the bark,
as well as the sense of scale of each basket,
are difficult to convey fully through photographs.

When introducing our pieces through journal articles,
Instagram, or our online shop,
we always try to communicate their qualities
as clearly as possible through images and words.
Even so, we often hear from visitors,
“It feels different seeing it in person
than in photographs.”

We hope that this occasion will offer you
a chance to encounter the world of sawagurumi baskets directly
and experience it with your own senses.

On the opening day and the second day of the exhibition,
the maker, Toshio Sasaki, will also be present at the shop.

It will be a rare opportunity to speak with him directly
about the materials, the baskets themselves,
the process of basket making,
and life in the region where they are made.
We hope you will make a reservation and come visit us.

This June, several members of our staff visited the area
where the baskets are made to conduct interviews.
We plan to share those stories
here in our journal as well.

We hope you will look forward to it.

_ _ _ _ _ // Information // _ _ _ _ _

• Visits on Friday, September 16 and Saturday, September 17,
  when the maker will be present,
  were by reservation only.

Please note that reservations for these dates
have now closed.

** During the exhibition period,
the display will focus primarily on works from
“Iwate Sawagurumi Baskets.”
Other regular items have been removed from the shop floor,
and only a very limited selection is on view.

If there are other items you would like to see while visiting,
please feel free to let our staff know.
We will bring them out from storage.
It would be helpful if you could specify the product name
or details as clearly as possible.

*** For this exhibition,
all purchased items may be taken home on the day of purchase.
Only items displayed in the shop are available for sale,
and most of them are one of a kind.
If there is a piece you are interested in,
we recommend visiting as early as possible.

Please note that made-to-order requests
are not accepted for this exhibition.

Exhibition Details

Exhibition Title:
Iwate Sawagurumi Baskets
—A World of Walnut Baskets Woven Front and Back—

Dates:
September 16 (Fri)–September 21 (Wed), 2022
*Open every day during the exhibition period

Hours:
September 16 and 17: 10:30 AM–4:30 PM
All other days: 11:00 AM–4:00 PM