The other 5 samurai have gone back home to England now, leaving us for a final week in our wooden house in Toge, with no translator or housekeeper, but with sore throats, even more cucumbers and a temporary exhibition to look after. It’s not so bad:
We hit the ground running with a ‘ Toge village - Shield of Export’ workshop with the village ladies – a lifesaver for the linguistically challenged c/o a course I had to do recently , run by the UK Department of Trade & Industry in a hotel in the Lake District. With just brown paper and pens we tried to get to the heart of what the village felt they had to offer and what they really wanted. At times the drawing gave way to peals of laughter but our English tea and biscuits were heartily enjoyed and – unexpectedly – we generated an entire wall of fabulous looking drawings for the exhibition we’ve decided to run in the house for this last week.
The idea of a cafe / shop emerged strongly in the workshop so we have encouraged the women to use our house as almost a trial for that. In the planning meeting Kondo, our Triennale contact looked bemused at this but I think he has enough on his plate without trying to suppress the local ladies’ energy for getting rid of their ‘curi’ (cucumbers) glut.
We ourselves might come to regret this if the pile of unsold vegetables in the hallway gets any bigger......
