The Japanese aesthetic sensibility extended to everyday life, obliterating the line between high art and craft. They lavished utilitarian objects with unassuming, artful designs, at times taken to the point of abstraction. Subject matter was drawn from nature, everyday life, even religion.

Ceramic food dishes and oil drip plates bear floral, plant and vegetable motifs. A bold and weighty Shidoro sake bottle captures our attention with its persimmon-like glaze with iron and gold drips and three pinched in sides. Quickly rendered paintings with flat, broad areas of color and black outlines exemplifies the folk tradition of otsu-e, souvenir works for sale around Lake Biwa.

There are festival masks such as our demon with red lacquer finish, dating from the early Edo period.

Mingei objects possess a clarity of form and directness of design, elements which appeal to the modern sensibility. The artists are unknown, they are from the people.

OPEN HOUSE SUNDAY , OCTOBER 1 FROM 3 TO 5PM

131 EAST 83 STREET, 7D, RING RED BUZZER

ALL OTHER TIMES BY APPOINTMENT, MOST AFTERNOONS

646-2498500 carole@caroledavenport.com​