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Kazari Collector + Cafe
Kazari
450, Malvern Rd Prahran Melbourne Vic
3181
The
flag ship store and gallery, Kazari Collector is a multi functional
gallery and innovative retail space with sculpture courtyard and
Japanese café.
Antique furniture from Japan and China - from
Ming to modern - classic and eclectic - antique and functional -
decorative objects and contemporary ceramics -
architectural and landscape features - antique decorative
objects, and collectables purchased with the integrity of 30 years
experience for authenticity, quality and integrity of
style.
Fine Art - Japanese screens, paintings and
prints C16th C20th, contemporary art and sculpture www.kazarigallery.com and furniture and
collectables.
NEW
Kazari
Annex
440, Malvern Rd
Prahran Melbourne Vic 3181
Almost
next door to Kazari Collector - just 20 metres away -
Overflow store and replacement of Kazari Decoorator. (now
closed).
Antique furniture from
Japan and China - from Ming to modern - classic and eclectic -
antique and functional - decorative objects and contemporary
ceramics - architectural and landscape features - antique
decorative objects, and collectables purchased with the integrity
of 30 years experience for authenticity, quality and integrity of
style - and excellent examples at our other
stores
Kazari warehouse +
Ziguzagu
7- 11 Hill St. off Church St
(Richmond) Cremorne Melbourne Vic
Kazari Warehouse is open to the public -
sales and restoration workshop for furniture and objects and
home of Zigusagu.
Ziguzagu Japanese vintage textiles - a mecca
for fashionistas and lovers of Japanese fabrics and
kimono www.ziguzagu.net
Kazari directors have pursued their
passion for art and aesthetics since the 70's
Kazari is widely known for antique furniture,
antiques, fine art and folk art from Japan and was lauded in
Architectural Digest as one of the best stores in Melbourne. In
2002 they were principal sponsors of SPRING FLOWERS,AUTUMN GRASS -
the Spirit of Nature in
Asian Art exhibition showing works from the
collection at the NGV (National Gallery of
Victoria)
More recently they have been widening their
vision to include contemporary art and exhibitions in African
and other tribal art. Their vintage textile department,
Ziguzagu, is a mecca for lovers of textiles, crafts people and
fashionistas.
History:
Directors : Robert Joyce and Jo
Maindonald.
Robert Joyce travelled widely in S.E. Asia in
the 70's, visiting and trading in the more remote islands of
Indonesia and with the hill tribes of the Philippines and in
Thailand.
Together Robert Joyce and Jo Maindonald spent
time in Japan and S.E. Asia in the late 70's- early 80's, before
dealing in Japanese antiques and art until China opened
up for trade.
KAZARI Japanese Interiors was founded 1978 in High St, Armadale, Melbourne after a decade of
other minor ventures which included for Robert, the flea market at
the Carl ton Pram Factory in the early 70's.
Robert and Jo started the first MADE IN JAPAN store in Chapel St,
South Yarra; a cutting edge concept for its time, originally
conceived to showcase riding the wave of interest
in Japan in the postwar
period. Fashion parades were held showing the great
Japanese designers of the period - and work inspired by them which
was sold in the adjacent boutique SHO. The business was sold in the late 80's while
the partners refocused on antiques and art.
KAZARI Art and Antiques occupied the rear gallery with garden in
Chapel St and then moved to 290, Malvern Rd in 1995 as
KAZARI and the
Orientalist.
In 2006 they opened their new gallery KAZARI
collector and renamed the other two to reflect the difference
between the 3 stores.
kazari: Japanese ='to decorate' or 'to exhibit'
'to arrange with wit'
kazari is central to Japanese aesthetics:and is the
foundation upon which KAZARI was conceived; it underpins its
essence and aesthetic sensibility, while KAZARI widens the vision
beyond that of the physical and geographical limitations of Japan
and the region.
The name kazari is a very old Japanese word
meaning elegant style involving choice and placement of objects and
extends from hair ornaments to social activities such as taking
tea, literary gatherings and seasonal festivals as these events
transmute the ordinary into the extraordinary. At Kazari Collector
we offer an exhibition program to take our customers out of the
‘everyday into the realm of sacred’ though our art, sculpture,
exhibition, events and food program.
definition: kazari
The basic meaning of the verb kazaru is ‘to
decorate, to adorn’ also in the sense of ‘to exhibit’, ‘to put on
show’ .It has since developed to become an integral part of the
Japanese language and traditional aesthetics. Kazari does not
conform solely to the Western aesthetic of ‘fine art’; it can be
applied to categories of art such as painting, but encompasses
everything from ceramics to hair accessories. Kazari extends to
participation in social activities such as tea, literary gatherings
and seasonal festivals as these events transmute the ordinary into
the extraordinary. Kazari is an ephemeral sensation that through
surprise and splendour can take you out of the everyday into the
realm of the sacred.”
Edited from: Kazari:
Decoration and Display in Japan, 15th –19thcenturies British Museum 2003
Wabi Sabi Suki
Extract from 'WABI SABI SUKI :The Essence of Japanese
Beauty' – by Itoh Teiji
Wabi:
Tranquil Simplicity The refined and elegant
simplicity achieved by bringing out the natural colors, forms, and
textures inherent in materials such as wood straw, bamboo, clay,
and stone, as well as in artifacts crafted from them like
earthenware, tile, handmade paper, and lacquerware, and in textile
fibers like hemp, cotton, or silk – this is the core of wabi. Wabi
may describe beauty in nature untouched by human hands, or it may
emerge from human attempts to draw out the distinctive beauty of
materials. While eschewing decoration, contrivance, or showiness,
wabi treads the fine and precarious line between beauty and
shabbiness. To discover wabi, one must have an eye for the
beautiful, yet it is not an aesthetic understood by the Japanese of
old, but a quality that can be recognized by anyone, anywhere who
is discriminating and sensitive to beauty.
Sabi:
Patina of Age Beauty that treasures the
passage of time is sabi, echoing the original meaning of the word:
rust or patina. Objects or constructions created from organic
materials and used in daily life are of course beautiful when they
are brand new. But sabi describes the new and different phases of
beauty that evolve in the course of their use and enjoyment, and
the conviction that the aesthetic values of things is not
diminished by time, but enhanced. The wear and tear of daily use,
lovingly repaired and attended to, does not detract, but adds new
beauty and aesthetic depth. Indeed, sabi is at its ultimate when
age and wear bring a new thing to the very threshold of its demise.
Appreciation of sabi confirms the natural cycle of organic life –
that what is created from the earth finally returns to the earth
and that nothing is ever complete. Sabi is true to the natural
cycle of birth and rebirth.
Suki:
Subtle Elegance Originally expressing
attraction, fascination and curiosity, suki is aesthetic adventure
beyond conventional standards, delight in the unusual, curious or
idiosyncratic. Initially, suki seems to have expressed an idea of
beauty that was heretical and unorthodox. The shogun Ashikaga
Yoshinori (1399-1441) was a patron of the arts known for his revolt
against old and established aesthetic rules. His salon was
receptive to bold and new ideas that were to become firmly
established in the sixteenth century as what we might describe as
“subtle elegance”. Many today are devotees of suki, the pursuit of
beauty in unconventional forms and guises, but their search
continues to be faithful to the quality of subtle elegance, which
circumscribes the ageless essence of suki.
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