Japanese local designer Umehara Makoto came to Taiwan to hold the "Lighting Customs: Taiwan-Japanese Local Design Exhibition". (Provided by Neiwei Art Center)
Umehara Makoto, known as Japan's ancestor local designer, will present his local design practice in Taiwan for more than 40 years for the first time. The Kaohsiung Neiwei Art Center will launch "Land of Customs: Local Design in Taiwan and Japan" from November 14 to February 14, 2027. "Exhibition" brings the 40-plus years of classic practice of Japan's ancestral local designer Umehara Makoto to Taiwan for the first time, launching a cross-sea dialogue with the local team in Kaohsiung, and gathering a total of 39 groups of agricultural, fishery and ecological design cases from Taiwan and Japan, leading the public to re-see the value of land.
A view of the outdoor T-shirt art exhibition at Neiwei Art Center. (Provided by Neiwei Art Center)
Umehara is a design geek who has been working in Kochi Prefecture, the last stage of Japan's economy, for many years. In the past, he has repeatedly rejected invitations from major capital companies in Tokyo, insisting on staying in rural areas where the population has emigrated. He relies on his unique skills of "primary industry multiplied by design equals scenery" Philosophy has turned abandoned straw and chopped-down chestnut hills that no one wanted into a legendary brand that earns billions of yen every year. Even MUJI art director Kenya Hara once publicly confessed: "Looking at his designs, I always feel that I can't win at all."
Umehara Makoto was born in Kochi Prefecture in 1950. He studied economics at university. He quit his art job at a television station at the age of 29 and traveled across the United States alone. At the age of 30, he returned to his hometown to establish a design office. At that time, Japan was undergoing a high degree of urbanization, and rural residents generally lacked self-confidence. However, Umehara firmly believed that "there is nothing in the countryside" was just an illusion. The designer's task was to dig out the original absolute value of the land. His most famous masterpiece is a case commissioned by a fisherman in the 1980s. At that time, Kochi fishermen insisted on using the laborious "Ippon fishing" to catch bonito to keep the fish intact, but faced the dilemma of keeping the fish fresh.
"LOCAL LOCAL Dare to truly unite nothing?" exhibits Umehara's local design practice for more than 40 years. (Provided by Neiwei Art Center)
Umehara had an idea and suggested that the fishermen use the worthless discarded straw in the farmland to directly burn and smoke the fish, multiplying the two most inefficient traditional methods to create a star product that "makes a positive out of a negative." This seemingly crazy proposal generated a turnover of 2 billion yen in the first five years, and now it sells up to 6 billion yen every year. It even has to import rice straw from Taiwan because the local rice straw is not enough to burn. In addition to the bonito miracle, Umehara also used a 5-page plan to turn the 4-kilometer-long coast into the "Sunahama Museum" in order to protect his hometown beach from being built by a consortium into a large resort, using waves as the soundtrack and whales as the curator. He even repackaged discarded chestnuts from Shimanto Town that had been beaten down by cheap imports as "Shimanto chestnuts", setting a record of selling for 6 million yen in one week. Umehara has always believed that preserving the true local personality is the way to the forefront of the world. In addition, Mei Yuanzhen will also hold a master lecture at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts on November 16 to personally analyze how to transform local characteristics into a long-lasting good business, and invite the public to enter the park to experience the charm of the local customs. For details, please visit the official website of Neiwei Art Center.
