Hashi-oki 1000 Project



The Great East Japan Earthquake: Hashi-oki(chopstick rest) 1000 Project








2011, March 11th 2:46pm.

The huge earthquake struck east Japan while I was taking 4 guests around the Kasamori Kannon- Goddess Temple, close to my studio in Chiba.Tremor was magnitude 8.9.

As the train services were suspended around Tokyo and Chiba, I asked them to stay at my place that night. The next 12th morning, after confirming the starting of the traffic service, I took my guests to Chiba station by my car, praying for their safe trip to home.

Picture of damages from the earthquake and Tsunami were repeatedly broadcasted on TV. It was really a disaster. To make the matters worse, Fukushima nuclear plants were hit by Tsunami, and the serious condition was gradually revealed.

As I could not calm myself to clay work, started thinking and asking “What can I do as a potter in this situation?”

Finally, two things came up to my mind.
A charity sale of my works! One was the sale of the chamfer vases which I already had. The other was to make the chopstick rest, hashi-oki, newly for the charity.
And donate all the profits to the victims and the reconstruction of the disaster areas.

I have been planning the tour of solo exhibitions 3, 4 times a year at the gallery of department stores. So, maybe I will be able to ask them to prepare the space for charity. I set the target figure to 1000. If I prepared 50 for one exhibition, I would achieve the number in about 7 years. Long-term support will be necessary for the recovery from the earthquake disaster.

So, I took the action to my charity project.

I carved the date “20110311”, on the reverse side of hashi-oki.
I used various types of clays and ash-glazes to make them. Shapes were all different, slender one, plump one…. They will make a circle, just like the people from all over the world, different skin colors, thoughts and religions, get together and pray to confront this catastrophe.

This is the image of my project.

I am dreaming of making a spiritual circle, together with the people supporting and appreciating this project. And in the future, the bigger circle will be made with 1000 hashi-okis, with the prayer of 1000 people.

When I told about this project to the gallery staff of Matsuya department store, they willingly cooperated and prepared the charity space.

This is the kickoff of “Hashi-oki 1000 project “.

June 2011, the first solo exhibition after the earthquake was started at Matsuya store in Tokyo, Ginza. 100 hashi-okis which I made for charity were sold out in 2 and a half days. It was a happy response!
I’d like to express my hearty gratitude to everyone who supports this charity project.
And also to Matsuya store for their kind cooperation.

I will keep working, dreaming of the bigger circle of 1000.
I would be so happy if you support this project, and pray for the recovery from the disaster together.

All the charity goes to Japanese Red Cross.



Charity Hashi-oki by Jun Nakano: ¥1,000 each at a solo exhibition site.

[Next]Toyama : Solo Exhibition at Daiwa 5F Community Gallery in April 15-21, 2015 .



Progress Report(2014.12.8.)




Hashi-oki 1000 Project --- Progress Report (2015.6.3.)



Progress report of this project is as follows.(June 3, 2015)



     Session           Site     Unit sales   Donation
① June 8 - 14 2011         Tokyo       100     ¥104,000
② October 26 - November 1 2011  Nagoya        100     ¥100,000
③ December 7- 13 2011      Kanazawa      50       ¥51,000
④ January 12 - 18 2012       Hiroshima   50       ¥50,000
⑤ October 17 -23 2012       Tokyo       100     ¥101,000
⑥ November 21 - 27 2012     Okayama      50         ¥50,000
⑦December 8 - 16 2012      Kumamoto    40        ¥40,000
⑧January 24 -30 2013       Hiroshima     50        ¥50,000
⑨0ctober 30 - November 5 2013   Nagoya       70      ¥70,000
⑩November 21 - 26 2013      Kanazawa    18      ¥18,000
⑪May 21 - 27 2014           Toyama       40       ¥40,000
⑫September 17 - 23 2014     Tokyo       100     ¥101,000
⑬October 21 - 27 2014       Fukuoka      20     ¥20,000
⑭November 26 - December 2 2014 Okayama      29         ¥30,500
⑮April 15 -21 2015         Toyama      45     ¥45,000
⑯May 21 - 27 2015         Hiroshima      26    ¥26,000
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
     Subtotal                    888      ¥896,500





①Tokyo2011     ②Nagoya2011    ③Kanazawa2011  ④Hiroshima2012

⑤Tokyo2012     ⑥Okayama2012   ⑦Kumamoto2012  ⑧Hiroshima2013

⑨Nagoya2013   ⑩Kanazawa2013   ⑪Tokyo2014    ⑫Toyama2014

⑬Fukuoka2014   ⑭Okayama2014   ⑮Toyama2015   ⑯Hiroshima2015







I’d like to express my hearty gratitude to everyone who supports this
charity project.
And also to each department store and Shimada Museum for their kind cooperation.