Shinsui Ito (1898-1972) was a central figure in Japan's artistic identity crisis during the 20th century. As wave after wave of artistic 'Isms' from overseas broke upon these shores, native artists felt compelled to either abandon their own rich artistic traditions or embrace them even more strongly. Ito, whose works are briefly on display at the Takashimaya Gallery in Nihonbashi, was one of those artists who chose the latter course, joining the Nihonga movement, which looked to Japan’s past for inspiration rather than the confusing plethora of ideas pouring in from abroad.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Shinsui Ito: A Passionate Embrace of Nihon
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Ikuo Hirayama: solace on the silk road
Ikuo Hirayama clearly represents how the Japanese like to see — and project — themselves. His paintings, located in the strong traditions of nihonga (Japanese-style painting), are unmistakably Japanese, but they look outwards to the rest of the world and express the spirit of peaceful cooperation and appreciation of our common world heritage that is a popular theme on Japanese TV travel programs. For this, he has been noticed and honored abroad, most notably when he was made a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador in 1988.
Neoteny: The Japanese really are forever young
General Douglas MacArthur famously said that Japan was a nation of 12-year-olds. Well, he wasn’t talking about fighting abilities, as the Japanese gave the Allies the fright of their lives in World War II. Nor could such a remark have applied to their level of intelligence, as Japanese consistently outscore Westerners by an average of 5 to 6 points in international IQ comparisons. Nor was it their business acumen, as, starting from the bombed out ruins of 1945, these “12-year-olds” built their economy into the second biggest in the world in a few decades. So, what the heck was MacArthur talking about? Whether he knew it or not, he was probably talking about neoteny.
Pearl Harbor: How Japan Saved the World for Democracy
December 2001 marks the 60th anniversary of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. Once again we have the opportunity to either look back in anger or, now that the embers of history have grown cold, to rake through them and ask what was the real significance of that fateful day.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Zen and the Roundabout Road to Enlightenment
In his classic book “Yen in the Art of Archery,” Eugen Herrigel makes it clear that trying too hard to hit the target is a sure way to miss it. This paradox struck me recently at the Suntory Museum’s exhibition of art and artifacts from Kyoto’s 800-year-old Kennin-ji Zen Buddhist temple; an exhibition that is surprisingly less about the didacticism and preaching of religion than the aesthetics of pure artistic enjoyment.
The chrysanthemum and the rose
LONDON -- Anybody turning up at London's Hyde Park to walk their dog on the morning of Saturday, May 19, could have been forgiven for thinking they'd wandered into some kind of space and time warp. Instead of a few squirrels and strollers enjoying the pale, watery sunshine, they would have found a full-blown Japanese matsuri in progress. If they weren't surprised to see taiko drummers smashing open sake barrels, they might have been shocked by the sight of a group of bald, middle-aged Japanese men in traditional robes carrying a golden mikoshi around at an admirable trot with dozens of excitable British kids in tow, or a host of other events that have no real business being in your average London park.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Tohaku Hasegawa
The exhibition at the Idemitsu Museum, “New Discovery: The Beauty of Hasegawa Tohaku,” has quite a tale to tell, one that adds much interest to the stunning screen paintings on display. It is a tale of rivalry and skullduggery that stretches beyond the grave and has seen one of the great artists of Japan’s Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568-1600), deprived of his full glory. Until now, that is.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Art Brief: Jakuchu and the Age of Imagination
The good thing about this exhibition – centering on Japanese painting from the 18th and early 19th centuries – is that it presents art collected without an agenda. Most of the works on display come from the collection of Joe Price, an American collector who started collecting over 50 years ago. Rather than reading up on the subject or consulting ‘art experts,’ he merely bought whatever appealed to his visual sense.
Art Brief: Shinji Ogawa
The great modernist cheapskate architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe famously said, “Less is more.” This is also the ruling principle in this exhibition of paintings by Shinji Ogawa, a 47–year–old Japanese painter who meticulously reproduces famous paintings from the canon of Western art, like Vermeer’s “Milk Maid” (ca. 1658) or Velazquez’s “Las Meninas” (ca. 1656), but with the people or some of them missing.
Art Brief: Asae Soya
Perspective, by its invocation of distance, divides things and people from each other. While such divisions help us to organize things on a mental and visual level, it can also deaden the sensuousness and warmth we feel for those things around us. This has always been the main drawback of the Western artistic tradition.
Storyboarding the Worlds of Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa is the Sir Walter Scott of Japan. Just as the Scottish writer created a fascinating picture of Scotland, based on romantic figures of highlanders and windswept crags, that defined his nation for the rest of the world, so the Japanese director created a colorful vision of his country, employing feudal samurai and richly painted geisha, that has stuck in the international mind. How much this world was envisioned and imagined by Kurosawa was displayed at a recent exhibition of his storyboard illustrations held at the Mori Arts Center Gallery in Tokyo.
Simple tea, the soul-soother
Japan, a hectic, densely-populated country, has always been guilty of overloading the senses. It is only natural that here too an ameliorating aesthetic should have developed. This is best expressed by the calmness and simplicity of the tea ceremony.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Book Review: 'Out' by Natsuo Kirino
The best mysteries are those that reflect deep psychological and social tensions, and have a higher agenda. In fact, without these resonating elements, a mystery novel can so easily become just a shallow and superficial mechanism. Luckily, Natsuo Kirino's Out, now translated into English, is full of deep, dark resonances and - along the way of a thrilling and engrossing read - makes some profound points about Japanese society.
The Dutch in Dejima
During the almost two and a half centuries when Japan shunned the rest of the World, the one Western country that remained on nodding terms was the Netherlands. This year the two countries celebrate 400 years of continuous contact in what must be one of the strangest international relationships ever. The current exhibition at the Edo Tokyo Museum focuses on this connection through documents, artwork and items collected and prized by the Dutch traders, offering a miscellaneous time capsule view of Japan during its hermit stage.
20 Years of Tokyo Journal (1981 - 2001)
When the first thin and decidedly unglossy issue of Tokyo Journal was launched on the magazine racks of the city back in April 1981, Reagan was in power in America, Thatcher in the UK, and Brezhnev in the Soviet Union. The cold war was at its height with Soviet tanks having recently rolled into Afghanistan against protests from the West. Here in Japan, the prime minister was Zenko Suzuki, and those gaijins that you think have been here far too long were just starting to arrive.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)