Only a culinary visionary would declare in 1935: "If clothes make the person, dishes make the food."
He went on to explain, "Appropriate care must go into their selection, not only in terms of quality, but also to see that the size, depth, color and other aspects of the dishes harmonize. Some people argue that as long as the food itself is palatable the container doesn't matter, but this is an ignorant line of thinking, like saying the sole function of clothing is to protect the wearer from heat and cold."
This visionary was the legendary Renaissance man Kitaoji Rosanjin (1883-1959), whose multi-faceted retrospective exhibition is now being shown in Kyoto at The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, until Aug. 16, afterward traveling to Matsue and Tokyo.