"Aikyaku" refers to guests who happen to find themselves sharing the same seat. In kumikō, the incense-guessing game of the Japanese Way of Incense, a single incense that is not presented during the trial round (shikō), and thus resists comparison with anything already known, is called the "kyaku" (guest). The title of this exhibition is the name of an incense that layers these two meanings. When one "listens to" incense, its object is lost in the very course of appreciation. Even so, through established etiquette, incense has endured as a form of appreciation. This structure overlaps with the Japanese attitude of mederu—to cherish—in which vessels are spoken of in the language of touch, and sensations are bound to memory through mitate (allusive likening) and mei (poetic names).

Makers, too, dwell within this same attitude. To "listen to the clay" or "listen to the fire" is not a metaphor; it refers to the very process of entrusting one's judgment to the resistance of the material. A work is completed by the presence of one who listens to it. If looking is a means of grasping an object, listening hands the initiative of time over to the object. Works differing in material, generation, and origin come together in a single gathering, sharing the room with the fusuma paintings of Tomioka Tessai. Works and visitors alike become aikyaku—fellow guests—to one another.

The exhibition will be held in the Tessai Room, which is normally closed to the public. Visitors will have a special opportunity to see Tomioka Tessai’s fusuma painting Oe Hogyo-zu (Fishing on the Great River).

Concurrent exhibition: KOGEI ARTISTS LEAGUE (Saishian)