Free your mind and take a look around. Inax Gallery reminds visitors that everything that exists in this world -- even something that would be unlikely to ordinarily attract attention -- has an interesting story to tell.

Located in Tokyo's pricey Ginza district, Inax Gallery stimulates the imagination through an exhibition of items linked to architecture, design, interior decoration and their contribution to civilization, as well as contemporary art.

Inax Corp., the nation's top maker of ceramic products, tiles and sanitary ware, opened the venue in 1981, adjacent to a showroom exhibiting its products.

The gallery space is on the second floor of the six-story Inax Archi Plaza. The showroom occupies four floors while the first floor has a store selling books and magazines on art, culture and architecture.

However, based on the company's belief that corporate cultural activities cannot be linked to its business, visitors may find it hard to sense Inax's corporate image from the gallery or the book store.

The stairs from the bookstore lead up to the entrance of the exhibition area, which is divided into two sections -- Gallery One and Gallery Two -- both of which hold temporary exhibitions throughout the year. Gallery One picks up themes mainly related to architecture and design, while Gallery Two specializes in contemporary art.

Each exhibition in Gallery One lasts nearly three months before being replaced. Over the past 20 years, exhibitions on more than 100 different themes have been held.

Going over the 100 or so themes -- which include staircases, mannequins, toilets, bicycles, shoes, keys and padlocks -- gives the impression that the gallery enjoys unlimited scope for its displays.

"Well, indeed, that might be the reason why we never seem to run out of themes," said Yuka Irisawa, chief director of the gallery. "We might have chosen something that is so common in our daily lives but never considered attractive as an object of art."

The titles in Gallery Two are changed every month and have featured the works of some 250 artists to date. Like the artists, the topics also always differ.

Currently, items related to "soil" or "mud" are on display in Gallery One under the theme "The Apotheosis of Soil and Mud."

"Soil or mud these days carries a negative image as something dirty, but I wanted to remind people that we have benefited from them in so many ways," Irisawa said.

Looking back on how humans have historically utilized soil in a variety of ways -- including the manufacture of medicine, cosmetics, fabrics and components in cameras -- the exhibition is designed to allow visitors to rediscover its fascinations.

Gallery Two is currently featuring the works of artist Koichi Sakao. All 1,000 works he produced between 1999 and 2002 in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, are attached to palm-size wooden boxes and displayed in the 60-sq.-meter gallery.

The boxes are arranged in various ways. Some are simply placed in horizontal or vertical lines on the walls, while others are piled up to make up a huge object in the middle of the room. The method used in his works is called frottage, in which Sakao covers his chosen object with paper and traces on the surface with colored pencils.

The exhibition in Gallery One runs until Nov. 22, while the Gallery Two display ends Sept. 26.

Two female visitors in their early 20s in the soil exhibit said they were at Inax as part of their tour of Ginza art galleries. "The impressive part was getting to know more about soil, which made me realize that we (urbanites) no longer have a chance to feel the earth," one of them said.