Kites from Magoji, the legendary Japanese kite atelier, are on display at the Noguchi Museum shop until 6 August 2023
Don't discount a museum gift shop as only a place to buy merch. In fact, until 6 August 2023, the Noguchi Museum Shop, in New York, is mounting a special installation from Magoji, the legendary kite atelier from the windy Tobata region of Kitakyushu City, on Kyushu island in Japan. Magoji kites are revered in Japan: founded in the Meiji era by Magoji Takeuchi, these bamboo-and-washi paper aerial objects fashioned as folklore figures and animal creatures , are cultural totems.
This installation - which is really a thoughtful and curated selling exhibition - as Evan Scott, Manager of Retail and Merchandising, explains, is an opportunity to display some 70 of Magoji iconic designs, 'to give them greater context to see just how much work and vision is put into these.'How this all came about is a tale of inquiry and serendipity.
Indeed Magoji could supply the goods. And, as Scott observes, 'for craftspeople from Japan who grew up knowing about Noguchi having their work here is very meaningful.' Now in the shop, the kites are hung from the ceiling, with their washi-paper folklore figures illuminated by their material kin, Noguchi’s Akari lamps, leaving 'a fascinating play between two,' adds Scott.Isamu Noguchi, The Kite, 1959. Anodized aluminum .
The connection between Isamu Noguchi and kites is long and rich—in fact super fans of Noguchi might instantly remember the sculpture Kite, from 1958. But Noguchi’s connection to the high-flying toy wasn’t just a one-off inquiry of form. In fact, the Twentieth-century artistic titan 'was primarily interested in Japanese traditional craft' as Scott says, had a long-standing 'meeting of minds' friendship with Tsutomu Hiroi, perhaps Japan’s most famous kite-maker.
Hiroi was one of Noguchi’s sculpture assistants, even helping Noguchi on the Hiroshima Peace Bridge project, but broke out on his own in the 1950s to delve deep into the realm of kites; Noguchi stayed close, even writing the foreword to Hiroi’s definitive monograph in 1972. While the curatorial connection hasn’t ever been formally made, there’s often visual parity in Noguchi’s works that echo kite skeletons - just look at the 1955 stage sets hat he designed for the Martha Graham Dance Company.
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