Love in Tokyo

No, this isn’t the preview of an Akshay – Katrina re-make of the 1966 box-office hit. Same era though, just that the woman happens to be in love with Japanese art.


(The following was published in Mumbai Mirror online on 15 January 2009)

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/11/200901152009011512431464781a72957/Love-in-Tokyo


As the modern-day race for acquisition rages on, human creativity seems to be at work in the background. It often receives little notice and is unfortunately sparse, yet it grows with mysterious persistence. Case in point: Manorama Khapde, the 70 year old artist cum craftswoman from Thane whose repertoire includes a wide range of fine arts and crafts both Indian and Japanese. Having studied at several institutes including the University of Tokyo and with a series of professional engagements at Camlin, Khadi Gram Udyog and over 30 schools in Bombay behind her, Manorama’s rich and colourful life exemplifies the leap from the ordinary to the extraordinary.

Humble Beginnings

Her journey began in 1954, when she decided to join Sir J.J. School of Arts much to her parents’ discomfort. “Those days doing a B.A. or a B.Sc. was far more respectable than pursuing fine arts. My parents eventually gave in but on the condition that I do not tell outsiders what I was doing!” she mentions.

After her course she joined the All India Handicraft Board at Worli where she learnt crafts like doll making, cane work and leather artisanship. Only men were allowed to enroll for the leather artisanship course since women were not expected to be able to withstand the stench which accompanies leather processing. That was hardly enough to deter her though and soon she found herself contemplating a student visit to Japan upon seeing an exhibition of Japanese dolls and other Japanese art at the Jehangir Art Gallery.

Tokyo Time!

“As a middle-class home-maker the idea of going alone to a foreign country to study its art forms was hard for people to digest”, she says matter-of-factly. And while finance was a major consideration her husband and brother showed their full support and she soon found herself in Tokyo armed with curiosity and a return ticket to India!



“I did not know then that the hardest phase in my life was about to start”, she says. Living in one of the most expensive cities in the world, getting adjusted to a foreign culture and overcoming the language barrier were difficult challenges but unforeseeable gateways opened themselves for her and she was able to secure affordable accommodation thanks to the consideration shown by a Japanese gentleman from the Indo-Japanese association. Life in the university was another matter though as she initially found herself alienated by her Japanese class-mates. “But then one day we were asked to introduce ourselves by creating something unique. I drew a Kimono design on an umbrella and from that day every body was friends with me!” she reveals triumphantly.



Over a span of 11 years she went to Tokyo seven times, each time for a period of six months. During this period she learnt Japanese crafts like Chu-ma-mi (Drawings made from silk cloth), O-shi-e (Drawings made from Kimono cloth on a card-board base) and traditional Japanese doll-making where depending upon the level of detail a doll can take up to three months to finish. Eventually she was awarded a tuition waiver and was even able to take care of her living expenses by teaching the Japanese what she had learnt in India!

Rare Reflections

For Manorama the experience in Japan was refreshing on account of the wide-spread respect and admiration that she witnessed towards native art as opposed to what she was used to in India. “The Japanese are very proud of their culture. Out there, indigenous handicrafts are most expensively priced and yet people are happy to buy them.” For her it was a pleasant change from the situation in India where local craftsmanship is surrounded in a general air of devaluation.

“It feels scary now to think of those times when any thing could have gone wrong. But it was perhaps my good fortune that every thing went fine”, she adds nostalgically.

Any regrets then? “My own institute for learning arts and crafts would have been nice, but somehow that never happened.” And as to her future plans, the reply is non-committal – “No plans!” she says, hands raised evasively.