We've commissioned the creation of a face-in panel from Ayaka Anayama, a beckoning cat artist and painter at the pottery studio "SUIYO," and it's now complete! It's available in store, so please come and try putting your face in. We'll be sharing a little behind-the-scenes glimpse into the production process.
Why a face-in panel?
We were thinking about how we could make "Hitotsuchi" a more cheerful store that would be more welcoming to people who were interested in our products. The products we carry are all wonderful products made by people in Seto, so there were a certain number of people who were hesitant to come in.
So they came up with the idea of face-in panels. There were face-in panels made by local artists all over Suehirocho Shopping Street, which matched the retro atmosphere of the shopping street perfectly.
In fact, Seto has been a birthplace of beckoning cats since around 1897, and the largest beckoning cat museum in Japan, the Maneki-neko Museum, is located right next to the shopping arcade. So we thought it would be fun if we could get beckoning cat artist Fumika Anayama to draw a face-in panel for us...! We made a bold request, and she gladly agreed.
What is depicted on the face-in panel
We spoke to the artist himself about the various things that were drawn on this face-in-the-wall piece.
"I think there will be a lot of children passing through the shopping district, so I tried to make the drawings pop and not too scary. I also didn't make the yokai too obscure, but ones that everyone would know. It would be nice if people said, 'I know this one!'
The other thing is Seto-ness. The potter's wheel and painting are standard in a pottery production area. Then, as I was drawing, I wondered what it was that made Seto-ness. I happened to be visiting the studio of Yoshijima Nobuhiro, a sculptor who makes prototypes for dolls, so I thought I had to include Yoshijima. I also saw the Instagram of kneading artist Mizuno Tomomichi and thought, "This is how it's done!" and tried drawing it. I also drew the climbing kiln from Seto Hongyogyo while looking at a photo."
Now, here is some slightly more niche information that is recommended for Fumika fans.
"When you think of Seto, you think of Komainu dogs. I wanted to incorporate an ukiyo-e feel somewhere, and since Komainu dogs are originally derived from lions, I used the Chinese Lion Screen by Kano Eitoku, a painter designated as a national treasure, as a reference for my drawing.
I really like Kawanabe Kyosai. Kyosai was originally He was a student of Utagawa Kuniyoshi and studied under the Kano school, a group of artists who created sliding doors and wall paintings as official painters for the shogunate.
"They were a group centered around blood relatives, and they underwent very strict training. I thought that in order to understand Gyokusai, I had to first study the Kano school, and it was just around the time that I was thinking about painting Kano school paintings, so even though I wanted to include Kano Eitoku's paintings, I tried to make sure they didn't look too different from the yokai, and that they would blend in a bit."
In addition to this, Fumika's secret devices are scattered throughout the book. Please take a good look and enjoy.
