Yesterday we went to Mono Japan, a little exhibition with Japanese craft, design and art. The exhibition is held from 15 Februari until 19 Februari 2018 in the Lloyd Hotel & Cultural Embassy in Amsterdam, of which the 19th is on invitation only. We thought we could go quick on Friday around 13.00, but that was a little problem. We were already a little late and right before the bridge of Gorinchem we stood still for more than an hour. An accident has happened on the bridge and a little bit further on the A27 there was also an accident. But after 1,5 hour delay we finally arrived at the Lloyd hotel.
The exhibition is a little bit small, but the 1,5 hours we had left were not enough to see it all. So we ran over the exhibition, trying not to miss anything but also to enjoy the nice Japanese products that are showed. Most of the exhibitors are craftsmen, artists or shop owners with Japanese handmade products. The exhibition is divided over several floors of the Lloyd hotel, and on every floor only a couple of rooms are used for the exhibition.
The entrance fee is EUR 12,-, which I think is a little bit expensive for such a small exhibition. But if you have enough time then it’s also possible to follow some workshops like the tea ceremony (euro 12,-). Next to the tea ceremony you have a couple of other workshops for which you have to subscribe and pay, like a knife sharpening workshop, small bamboo basket weaving, Miso making in a special TOKONAME crock and Osaki pottery doll painting workshop. We didn’t do these workshops, so I can’t give you any information about it.
On the ground floor in the bigger room you have the tea ceremony. You can also see the collaboration between two Dutch creators (INAMATT en Roosmarijn Pallandt) and Sweet Hirado. The Dutch creators designed a lot of good looking sweets for the tea ceremony.
In the other room on the ground floor, I found the tableware from Utsuwa-shoken very beautiful. It’s a pity that the lady couldn’t explain it so well to us, because her English was very bad and we don’t speak Japanese ;-). But if I understand it correctly all the tableware is made by hand in Kamakura.
On the first floor there are two spaces for Mono Japan. 1 room for the Tsunagu Sonogi tea farmers, where you can buy traditional Japanese tea pots and Japanese tea, but it was also possible to try different tastes of the tea.
In the second room we found Fukumono shop with beautiful wooden boxes. Everything was made by hand in the beautiful minimalistic design that you see so often with Japanese products.
You can find a lot of different japanese knives at Mujun on the second floor and at the room of Orit I bought a beautiful hand-woven scarf.
On the fourth floor we found Kyo-to-to, who sells funny embroidery iron-on patches with Japanese figures.
The art forms from Shimpei Arima are also on this floor. His artwork Sugicodama exists out of several different sizes Japanese Cedar wood, carefully polished by hand.
Next to these exhibitors there were several others, but that became a little bit too much for this blog.
And if you’re completely done with the exhibition then the hotel is a nice place to look around. The hotel has a rich history and you see that in the hotel. The rooms are from 1 – 5 stars and are decorated with the help of a lot of designers and artists.
In the restaurant they serve during Mono japan 2018 a delicious Ramen soup. This soup is made by a real Japanese cook, who will open his Ramen restaurant in Delft in May.
And right before we went home, we bumped near the toilets into this Plant surprise.
Are you interested to visit Mono Japan 2018, then you can visit the exhibition today til 18.00 and tomorrow (Sunday 18 February 2018) from 10-18.00, or check the website for new dates.
Greetz Claudia
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