"Every piece of Finnish design brings us a feeling of relief"
from Kenji Ekuan, Chairman, JFDA
27.10.2010 10:00
"I visited Finland for the first time as early as 1961, traveling by myself. Without any particular destination, I just found myself wandering wherever my travels on foot and by plane took me. I wanted to know about Europe. Until then, when it came to Europe, the only countries I could roughly imagine were Britain, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands and the like.
"When I arrived in Finland, I was amazed by the Finns' friendliness toward the Japanese. In Sibelius Park, a man holding a bottle of beer told me "Hey, Japanese gentleman over there: this is an Amiraali Togo beer." So I came to have a very comfortable feeling I almost can't describe. The near legendary story that a small Asian country defeated the Goliath of the European continent was handed down for generations with respect. My sense of familiarity with Finland then grew. My mind found a comfortable place to be.
"Then I wandered the suburb of Helsinki at my pleasure. The landscape as a whole did not betray in the slightest what was said in some tourism pamphlets. I was deeply attracted by the beauty; I imagined that every lake had a beautiful deity residing at the bottom. Those lakes might be purified by the beauties. My imagination of a beautiful deity in each lake made my mind merrier. That meant each lake has its own mind.
"I had thought that animism was a sort of Japanese specialty, but the Finnish version was awesome. All of the fauna had its own spirit. Nature was speaking to me as nature. The elements expressed clearly that "I am a flower", "I am grass", "I am a mountain." They were not vague at all. They all said - straightforward - that a flower was a flower, a river was a river, and a mountain was a mountain. And, indeed, they really were.
"When we take a look at a Finnish designs, every one of them has a clear expression. Their form is simple and clear as in Japan; however, Japanese form is somehow a little different. Though, if we tried to make an exact copy, it will almost definitely come out different. But that is the point. Even a simplified expression of a flower is far closer to real flowers than the Japanese version. We have deer in Japan, of course, but a Finnish curved wooden reindeer feels more familiar to us than a real Japanese deer. The Finnish seem to have a very tender approach to nature. If people don't have tenderness, nature hardly reciprocates in the same way. It makes sense that Finnish design is rather unintentionally becoming a form than being intentionally created into a form. Creating something new is a good thing, but sometimes it makes a result seem ugly, if the creation is forced. We can state that a sense emitted from a Finnish design is derived from the Finnish view of nature. None of their designs gives the impression of being forced. Every piece of Finnish design brings us a feeling of relief."
Kenji Ekuan
Chairman, GK Design Group
Chairman, Japan Finland Design Association (JFDA)
