7th Entrance Lobby Exhibition “Encounter Between the Catalan Sculptor Eudald Serra and the Ainu”

This exhibition presents Eudald Serra’s visit to Hokkaido in 1947, focusing particularly on his encounters with the Ainu in the Shiraoi area and in Chikabumi, Asahikawa, as well as his artistic and collecting activities.

Eudald Serra Güell (1911–2002) was an avant-garde sculptor who trained in Barcelona between 1930 and 1935. In 1935, he arrived in Japan, where he lived until 1948.
From 1937, Serra developed a strong interest in Japanese folk art, as well as Ainu culture through his involvement with the Mingei Movement. In 1947, he had the opportunity to undertake a long-awaited journey to Hokkaidō. Photographs, sculptures, and drawings created by Serra himself, as well as other objects collected during his stay in Hokkaidō are currently preserved mainly in Catalonia.

Around Shiraoi, Serra met Mori Kyūkichi, who years later became the second president of the Ainu Association of Hokkaidō, the eminent linguist Chiri Mashiho and Miyamoto Ikasimatoku, who was running some tourism business and taking care of visitors. While in Shiraoi, Serra worked at the Kinoshita photography studio, where he made two head sculptures portraying Miyamoto Ikasimatoku and his daughter-in-law. Serra also acquired some drawings made by children from Shiraoi.

In Chikabumi, Asahikawa, Serra was welcomed into the home of Kawamura Kaneto, then director of the museum that now bears his name, the Kawamura Kaneto Aynu Museum. During his stay, Serra created a head sculpture of one of Kawamura’s sons and met some important Ainu figures. On his last day, Serra attended an iomante (bear spirit-sending ceremony).