KEIKO KOMA net

14 Feb. 2010

Faith of Koma

Plates we are using at the Koma gallery Café at Yasaka were specially ordered by me and were painted with traditional lacquer and in suitable dimensions. I called them Koma-bon and I finished them with my mind-scape drawings using gold foil. Intentionally I left part of job to be done in Kyoto so we had them delivered half finished from our atelier in Tokyo. And actually I enjoyed finishing them very rapidly in Kyoto receiving special atmosphere. As each plate was different I asked my staff to place cups, chop sticks, spoons and saucers in such a way that they would be in harmony with mind-scape drawings. They also enjoyed placing them every time they served it not to mention that our customer looked very happy with it. People talked a lot about its beauty. While the tables at our shop were all made of one piece of precious wood, I decided to serve our coffee, Zenzai rice cakes suites in this manner using Koma-bon. Everything looked beautiful. I always enjoyed giving a name to my new art works and in so doing to Koma-bon, I sensed its atmosphere, fragrance and air and looked for a suitable name. One day I came across a book of ancient tales of Koguryo and I read a sad story, keeping faith at the sacrifice of one’s own life. As I had a similar nature, I realized its deep sadness and shed tears. It was indeed a big theme in my life, a good and bad point. Then I acknowledged a new idea of faith true to everything. While I wanted to keep the special table in perfect condition, I did not want our customers to be nervous about it. What I wanted was to let them appreciate and enjoy our special beautiful atmosphere. Preserving something did not have energy to go ahead. Everybody should just enjoy our shop without paying special attention. Therefore I decided to call my plate Koma-bon as it sounded beautiful and practically served perfectly for this purpose. At the same time the word ”faith” in the book appealed to me very much and I realized that this was the idea behind my wish to express and share the heart of Koma at our shop with many people. At some time later, I was searching by internet for these days’ climate in the land of Koguryo in China, and I also came across a website saying that traditional lacquer paint was originally imported from there. Once again I was greatly impressed and felt grateful to my ancestors. Out of great joy and wonder, I decided to hold this month a Koma-bon fair at the Koma gallery Café and was looking forward to receiving everybody.