Mr. Kawarai, who also introduced 'Bungeishunjuh' for this guide, is Japan's leading
classic camera collector. His collection is made up of both well-known and rare cameras
from around the world such as a Kodak Circuit Panoramic camera, a French 'machine-gun'
type camera, a 1901 American Pacramics (sp?) camera, a 1900 French Guerman (sp?) stereo
camera, and a Number 4 black box.
Including 8 and 16mm cameras, there are about 1300 items collected over a forty year
period. He also has accumulated approximately 20,000 miscellaneous objects, including
hand-cranked gramophones, records, folk art, watches, signboards, store display shelves,
firelocks, old documents, textile samples, photos, bromides, movies pamphlets, and
handbills; photos of Kiryuu baseball; and material on hometown boys , Mayori Kurokawa, a
Japanese classical scholar, and Seiji Noma, the founder of Kodansha.
Signs alone number about 1000, from wooden boards advertising pharmacies, liquor shops
and taverns to enamelled iron plate and plastic signs. Among them is a large wooden sign
(76cm high, 272 cm wide and 3cm thick) commissioned by Kiryuu citizens in August, 1907,
for the old Noh theater (now a movie theater), the prefecture's first permanent Noh stage.
The thick, gold lettering engraved on the signboard tells us of Kiryuu life in those
days. "If you look at signs from the Edo period through to the Showa era, you will
understand the changing history of the town. It seems they were thinking of the town image
when they made these old signs. Their quality is much, much better than modern ones",
says Mr. Kawarai. "Next, I'll start a signboard museum" - a dream yet to be
realized.
Several pieces from the Kawarai Collection, including a bugle gramophone, records, a
rickshaw, a piano, an organ, Japanese dolls, and music box dolls, have been donated to the
Kyodo Shiryo Tenji Hall and the Kiryuu Meiji Hall.
Mr. Kawarai, who has never lost his passion for collecting, noted wryly, "In my
six room house, four rooms have been taken over by 'junk'." In 1989 the second floor
of a motorcycle showroom was converted to a gallery where he holds antique watch,
international camera and changing signboard exhibitions as well as mini concerts. |
