Oedo Shokunin Ten―Daikokubashira (Greater Edo Craftspeople Exhibition: The Main Pillar) (2008)

Clients: Sumida City/Oedo Sumida Shokunin Ten Execution Committee

This was a project to design a symbolic object for the first exhibition put on by prominent craftspeople of Sumida City who belong to the Sumida City Traditional Crafts Conservation Society, which was held in the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Ryogoku. The object was named Wazabito Daikokubashira (the main pillar of skillful masters) and was to be a showcase of craftsmanship in Sumida City.

Takahashi was commissioned to design the Pillar, together with a group of masters of various professions who exemplify the best of Japan's crafting skills.

In preparation, Takahashi tried to discover what needed to be incorporated as fundamental elements of design. She decided that the core concept of the Pillar had to be to create an object that would last for 100 or 200 years, thereby passing on the expertise of craft making and the names of the masters to their successors and future generations. Takahashi thought that, rather than asking the masters to make something within the constraints of what Takahashi designed, they should freely create something which fully demonstrated their skills, and then turned that into a pillar, but with considerations for storage (it can be broken down into parts), portability (it can be transported and displayed anywhere), and most importantly, for it to fully demonstrate each master's skills. The Pillar itself was going to be made by Tanaka Inc., a paulownia chest manufacturer, in a lavish way, and on each level of the pillar, works of the masters were to be displayed. Names of all the masters would be written by a "maestro" calligrapher of Edomoji (traditional lettering style). This was the design Takahashi came up with.

The result was a flamboyant pillar, packed with masterpieces, which has a phoenix spreading its wings atop a mikoshi (portable shrine).