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Japan

`Let`s talk about tomorrow`s dream`, it says. Japan is full of these messages. I don`t know how effective they are, but at least it feels better to see them than grafitti swear words.
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I visited the workshop and the store of a local wood worker. Mr. Hatanaka is the city treasure of Owase. He is recognized for making beautiful high quality furniture with local materials, using the natural odd shapes of the materials as advantage, not as disadvantage. 30 years ago, when Japan was wholeheartedly chasing after efficiency and economical growth, his practice was given very little value. However, his furniture making was recognized by a professor from Kyoto University who was studying the works of George Nakashima, a Japanese American furniture maker. He was a Bhuddist, and his religeous belief influenced his works.

Mr. Hatanaka then took interest in George Nakashima, and to this day he has been deepening his respect for nature through his art. Mr. Hatanaka said `If we cut a tree 300 hundred years old, we must make it into something that we can use for 300 hundred years.`
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He usually makes big, expensive custom made furnitures. I thought about buying a few of them for several thousand dollars each, but I somehow changed my mind.
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His wife helps the store. She also does some wood working. She mostly makes small things, using the scrap materials from her husband`s works. She said that she wants to use every part of the tree without wasting, because it used to be alive, and in this way she hopes that the tree would be happy. Their daughter helps the store as a sales clerk, too.
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Mr. and Mrs. Hatanaka opened the workshop and the store just for me, on their day off. Thank you very much.
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Mr. Hatanaka talks about his trees.
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A present for me! ( Flowers are not included)
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I liked this little lamp.
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by ammolitering3 | 2007-12-15 16:58
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