Tomoko Inaba　イナバトモコ

The glass workshop where Inaba works is situated in a dense green area that suddenly appears from amidst a quiet residential district in Tokyo’s Nerima ward. The entire area is designated as a landscape zone where the building ratio and the like had been strictly prescribed in the early Showa period to maintain the natural landscape, the traces of which efforts can still be observed today. The glass workshop stands on a spacious site of over 660 square meters, beyond the courtyard approach surrounded by an old-growth forest. Inaba, with no initial intentions to become an artist yet expressing an interest in materials, enrolled at an art university where she studied sculpture that enabled her to engage with various materials such as metal, wax, and glass. She eventually came to be interested in blown-glass that students in the neighboring department had been studying, and upon graduating began her apprenticeship at the glass workshop where she has since continued to develop her practice.

Inaba’s works can be described as being simple, taking on orthodox forms without any use of color. She expresses a fondness for industrial products of the Showa and Taisho periods, citing them as a source of inspiration. Indeed, while her works are minimalist in appearance, they harbor a certain incompleteness attributed to handmade craftsmanship as can be observed in old industrial products. Her works do not convey any flamboyant personality or character, and although they may look similar to others, once one takes them in their hands, it is possible to clearly distinguish the difference. They soon become objects that are cherished and used everyday over a long period of time. The simpler the object, the more creators there are, and the more difficult it is to differentiate one’s work from others. Even within such context however, Inaba’s works harbor a unique and distinct charm. Their form, color, and thinness come together to create an exquisite balance that in turn become the originality of her work, embodying an air of “strength” that is only natural to standard classics.

It is meaningless to question Tomoko Inaba as to what concepts exist within her works. When asked if there was anything she considers particularly important in creating work, she had responded, “to conceal one’s personality.” As someone who finds difficulty in expressing herself to begin with, her attitude to production is in some ways calm and always objective. There is much depth to the art of glass making, and there is no end to the pursuit of technique and level of skill that is involved. Within such context, Inaba takes care “not to venture into and engross oneself in the world of glass making.” At times one can become too caught up with pursuing techniques and personal means of expression, that they lose sight of what they really wish to create, or what lies close to everyday life. From Inaba’s desire to “maintain a fresh and amateuristic sensitivity,” once could sense the figure of an individual whom confronts her own true existence, and engages in creating things not from the perspective of an artist, but from that of an ordinary consumer.