日本

My Kansai Gaidai University Solo Show!

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Mia and I set out for Kansai Gaidai quite early, and arrived around 10am. We immediately greeted the Center for International Education’s staff and headed over to the International Communication Center to install the show. We strategized about the movable wall placement and then began to place and hang all of the artwork. Here are some images of the results, as well as the advertisements and KGU show panel:

While at Kansai Gaidai, I stayed in guest housing. I led a toast at the Asian Studies Program Completion Ceremony for the graduating class of students, and also attended a staff dinner. My hosts were very kind and welcoming! I had some free time on my hands as well, so I went into Kyoto to see Iwatayama Monkey Park in Arashiyama, checked out the Kyoto Handicraft Center and the Kyoto Museum of Crafts and Design, visited Zohiko Lacquer Shop, and attended the non-verbal play Gear. I also did a pretty far-away day trip to the town of Shigaraki, which is famous as one of the six ancient kilns of Japan and also the birthplace of the infamous tanuki statues you can find everywhere in Japan.

Once the exhibition ended, KGU staff once again kindly helped me and together we repackaged it into the shipping crate! After I said farewell, I headed down to Takeo-onsen for my second artist residency at Arts Itoya!

Fujisawa, Kamakura, and Enoshima

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In between exhibitions, Morningside board member Mia Sudo generously invited me to stay with her in a townhouse she owns in Fujisawa. This was because my artwork crate shipment from Nezu Memorial Museum to Kansai Gaidai University takes a few days in transit!

While in Fujisawa, Mia accompanied me to Kamakura and we scoped out Enoshima Island and the Enoshima Aquarium for my visit the following day too. In Kamakura, we visited a shrine - and along the path, I learned of a type of craft called Kamakura-bori (鎌倉彫) so we popped into a number of galleries and stores displaying this form of lacquerware.

Traditionally, wood from the katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) is carved and then coated in urushi sap in stages. In the beginning, this art form was influenced by imported Chinese lacquerware and other woods were used, but katsura proved to be the best available substrate. The price point of these pieces was high, which makes sense; urushi lacquer is difficult to use for a variety of reasons. The most notable feature of these pieces of lacquerware, aside from their iconic appearance and process, is how lightweight they are!

I really enjoyed visiting Enoshima Aquarium - some of my favorite exhibits were the cuttlefish and squid, the clione “sea angel,” and the jellies. I decided to buy a small stuffed souvenir, but this shop had a carnival-game twist - you have to prepay a set amount and then draw a ticket out of a “lottery” tumbler machine, which provides a number that corresponds to four different sizes. I won a size up from the smallest size, and I genuinely had to think if I wanted to swap back down despite my luck as I’d intended to buy the smallest one, but then I realized that I was going to be acquiring some fragile ceramics and other artwork in the next few weeks and having more lightweight padding should be a feature, so I accepted my scaled-up souvenir.

I then visited Enoshima Island (and my Japanese studies have taught me that “shima” is the word for “island,” meaning all English names for islands in Japan that end in -shima are redundant in the “ATM machine” sense). I’d read online that Enoshima was a cool place to visit and had natural caves to explore so it seemed worth checking out. In hindsight, though, I found the experience underwhelming. The main path through Enoshima has a commercialized and overly-developed feel, and much of the natural environment, including the caves, has been altered. If I hadn’t gone, I’d have felt like I was missing out given the reviews I’d read - but having been, I wouldn’t recommend it over other possible destinations.

Mia hosted me for dinner one night and we went out to eat several other times. One afternoon, she showed me part of a televised sumo tournament, which I found far more interesting than I expected! I didn’t previously know how fast each bout is; they’re over in seconds.

After three nights in Fujisawa, Mia and I set off for Kansai Gaidai University!

Yamanashi City’s the Best!

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Morningside University board member Mia Sudo came to pick me up at my hotel in Tokyo on the morning of May 19th, and we traveled together to Yamanashi City where we met with Mayor Takagi and a number of other officials. I gifted the city with an 14x11” print of Paper Snow (紙吹雪) in a 16x20” mat, and also gave Mayor Takagi and other attendees a variety of gifts including my handmade small dishes and chopstick rests.

The mayor and city gifted me with a 20th anniversary of incorporation celebratory chopstick rest, postcards, a tenegui which has a capybara cartoon on it amongst other illustrations, and a beautiful tapestry made out of a portion of a kimono decorated with flying plovers (an iconographically significant bird in Japan).

They also took me along with some other honored guests who spoke English well and could serve as additional company for me out to lunch, and then in the afternoon I got to visit a second-grade classroom’s art lesson and a fifth-grade’s English lesson.

The next day, Toizumi-san, our driver, and honored guest Mizuochi-san picked me up and took me on a wonderful tour observing Mt. Fuji and Oshino Hakkai, stopping for a wonderful soba lunch - it was my favorite soba I’ve eaten in Japan, and I’ve eaten it a fair amount! We even drove up to the fifth station, where hikers commence their climb of Mt. Fuji! However, the path is closed until July, as it is too cold at the top of the volcano until late summer.

We also stopped by Fuefukigawa Fruit Park, visited the Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, and also popped into an ice cream shop and visited an art supply and framing store.

The sheer amount of time that a number of Yamanashi City staff including Toshimi Toizumi-san, Chiemi Yokoyama-san, volunteer Maki Mizuochi-san, and many others put into showing me their home and surrounding areas was incredible. I even visited an onsen with Toizumi-san one evening!

On Saturday, May 24th, the closing reception, artist talk, and ceremony was held at Nezu Memorial Museum. Many people showed up, and one lovely woman told me about how she read quite a bit of my blog and was inspired by my research into Japanese culture, arts, and ikigai. She said she even read a short book on ikigai, thanks to me!

I am so thankful and honored by the generous hospitality that Yamanashi City showed me, and we all chose to say “see you again” rather than “goodbye” when the show closed!

Attending a Chopstick-Making Workshop in Kawagoe

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Last year in advance of my residency, I attended washi paper-making and kintsugi workshops in Tokyo before heading down to Yakushima, an island known for its natural wonders. There are always more things one could do than time to do them in, so I prioritized immersion in nature to gather reference imagery and experiences, but one of the opportunities I was sad to miss out on in Yakushima was the chance to make my own set of wooden chopsticks.

Since I was lucky enough to get to come back to Japan this summer, I looked into whether there were any chopstick workshops in or around Tokyo. The most frequent recommendation was to visit a town called Kawagoe, which by a combination of train, bus, and walking was about an hour and a half away from where I was staying. There, Wood Works Kawagoe (Karaki Woodworking) offers a workshop in making chopsticks.

When you arrive at the shop, you either can begin right away if there are available seats or you get a digital ticket reservation. When I showed up, all the seats were full but I was the first in line. One of the workers told me it would likely be around 45min wait, so I walked around the touristic “old town” streets of Kawagoe for a little bit, but 15 minutes later my seat was already open!

You first choose from a suite of wood blanks, selecting for either appearance, hardness, or both. I was instantly most attracted to the high contrast bocote of the selection options, which also happened to be one of the harder woods (and one of the most expensive). The shop presented the hardness of the wood as a potential upside and downside simultaneously, in that hardwood is good long-term for durability but is more difficult to shape, as it requires more strength to plane and sand. Bocote is a decorative wood not native to Japan (imported from Central America), but there are a lot of traditional woods for chopsticks that are imported including ebony, rosewood, and purpleheart.

I particularly liked one of the bocote wood blanks that had eyes in it, so I asked if they had any more pieces than what were on display so I could find a matching pair, and the staff kindly opened a deep drawer full of more blanks. I found two pieces that had a lot of contrast and some eyes.

A photo of me shaving down the first of my wood blanks.

Then I began the process of making my chopsticks. The blanks are printed with numbers on them, and you place one into a former in a specific sequence and shave down the wood with a plane until it becomes flush with the mold. You then rotate and put into the correct space in the sequence and do it again and again until you’ve done all four sides. Then you repeat the process with the second chopstick. I have to say that the hardness of the bocote was no problem at all at any stage, so I wouldn’t let the shop’s talk of needing sufficient strength impact your wood selection choice.

Sanding the chopsticks with coarse sandpaper.

Once you have finished planing, you refine the shape with a coarse sandpaper. Once you are happy with the shape of your chopsticks, you then polish them with a fine sandpaper. On this step, I polished until I thought they were likely good, and then asked a staff member to check. They said they could use more polishing, so I went back at it. I then asked again and received the same answer (which I was happy about - I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be aiming for or what was possible to achieve with the provided sandpaper, so I appreciated the feedback!). After polishing a third time, I got the OK to move onto the final step: oiling. I dipped each chopstick into linseed oil and rubbed it into the wood. This helps seal the surface while also highlighting the woodgrain.

When completed, you package the chopsticks and you’re done! I liked mine so much I thought maybe I should buy some sets of bocote chopsticks as souvenirs for others (the workshop also sells their own finished chopsticks), but when I went to look at their three bocote sets available for purchase, they were not nearly as beautiful as mine (and they were more expensive than mine as well, to cover the labor!). I ended up leaving with just my set. The workshop in total, including the type of wood blanks I selected, cost me about $35.

My finished, handmade set of bocote chopsticks!

I'm in Tokyo!

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I flew into Tokyo a few days earlier than my exhibition-related trip down to Yamanashi City, as I really feel jet lag so I wanted some time to try to burn a bit of it off first. I arrived on May 14th in the early evening. The next day, I stopped by my favorite paper store Ozu Washi to pick up a few items that I might want for my main event that afternoon: a traditional indigo-dyeing workshop at Hanten’s Mizuno Dye Factory at OKUROJI.

The workshop is of course intended for dyeing clothing, so I brought a few white cotton pieces along; however, I also wanted to dye some washi paper! Some of the washi I brought ended up not being suitable, but two pieces in particular were viable. I ended up dyeing those two along with a lightweight long-sleeved shirt and a blazer. The cost in total of the workshop was up there, but I thought it was worthwhile. I paid approximately $275 (and separately bought the items to dye as well) and spent over two hours preparing and dyeing my pieces.

I learned a bunch of tie-dye techniques in the process!

My Solo Show in Yamanashi City is Open!

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I’m so excited to share that my solo show in Yamanashi City’s Nezu Memorial Museum opened today!

The exhibition poster I designed for Living Bridges: Art, Ecology, and Sister City Connections.

As you may already know from previous posts, Yamanashi City is the Japanese sister city of Sioux City; I met their visiting delegation in honor of our 20th year of this sister city relationship at Morningside University in November 2023 and then visited Yamanashi City with Morningside University board member Mia Sudo in July 2024 after my Arts Itoya residency in Takeo-onsen, Japan.

Between then and now, many folks have come together to help celebrate all of these connections and the 20th year of Yamanashi City’s incorporation by having me present a solo art show in Nezu Memorial Museum! This has been a monumental undertaking that could not have been accomplished without the support of many people including Morningside University board member Mia Sudo, the Morningside University administration, Yamanashi City mayor Takagi, Ms. Yokoyama from the Yamanashi City Local Resource Development Division, numerous Yamanashi City Hall staff and Morningside University colleagues.

Living Bridges: Art, Ecology, and Sister City Connections will be on exhibit from April 26 - May 24, 2025, and I will be on site during its final exhibition week!

New Artwork: Paper Snow (紙吹雪)

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During my first visit to Yamanashi City, I shared with several folks from city hall that I kept being stymied in my quest to see species-standard tanuki; as a consolation, they took me to Yamanashi City’s Manriki Park in the hopes of sharing their capybara with me. I was told it was up to fate as to whether I’d glimpse him or not, as sometimes he prefers to stay indoors (out of view). Fortunately for me, he was outdoors when we arrived and I was able to take some photos of him!

I painted this Manriki Park capybara atop Uzurado dyed washi paper from Ozu Washi. Uzura means quail in Japanese, and is a reference to the “paper snow” or confetti scraps and speckles decorating the paper like quail plumage.

This is Paper Snow (紙吹雪), acrylic on Uzurado dyed washi paper, 21.5x17”, 2025. Note my katakana stamp signature on the lower left below the capybara’s feet - that stamp was an extremely thoughtful gift from Yamanashi City to me!

An acrylic painting of Yamanashi City's capybara on Uzurado dyed washi paper by Shelby Prindaville

An acrylic painting of Yamanashi City's capybara on Uzurado dyed washi paper by Shelby Prindaville

Returning to Japan for Two Solo Shows in May 2025!

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As you may recall, I attended a month-long residency at Arts Itoya in Takeo-onsen, Japan in June 2024. Bookending my residency, I traveled to other locations in Japan including Sioux City’s sister city, Yamanashi City. I am now very excited to share that thanks to the support of the Yamanashi City Hall and the encouragement and backing of Morningside University board member Mia Sudo, I have been invited to return and have a solo show in Yamanashi City in May 2025 in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Yamanashi City incorporation at the Nezu Memorial Museum Exhibition Building. After that exhibition’s conclusion, the show and I will continue on to Kansai Gaidai University in Hirakata (part of the Kyoto metro). Yamanashi City, Kansai Gaidai University, and Morningside University are all assisting to make these amazing opportunities possible.

I am extremely honored and grateful for the chance to exhibit with both of these institutions! 楽しみです！ベストを尽くす！

Upcoming: Arts Itoya Residency in Takeo, Japan!

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I’m excited to share that I will be attending the Arts Itoya residency in Takeo, Japan this summer for a four-week stay! Morningside University has been very supportive, and has given me both a Morningside Experience Grant and Ver Steeg Faculty Scholarship funding to help me accomplish this exciting project.

I try to learn at least some of the local language for all of my residencies, with varying levels of success. I’m proficient in Spanish, which helped a lot with my learning some French and Portuguese for residencies; with my recent Greek residency I learned enough to say a few greetings and somewhat be able to read the Greek alphabet, which helped in finding destinations via signage. For this Japanese residency, I knew I was going with enough advanced notice to actually enroll in a Japanese I class at Morningside this fall, and have been continuing to study Japanese this spring via Duolingo and a couple other apps as well as watching a lot of anime.

Japanese is a tough language to learn! The US State Department has categorized languages in terms of difficulty for native English-language learners. Spanish is a category I language, requiring an average of 750 class hours to achieve general proficiency. Greek is a category III language, requiring an average of 1100 class hours. Japanese is in the highest category, IV, at 2200 class hours. The other category IV languages are Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Korean.

At this point, I’ve studied Japanese more than any other language besides Spanish, and I am nevertheless not conversant yet in it. I can pretty much only accomplish basic one-way communication - me asking where the restrooms are, or saying that I am vegetarian - and very limited reading (I can read hiragana and katakana, but only know maybe 100 kanji). I can type it, but handwriting without looking at reference syllabaries is also not really within my capacity.

All that being said, this investment in learning as much of the language as I can ahead of time has already led to my giving a short speech fully in Japanese to our visiting Yamanashi City sister city delegation this fall, and has deeply enriched my knowledge of the culture and ecology of Japan. Several of my students have also gotten a kick out of being a classmate of mine! 私はこのなつ日本に行きます。たのしみです。