Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge was the home of Jim and Helen Ede between 1957 and 1973, where they displayed their unique collection of modern art, furniture, textiles, ceramics and other objects.

In 2024, during works to an outbuilding, a packing trunk was discovered. Upon inspection, it was found to contain artworks, clothes and personal items belonging to the artist Kenji Umeda. Ede was in his seventies when he met Umeda as a young artist. After working alongside Ede in the Kettle’s Yard house for some time, Umeda left Cambridge to pursue his desire to become a sculptor in Carrara, Italy.

Kenji Umeda: a journey tells the story of the friendship between Ede and Umeda, and of the artist’s progress in Italy and the United States, where he moved with his wife Jacqueline Benard, also an artist. As part of Kettle’s Yard’s collaboration with Margaret Howell, a collection of Umeda’s clothing from the trunk has been laid out to show their affinity with certain items in store. In the context of Margaret Howell’s philosophy of design, the attention to materials and enduring forms that characterises Umeda’s sculpture is shown to apply equally to the artist’s choice of apparel.

‘When I was invited to Kettles Yard to see the clothes that Kenji had left in his trunk, I was immediately struck by their practicality, timelessness and quality of make. Many of the items wouldn’t look out of place in a modern wardrobe – a simple workwear jacket, a beautifully printed silk scarf, a trench coat (it’s a style that’s been around forever but really can’t be beaten!). It was clear that his approach to dressing was very close to my own as we both come from a time when a disposable attitude to clothing didn’t exist. Like most things clothes, quite rightly, were an investment.’ – MARGARET HOWELL

Today, Umeda’s work is held in public collections including the Museo Pagani in Modena, Italy and the Tucson Museum of Art in Arizona, USA. As the letters testify, Umeda had also hoped for a show of his work at Kettle’s Yard, and thought of Jim Ede as his ‘master’. As he wrote to Ede in 1978, ‘in Cambridge I met people who greatly influenced my thoughts, a few friends, and you, this encounter… My time in Cambridge has been of utmost importance to my growth and this I will always keep and cherish in my thoughts.’

Artworks and archive reproduced courtesy of Jacqueline Benard © Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge

Curated by Inga Fraser, Senior Curator, Kettle’s Yard

Exhibition design by Varv Varv

Special thanks to Jacqueline Benard, Gabrielle Brasier, Assistant Curator and Tom Noblett, Programme Technician