Learning at Tokyo University of the Arts

Professor Takashi Fukai, Department of Sculpture

Huge pieces of wood used for sculptures are placed in front of the studio.

In the Department of Sculpture's studio, there are many sculptures in progress, including those of human bodies, animals and abstract objects. Although students use different media of expressions, such as wood carving and modeling, they are intent on express their ideas in three-dimensional objects and spaces using wood, clay and other materials. In order to use huge wood and other materials, cranes and power saws are installed in the studio. It looks like a construction site. At the same time, the studio's air is filled with the smell of wood, and it feels as if the sound of chisels reverberates in a quiet grove.
According to Professor Fukai, students do not have quotas to fulfill, so they create works as many as they want. In the master's course, there is the Graduation Works Exhibition. Although students' works are exhibited at the University Art Museum and this studio, the museum's the exhibition space for sculptures is small, so students spend 1 year to create works which sizes fit into one room of the exhibition space. Large works that cannot be put in a building are exhibited outside or in front of the museum. Although each student belongs to a laboratory, students can use any studio regardless of their laboratories. Professor Fukai specializes in wood carving, and a variety of students ranging from juniors to doctoral students are enrolled in the wood carving course. The stone carving and metalwork courses also have various students. Students in the modeling course create works in graduate and undergraduate students' rooms. Although students receive practical training during the second semester of the second year for the first time, approximately 70 % of students use the same materials that they have used before. In Japan, since many students develop their ideas from materials, such an education system is adopted. (continued in the lower column)

Students can work from morning till night. Nowadays, students who express subjects that they are interested in by wood has increased. Professor Fukai encourages students to think by themselves and conduct classes in which they discuss whether their ideas are interesting or not to stimulate themselves. Since students cannot start new things if they only practice methods that they have used before, students have to think whether their views of sculptures fit the present age or not and whether the views can be profound thoughts or not. According to Professor Fukai, students use domestic camphor trees as materials for sculptures, which are easy to carve and obtain.(continued in the lower column)

Professor Ikuo Shinohara, Department of Crafts (Metal Hammering)

Samples of Materials for "Mokume-gane" and its Techniques

Hammers of Varied Shapes and Many Anvils

Big sound of hammers reverberated in the studio of the Department of Crafts (Metal Hammering).
In the Metal Hammering course in which students lean techniques of plastic working of metal and molding via cutting, they, regardless of sex, tackled heavy physical works usually seen in a blacksmith's shop. A big hammer was forcefully brought down many times, and a lump of red-hot metal was beaten.

There are 6 courses, Metal Carving, Metal Hammering, Metal Casting, Urushi-Art, Ceramics and Textile Arts, in the Department of Crafts in Ueno Campus. Metal hammering is a craft technique that shapes metals by hammering them. The technique has been used for metal processing throughout our history, by which weapons, armors, ironware for shrines and temples, and decorations are made. Its history goes back to ancient times, and their sophisticated, manufacturing techniques have been highly evaluated even abroad since the Meiji Period.
According to Professor Shinohara, there are hot and cold processing for the metal hammering technique. The former process includes a hammering technique that shapes iron while heated iron is red-hot, and the latter includes a raising technique that anneals and softens copper plates and other metals and processes them while they are cold. Other traditional techniques include "Niiro Chakushoku," a traditional coloring technique used in Japanese metal crafts, which boils metals in solution of copper sulfate and verdigris, and "Mokume-gane," a mixed-metal laminate with distinctive layered patterns, which piles up and joins different metals and beats out them while slicing patterns out.
In the last assignment of making animal sculptures, which is given in the third year, students process sheet copper using the raising technique to create their works. They spend approximately three months to complete the works. Now, it is possible to made large sculptures by welding parts, so any sculptures, ranging from bowls and ornaments to monuments, can be created. The Statue of Liberty in New York was also made by using sheet copper and the metal hammering technique, and its inside structure was designed by Gustave Eiffel who is acclaimed for designing the Eiffel Tower. There was no welding technology at that time, so parts were connected with rivets.
According to Professor Shinohara, more than half of the students are female. Although it is a heavy physical work, such as metal hammering, and they should use a variety of metalsmith tools, women have increasingly entered this field.(continued in the lower column)

Professor Shinohara showed wizardry of the metal hammering technique. Sheet copper gradually changed its shape like a creature as it was skillfully beaten by a hammer. A foreign student from Estonia, who enrolls in the master's course, had mainly created jewelries in her home country. In Europe, Mokume-gane (Japanese traditional technique that piles up and joins different metals, including silver, copper, gold and an alloy of copper and gold, and beats out them while slicing patterns out) is popular, so she came to Japan, the home of Mokume-gane, to study it. Although, in terms of conception, jewelries are slightly different from metal hammering, she is now creating bowls and decorations. However, her theme is consistent and the same as that of when she was in Estonia. According to her opinion, there are differences of expressions between Japan and Europe, and that point is interesting.(continued in the lower column)

Professor Fumio Shimada, Department of Crafts (Ceramics)

According to Professor Shimada, ceramics taught at Tokyo University of the Arts is close to traditional crafts, but it is not affected by any particular schools of ceramics. If students have enough experience, their skills can be widely applicable, so Professor Shimada teaches students to master both ceramics and porcelain. Also, if students can make large works, they can also make small ones, so he instructs students to make large ones. According to Professor Shimada, he used to instruct students to create bowls, but, now, he tries to shift from bowls to artistic works. Thirty five students, ranging from undergraduate to master's course students, enroll in the Ceramic course. Although most students enter the course with no experience in ceramics, there are a few students who are sons or daughters of pottery producers. Foreign students from Korea have recently increased, but students from African countries, such as Uganda, also enroll in the course.

A pottery wheel rotates counterclockwise in China, the United Kingdom and the United States, and clockwise in Japan (Tokyo and surrounding areas). There is an area of counterclockwise in Western Japan. Surface crack patterns on celadon ware are differently generated depending on the rotation.

Ceramic Works with a Variety of Expressions