村上隆さんのインスタグラム写真 - (村上隆Instagram)「I decided to read Subete no zakka (All the everyday items), a book that was introduced on kogei-seika @kogei_seika and utsuwa-note @utsuwanote It is a collection of essays by Teruoki Mishina, who operates a zakka store (zakka being all manner of inexpensive everyday items bought for practical use, as collectibles, for fashion and decoration, or for home or lifestyle improvement) called FALL near Nishi-Ogikubo Station on the Chuo Line. Yasuharu Sugano of kogei-seika and Takeaki Matsumoto of Utsuwa-note both seem to react to the ideas of "the environment surrounding zakka" and "zakka and beauty” discussed in the book, but that’s their take; I won’t go into that here. Rather, it was the feeling of encountering something familiar from the past that gave me the sense of satisfaction, mentally, after I finished reading the book. What I mean by that is that finishing this book felt similar to reading the early Haruki Murakami short stories. The way the main character—or in this case, the author = a person of culture—equipped with a lot of information, exiting his youth and approaching his middle-age, bemoans the abundance and transience of his surroundings evokes the main characters of Haruki Murakami works from around the time of his debut. Today's cultured people, it seems, discuss the fine balance maintained at the locus of their hearts as Amazon and other e-commerce have found their ways deep into our everyday lives, wax nostalgic about their families, and ponder their own melancholy. Have a female character enter the scene and get the main character to start pulling noodles instead of boiling spaghetti, and there you have it, the updated version of the world of Haruki Murakami from back then. What gave me the sense of satisfaction was this: These days I have been committed to researching the structure that gave rise to the ceramics industry after the burst of the Bubble Economy, and in the process I have learned that Ichiro Hirose, the owner of the ceramics gallery Toukyo in Nishiazabu, who has been pulling the industry forward, used to run a bar. Around the same time, Haruki Murakami also owned a bar. →Continue」8月18日 18時21分