Panasonic Shiodome Museum of Art 20th Anniversary Exhibition "Mamoru Nakagawa: Beautiful Metalwork and Design"

In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Panasonic Shiodome Museum of Art, we will hold an exhibition introducing Mamoru Nakagawa (born in 1947), a metalwork artist from Panasonic and based in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture, and holder of the Important Intangible Cultural Property "Engraving" (Living National Treasure).
After majoring in industrial design at Kanazawa College of Art, Nakagawa joined Matsushita Electric Works (now Panasonic) in Osaka in 1971 and was involved in the design of beauty appliances and other products. After returning to his hometown at the age of 27, he saw an exhibition of stirrups at the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, and became fascinated by the local traditional craft of Kaga inlay. He then joined the goldsmith Takahashi Sukeshu (1905-2004) and trained while working at the Ishikawa Prefectural Industrial Research Institute. He has been selected and awarded awards at Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibitions, etc., and in 2004, he was recognized as an Important Intangible Cultural Property "Engraving" holder for his efforts to pass on the skills of metalwork. To this day, while striving to nurture the next generation at universities and mints, we are actively conducting overseas training in the United States, Taiwan, and other countries, and are developing activities from an international perspective.
The "inlay" pursued by Nakagawa is a technique in which the surface of a metal is carved with a chisel and different metals are fitted into the grooves to create a pattern. The depth of the inlaid part is extremely thin, less than 1 mm, and precise work is required. Among them, Nakagawa mastered the "overlapping inlay" that is composed of multiple metals and is said to be difficult. Nakagawa, who says, "The development of creation is the same for both craft and industrial design," and utilizing the production methods he learned as a designer at a company, he repeatedly made prototypes of metalwork and built a modern style of inlay with forms inspired by daily life and abstract patterns spun from his own memory.
In this exhibition, we will trace Nakagawa's early inlay works to his latest works, as well as a total of about 100 works and materials, including product designs he worked on in the 1970s and 80s, masterpieces of Kaga inlay that became the starting point for his career as metalworker, collaborations with contemporary artists, and works by the next generation who inherited Nakagawa's skills. Please pay attention to the spirit of design that lives on consistently in Nakagawa's inlay production and various efforts aimed at passing on traditional techniques.