The Ishikawa international Urushi Exhition 2009, the 8th exhibition, received 215 works applied from 13 nations and regions. At the Preliminary Assessment based on slides held on August 6 (Wed), 2008, 86 works of 12 nations and regions were selected. For the exhibition 82 works of 11 nations and regions were sent to the Executive Office. At the Final Assessment held on October 23 (Thur), 2008, 16 award winners were decided.
On October 24 (Fri), 2008 the Round-Table Discussion was held, where the Executive Committee reported the results of the Final Assessment and the members of the Final Assessment Panel made comments on the prize winners. They also express their impression on the Final Assessment and made some opinions on the future of Urushi art. We would like to introduce the outline of the discussion.

Opening

Boda: Good morning ladies and gentlemen. We would like to begin the Special Symposium for the Ishikawa International Urushi Exhibition 2009. I am Kazuo Boda, the Deputy Chairman of the Executive Committee of this exhibition and Managing Director of the Design Center Ishikawa.
I hope that the symposium will provide an opportunity to freely exchange your opinions and comments on the exhibition.

Introducing the panelists

Boda : All the panelists, thank you so much for coming all the way from your places to Ishikawa and participating in the Final Assessment for the exhibition.
First, Mr.Kenji Ekuan, one of the most renowned industrial designers in Japan.
Next, Prof. Nagatoshi Ohnishi, an Urushi Artist and Professor Emeritus of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. The Final Assessment Panel elected him as chairman.
Next, Mr. Ryoichi Komatsu, the Director of Kanazawa Utatsuyama Craft Workshop Center and Professor Emeritus of Kanazawa College of Art.
Nest, Prof. Kwon Sang-Oh, Professor of the Department of Industrial Craft of the College of Art, Silla University and the Director of the Lacquer Craft Research Center, Silla University.
Next, Mr.Fumio Mae, as you have already known, a Living Important Intangible Cultural Asset and an Urushi Artist in the field of Chinkin.
Next. I would like to introduce the new members of the Final Assessment Panel. First, Dr.Monika Koppline, the Director of the Museum fuer Lackkunst, Muenster from Germany.
She is recognized as one of the best critiques in the field of Urushi Ware in Europe.
Second, Mr. Shinichi Yamamura, a Design Consultant, the President of Cobo Design Co., Ltd. He has been involved in various activities of The Design Center Ishikawa.
Interpretation will be conducted by Ms. Yoshiko Hayakawa.

The outline and the progress of the exhibition

Boda : I would like to briefly report the outline and the progress of the exhibition. Please refer to the flier on the result of the Final Assessment. This exhibition started in 1989 as the International Exhibition of Urushi Ware with public call for entries throughout the world. This year marks its eighth anniversary of the exhibition. We have pursued new possibilities of Urushi from the perspective of design and our everyday life as well as new proposals of sensibility from home and abroad. We hope that the exhibition will help revitalize Urushi related industries and promote international exchanges and cultural activities in the field of Urushi. Especially, this time we have established a new award, “The Advanced Design Prize” so that it may help activate Urushi related industries.
We started public call for entries to the exhibition at the beginning of February 2008. 215 works were applied from 13nations and regions. On August 6, 2008 the Preliminary Assessment was performed by the panel. The panel members were Nagatoshi Onisi, Kwon Song-Oh, Shinichi Yamamura and Toyojiro Hida, the President of Akita Municipal Junior College of Arts and Crafts. They conducted the assessment by looking at each applicant’s slides. After their careful and strict assessment, 86 works of 12 nations and regions were selected. For the Final Assessment 82 works of 11 nations and regions were sent to the Executive Office. Yesterday at the Final Assessment all the jury members decided all the award winners. It was quite difficult for all the jury members to decide award winners but finally all the awards were decided.
The results are on the list.
We would like to begin the symposium and to ask Nagatoshi Ohnishi to be its modulator.

The Report on the preliminary and the Final Assessments

Ohnishi : Good morning ladies and gentlemen, Prof. Kwon, Mr. Yamamura, Prof. Hida and I conducted the Preliminary Slide Assessment. It is usually difficult for many reasons. So we exchanged our opinions and comments on each work by pointing out various problems. We selected 86 works at the slide assessment. I always wonder whether or not we have any other ways of assessing. In the case of international competition, it is nearly impossible for each applicant to send his or her work to Japan because if it is not selected we have to send it back to his or her country. It is one of the dif- ficult points in holding such an international competition. In the future we can make the most of IT methods but in some countries IT infrastructure has not been fully completed. At the moment, slide assessment is the best and fairest, I think. I have been involved in this Ishikawa International Urushi Exhibition since the first exhibition, even since its planning. This exhibition tends to be considered as an opportunity where excellent Urushi works are exhibited, but I think it larger scaled and more idealistic. Urushi culture has been developed in Japan and East Asian countries. Urushi coating techniques have been developed for tens of thousands of years. We have a dream that we will deepen our understanding of such a long history of Urushi and propose new ideas as possibility toward the future. Urushi, as a material, has great deal to our industry, art, and everyday life. We cannot grasp the true meaning of Urushi by focusing on only one problem.
Today’s society has faced quite a few problems in the fields of industry and economy. If we stick to the problems, we cannot see the basic beauty of Urushi. We will be confused. Instead, we should not forget to find true beauty of Urushi. Today each panelist will make some comments and opinions and even critiques on the results of the Final Assessment. My overall impression is that this exhibition has been spread to the world because many of the applied works from 11 nation and regions are satisfactory.
This time industrial promotion is clearly proposed as a new trial.
During the Final Assessment, each jury member had the same voting scores and they gave their scores to the works they thought excellent. Then all the scores were added up. High scored works were displayed in order of the scores and all the jury members discussed the works. It was indeed a hard work. I was selected as chairman and the assessment was performed with great care.