シーラカンス 毛利武士郎記念館

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6　“Creative Craftwork for Everyday Life”^*1

While creating works of art to be placed in conceptual “abstract space”, Mohri was also creating smaller works as products to more directly engage with people’s living spaces.

This was in the tradition of the “creative craftwork for everyday life” that Mohri was regularly involved in during his time at Nanasai. At Nanasai, it was customary to give originally designed gifts to clients and guests on special occasions such as seasonal greetings, new product exhibitions, and anniversary celebrations. These gifts were mainly pottery and metal products, small objets d’art and everyday items that hold beauty in their utility or functionality. Mohri also produced many of these items during his time at the company. They were unique and experimental products and playful objets d’art that were not available in regular stores, but which were designed to match modern living spaces.^*2

In 1986, at the request of Gallery Hillstone in Tokyo who knew Mohri’s work at Nanasai, Yoshihiro Yamauchi approached and asked Mohri to collaboratively develop new products with him. Yamauchi was then a young employee in his mid-30s working for Kurotani Corporation, which was developing non-ferrous metal recycling, ingot manufacturing and sales, as well as the making and sales of art and craft products. The first collaborative work, a series of twelve zodiac pendant heads inspired by the constellation illustrations by Johannes Hevelius^*3, became a hit, and from then on, the collaborative relationship between Mohri and Yamauchi continued until the final years of Mohri.　

Following the constellations, they went on to create a series of reliefs called Mythos depicting various scenes and characters from Greek mythology, reliefs based on ancient Roman stories, and objects modelled on Pegasus and the “knight” of chess (a horse head). In each case, Mohri first made a detailed prototype using oil-based clay and an extremely fine spatula, then turned this into a plaster mould. It was then cast in metal such as gold, silver, platinum or bronze, and finally pressed into a shape that could be easily incorporated into a living space, such as a pendant head, trophy, decorative ashtray or framed artwork, and then commercialised.
　
The culmination of which he was working up until his final years was the Sistine Chapel series, which is a group of relief sculptures of parts of the grand fresco The Last Judgement painted by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. According to Yamauchi, Mohri was taking on the challenge of sculpting in three dimensions the painting of the sculptor Michelangelo, but he himself seemed to be enjoying the challenge. The highly-skilled techniques of carving up the details, even the “rear” side of the human body that are not visible in Michelangelo’s two-dimensional work, using the most primitive materials for sculptors, oil clay and spatulas, shows Mohri’s pride as a sculptor and even his playful spirit, and is actually quite gripping to see.

The profits from the production and sale of these “creative craftworks for everyday life” apparently helped Mohri to buy his first lathe machine. Considering the fact that without the lathe, it would not have been possible to make the prototypes and complete the series of metal works using machine tools in his later years, it seems that for Mohri, the production of works as conceptual art and the production of works as products that are closer to people’s living spaces were linked and had a mutually complementary relationship.

Text by Naoko Mabon

*1 Hideyuki Fujii, The History of Nanasai 1945-2005, Nanasai Co., Ltd., 2015.
*2 Hideyuki Fujii, The History of Nanasai 1945-2005, Nanasai Co., Ltd., 2015.
*3 A star map with constellation illustrations by the 17th century Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius.

Reference:
– Interview with representatives from Nanasai Co., Ltd. (Keiji Watanabe and Masanobu Ikeda) and Hideyuki Fujii, May 2024.
– Interviews with Yoshihiro Yamauchi (ACP Corporation Co., Ltd.), May 2024.

Image captions:
– A ceramic vase created by Mohri (1969, Nanasai’s seasonal gift). Height approx. 20cm. Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara. Image courtesy of Nanasai Co., Ltd.
– Metal hand-shaped object created by Mohri (1971, Nanasai exhibition commemorative gift). Length approx. 10cm. Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara. Image courtesy of Nanasai Co., Ltd.
– Metal apple-shaped jewellery box created by Mohri (1976, Nanasai 30th anniversary commemorative gift). Diameter approx. 10cm. Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara. Image courtesy of Nanasai Co., Ltd.
– Sagittarius pendant head from the zodiac pendant series inspired by the constellation illustrations by Johannes Hevelius. Alongside the original illustration (Hevelius Constellation Illustrations, Chijin Shokan, 1977) and the plaster mould of Mohri’s clay relief. Plaster mould: approx. 25x25cm. Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara.
– The Mythos pendant series, which is based on Greek mythology, including “dancing arcadian girls” and “Achilles fighting Hector of Troy”. Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara.
– The Sabine Women, based on a story from ancient Rome. Clay model coated with graphite. Width approx. 6.5 cm. Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara.
– Europa I, which is thought to be based on a woman who appears in Greek mythology. Work: height approx. 7.5cm. Frame: width approx. 26cm. Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara.
– One piece from the Sistine Chapel series, which is a sculptural reproduction of Michelangelo’s painting The Last Judgement. Original model in oil clay. Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara.
– Cast model in plaster. Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara.
– Cast model in metal. Photo by Ryōhei Yanagihara.