Art Galleries! Art Galleries!

I apologize for the lack of updates this past week, but time got the better of me. Hopefully this makes up for it! Art has always been one of the most interesting parts of the Japanese cultures to me so I decided to spend last weekend visiting two nearby art galleries to broaden my appreciation for it.  

When I first decided to go to the Kariya City Art Museum, I honestly wasn’t expecting anything that spectacular, maybe a small house with a few paintings inside and at one point I almost turned around thinking I had passed the place. But luckily I didn't! The building, located on the opposite side of town was actually very large and very pretty from the outside:

The sun was kind of in the way...

Poster for the current exhibit at the art gallery - Yosuke Inoue
Picture from city.kariya.lg.jp

On display were the works of Yosuke Inoue, a cartoonist and children’s book illustrator.  He won the 25^th Kodansha Publication Culture Award for Children’s Books for “Tsukiyo no Jidosha” in 1994 and the Grand Winner Award of the Sixth Japan Picture Book Award in 2001 for “Densha Ehon”. One of his most beloved books is called “Kumanoko Ufu”, a story about a little bear (yay!) named Ufu published in 1969:

Picture from kodomo.go.jp

Besides his cartoons, some of his, let's go with non-child appropriate, work was also on display. I couldn’t find prints of them online (apparently many famous and talented people share a name with Yosuke Inoue) but they were drawn in much the same manner as the illustrations which was kind of interesting. 

Just as cool as the main gallery though was the open gallery upstairs that had local children’s artwork exhibition. If for some reason you had forgotten how awesomely creative young children could be when given a blank sheet of paper and some coloring utensils, you all should come see this place. It was very uplifting to see something that a child in 2014 had legitimately worked on that didn’t include an iPhone app or a computer. It was also very cool to see something that I would have loved to be a part of in elementary school. All in all, well worth it.

The second art gallery I visited was the Nagoya/Boston Museum of Arts. The current main exhibit is the works of a very famous Japanese artist named Hokusai. For those of you who think you don’t know Hokusai is I’m willing to guess that you have probably seen his work. He is the genius behind one of the iconic image of Japanese art, “The Great Wave off the Coast of Kanagawa” part of one of his famous 36 Views of Mount Fuji series seen here in the poster for the exhibit:

Picture from japan-attractions.jp

A bit o’ biography first though. Katsushika Hokusai was born in 1760 (exact date unknown) and grew up in Edo (the name given to Tokyo before the Meiji Restoration). It is thought that his father was a mirror maker for the shogun, and that his mother might have been a concubine. He started sketching at the age of six, and at twelve he began working at a bookshop until he got an apprenticeship with a wood-carver at the age of 14. His work with wood carving led to his great talent for “ukiyo-e” art or wood block painting, which he is thought to be the master of.  He completed his last published work “Ducks in a Stream” at age 87 in the year prior to his death in 1849. In the years between he became one of the most prolific and influential Japanese artists of his time. 

When I got to the exhibit I found that there was only so much space around the rather small pieces of art and with the crowd at this popular museum, we were basically in a giant caterpillar-like line that curved with the way the art  was placed and crawled along very slowly. Though it was tiresome at first, once you got to his more complicated prints, I believe the slow pace was both warranted and appreciated. His prints were so meticulously put together – it is incredible to think of how he was able to create such straight lines and such detail into a work on such a small scale. Well worth waiting in line. 

As mentioned his most popular work is the "Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji" ("Fugaku Sanjurokkei"), a series of wood-block prints created between 1826 and 1833. All 36, plus 10 extra that he created, can be seen here. Two other series that he published around the same time are “A Tour of the Waterfalls of the Provinces” ("Shokoku Taki Meguri" - 8 prints published in 1832, shown here) and “Remarkable Views of Bridges in the Provinces” ("Shokoku Meikyo Kiran" - 11 prints published between 1827 and 1830, shown here). Some works from both series were on also on display at the museum. One from each is shown below but if you have some time, I would highly recommend checking out the links above. It’s all pretty neat stuff.

"Waterwheel at Onden" (Onden no Suisha) from "Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji"

"The Amida Waterfall on the Kiso Road" (Kisoji no Oku Amidagataki)
from "A Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces"

"The Drum Bridge at Kameido Tenjin Shrine" (Kameido Tenjin Taikobashi)
from "Remarkable Views of Bridges in Various Provinces"

My personal favorite, probably due to my affinity to literature, was the series called One Hundred Poems Explained by the Nurse" ("Hyakunin Isshu Uba ga Etoki") where he visualized famous poetry of the day.

"Women Returning Home at Sunset" from a poem by Sarumaru Dayu

If you would like to look at more of Hokusai’s art, I think most, if not all, of his prints are collected here, though it doesn’t seem to be in any particular order or fashion. But you’re welcome to use it as a base for more searching.

At the end of the weekend, I really just wanted to get a little creative and make something or draw something in an attempt to get some good creative energy going. I hope this encourages you to do the same!