Date: 17 March 2007, at 13.00
Place: Kyoto Women’s University

Presentation 1
Lecturer: Tsuchiya Nobuo (PhD Candidate, University of Tsukuba)
Theme: Katsumi Masaru and the Design Movement: With a Focus on Japan Design Committee
Keywords
Katsumi Masaru, Design Movement, Good Design, Japan Design Committee, Ginza-Matsuya, Design Gallery, Design Gallery Exhibition, Art Environment Support
Abstract
I am going to elucidate how Katsumi Masaru played an important role as a design coordinator who contributed to the prosperity and development of the design movement, principally focusing Katsumi’s activity in the Japan Design Committee.
In terms of the design movement, I consider various movements in art, industry, and society in Japan, as well as consumer trends. In particular the ‘good design’ movement is related to consumerism (as a citizen’s movement).
In its contemporary state, the design gallery became ‘Gallery Ma’ in 1985, the ‘Ginza Graphic Gallery’ in 1986, under the name of which it is now enjoying its twentieth year. On the other hand, there is a reduction of activity and cancelled exhibitions in other design galleries due to economic conditions.
It’s interesting to note that the genealogy of a design gallery is something which remains to be properly researched. In other words, in terms of precedence, such studies are largely absent.
Also, as a researcher in the field of Art Environment Support, the various specific specialisations implicated in my said subject (the Design Gallery) highlighted the need for a clarification of its genealogy, toward a complete picture of its activity.
A study of Katsumi and the Japan Design Committee as the basis for such research – elucidating their exhibition activities – becomes meaningful from many angles.
Therefore, as the subject of this presentation, Katsumi’s design activity assumes a fundamental role, not only for the subject at hand, but also as a platform for broader issues in the field of Art Environment Support.
The contents of my presentation are as follows:
(1) Research aim and method
(2) A brief career history of Katsumi Masaru
(3) Katsumi’s position and relationship alongside other leading design figures
(4) Positioning the design movement in a design encyclopedia
(5) ‘Good Design’: the Japan Design Committee’s design movement
(6) Conclusion
(7) Future Issues

Presentation 2
Lecturer: Fujiwara Miki (Fukuyama University)
Theme: Study on the Life-Style and Interior Design in the Novel, JIN PING MEI
Keywords
JIN PING MEI, HISUI – house, Scholar, Su shi, Dong po – chair, Interior design
Abstract
This presentation aims to make clear the private lifestyle and interior design of bureaucrats, mainly concerning to the study house ‘HISUI – house’ in the novel JIN PIN MEI.
As a result, next six points become clear:
(1) In general bureaucrats are persons of culture and have a public life-style and a mental private lifestyle. The latter is mainly performed in the study.
(2) An ideal study house should have nature inside and outside of its room and be purified. They place stationery and antique on the desk and spend spiritual life, appreciating them.
(3) They read books, play music, keep healthy life and enjoy a doze in the afternoon.
(4) They design stationery, furniture and interior to make their spiritual and healthy lives enrich. Therefore their idea is very close to the modern ‘sensitivity engineering’ and ‘human engineering’.
(5) The term ‘HISUI’ is used for giving the house the meaning of a wish for ageless and immortal life and a desire for productivity and revival.
(6) The ‘Dong po – chair’ Su shi designed and used is a chair for health and spiritual calmness. Its motif of the top of the backrest is designed from a legendary plant called ‘l ng zh’ which grows in a sacred place. It seems that the ‘TOUBA chair’ is the original model of ‘T ai shi – chair’ in the period of Qing Dynasty.

Presentation 3
Lecturer: Matsushita Hisako (Curator, Department of Cultural Promotion, Nagasaki Prefecture)
Theme: Mikawachi Ware in the Second Half of the 19th Century: With Reference to De Ath & Co. of Kobe