The civilization of the Inca Empire, which once flourished in South America, has always fascinated me—not only historically, but also through its art and design. So when I learned about the Inca Empire Exhibition: 100 Years Since the “Discovery” of Machu Picchu, I immediately went to see it at the Museum of Kyoto.
Inca Empire Exhibition — Encountering Another Tradition of Making
About 160 objects were displayed, introducing Inca civilization from many angles: the rise and governance of the empire, everyday life and belief, the history after the Spanish conquest, and Machu Picchu itself.
The sophistication of the civilization was astonishing, of course, but what especially drew me in were the forms, colors, patterns, and textiles that had been left behind.
Why did these particular forms and colors emerge from a land, history, and way of life so different from our own? Thinking about that as I looked, the objects stopped feeling like mere relics of an ancient civilization and made me curious about the very act of people making things.
The TBS official archive for “The Inca Empire Exhibition: 100 Years Since the ‘Discovery’ of Machu Picchu” still preserves information about the exhibition and Inca civilization.
A Catalogue Preserved in the Hitotsuya Library
The catalogue from that exhibition became part of the Hitotsuya（ひとつ屋） Library.
The exhibition itself was held at the Museum of Kyoto from April 16 to June 23, 2013, but having the catalogue close at hand means I can return at any time to the surprise and curiosity I felt there.
The inspiration I received from the Inca Empire Exhibition also found its way into later work at Hitotsuya. About a year after the exhibition, drawing on impressions from the Inca and other ancient civilizations of Central and South America, I created a roketsu-zome “El Dorado” T-shirt using Japanese wax-resist dyeing.
It is only one exhibition catalogue, but to me it is more than a souvenir. Encountering the civilization and making traditions of a distant land still prompts me to ask: if it were me, what would I make?