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May exhibition round-up
MAY 2024 ART/MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS IN NARA
Celadon, Genji, and More Shingon Esoterica
The Age of the Tale of Genji – The Prosperity of the Early Heian Court at Kasugataisha Museum will be compelling, given the ever-popular subject of that magnificent work of literature, Genji Monogatari, and the fascination with its cultural backdrop – the highly refined and exclusive world of the inner court and its intrigues. In Search of Beauty: China, Korea, and Japan, 2024 at Neiraku Museum of Art offers a careful selection from the family collection of ancient Chinese mirrors and bronze ritual vessels, celadon porcelain and other ceramics from Korea and China, and some fascinating old official seals. It would be nice to view, along with this, Art from South and North China – Ceramics, Lacquerware, Paintings (at Yamato Bunkakan) to find some similar pieces and to put the ceramics and lacquerware in broader and more detailed context.
Contemporary art is rather thin on the ground in the museums of Nara, so Ahn Jun: On Gravity: Directions and Coordinates (photography) at the Irie Taikichi is a welcome offering. Todaiji Museum’s special exhibitions are quite small and are often good accompaniments and additions to bigger shows – this time Kobo Daishi and Todaiji’s Shingon-in Cloister might be a partner to the Kukai show at Nara National Museum and is a chance to examine some rare materials (perhaps of most interest to the specialist) such as medieval copies of texts including sutras, as well as genealogical charts and maps related to Kukai’s affiliation with Todaiji temple. In the same area of interest (Kukai’s Buddhist communities) Nara University Museum is showing Cultural Assets of the Mountain Village as seen by Koboku Ota – Masks of Hosokawa Yasaka Shrine at the foot of Koyasan which situates the powerful Koyasan institution, where Kukai founded his own monastery, within its locale and the beliefs that prevailed there and sometimes merged with esoteric Buddhist ones.
Ahn Jun. On Gravity: Directions and Coordinates. At Irie Taikichi Memorial Nara City Museum of Photography
Mini Exhibition Takamatsu-zuka Tumulus Mural 50th Anniversary of its Designation as a National Treasure April 19th – May 19th
Irie Taikichi Memorial Nara City Museum of Photography 入江泰吉記念奈良市写真美術館
Ahn Jun: On Gravity: Directions and Coordinates April 6th – June 30th
Taikichi Irie: Scenery with Pagodas in the Nara-Yamatoji with a Tower April 6th – June 30th
Ominesanji Temple Main Hall 大峯山寺本堂
Unveiling of the Zao Gongen Statue, the principal image of the secret Buddhas of Ominesanji Temple. May 3rd – September 22nd
Kashihara Shrine Treasure Museum 橿原神宮宝物館
Special Exhibition: Kashihara Shrine Votive Swords November 3rd – May 12th
Kasugataisha Museum 春日大社国宝殿
Special Exhibition: The Age of the Tale of Genji – The Prosperity of the Early Heian Court April 6th – June 9th & [latter part] June 11th – August 4th
Kawaguchi Seiren and Sakamoto Tairen Two-person Exhibition March 8th – June 2nd
Kinpusenji Temple Zaodo 金峯山寺蔵王堂
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of Yoshino Omine World Heritage registration: Promoting major repairs to the National Treasure Niomon Gate & Special unveiling of Japan’s largest treasured Buddha statue March 23rd to May 6th
Juhokan (Treasure Hall) Special Opening April 20th to May 10th
Special Exhibition: Diligence: Drawings, Sketches, and Main Paintings March 22nd – May 6th
Special Exhibition: Genealogy of Three Generations of the Order of Culture: Uemura Shoen, Shoko, and Junyuki Exhibition May 18th to July 15th
Tenri University Sankokan Museum 天理大学付属天理参考館
Special Exhibition: Andes World Reflected in Potteries Part II: Southern Peru April 17th – June 3rd
Todaiji Museum 東大寺ミュージアム
Special Exhibition: Kobo Daishi and Todaiji’s Shingon-in Cloister March 19th – May 15th
Spring Exhibition: Masterpieces of Modern Japanese Painting – From Meiji to Showa March 12th to April 14th [first half] & April 23rd to May 26th [second half]
Nara Prefectural Kashihara Archaeological Research Institute Museum 奈良県立橿原考古学研究所附属博物館
Special Exhibition: The World of Haniwa Houses April 20th – June 16th
Nara Prefectural Museum of Art 奈良県立美術館
Special Exhibition: Seiyo Ogawa and Asukaen: A 100 Year Journey April 20th – June 23rd
Nara Prefecture Complex of Manyo Culture 奈良県立万葉文化館
Special Exhibition: Jump Out! Yoshifumi Hasegawa March 16th – May 6th
1250th Anniversary Special Exhibition: Kukai – The Worlds of Mandalas and the Transcultural Origins of Esoteric Buddhism April 13th – June 9th
Nara University Museum 奈良大学博物館
Special exhibition Cultural Assets of the Mountain Village as seen by Koboku Ota – Masks of Hosokawa Yasaka Shrine at the foot of Koyasan – May 27th – July 27th See info here.
Nara Prefecture Historical and Artistic Culture Complex なら歴史芸術文化村
Special Exhibition: Commemorating the Completion of Repairs: The Nio-san Statue of Taimadera Temple April 6th – May 12th
Special exhibition: In Search of Beauty: China, Korea, and Japan, 2024 April 6th – December 24th
Yanagisawa Bunko 柳沢文庫
Special Exhibition: Koriyama, Yamato Province through Yanagisawa Bunko Historical Materials January 27th to May 12th
Special exhibition 100 years after his death Tomioka Tessai – Footsteps of a giant of knowledge April 12th – May 19th
Art from South and North China – Ceramics, Lacquerware, Paintings May 31st – June 30th
Yoshino Historical Museum吉野歴史資料館
Special Exhibition Hikari Tomishi: Yoshino as seen in Heian literature and Fujiwara no Michinaga March 16th – December 1st
Panel Exhibition: Unchanged Through Generations – Commemorating the 1300th anniversary of Emperor Shomu’s visit to Yoshino March 16th – December 1st
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April exhibition round-up
APRIL 2024 ART/MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS IN NARA
Modern Japanese Painting and a Newly-Excavated Ancient Sword
In 2022, a magnificent “Serpentine Sword” (Dakoken 蛇行剣) of over two metres in length was excavated from the 4th century Tomio Maruyama Tumulus in Nara: the largest iron sword in East Asia from the period. Tomio Maruyama Tumulus is a circular tomb, contrasting in design and structure with nearby keyhole-shaped tombs, which has led to speculation that it was the burial place of an influential clan in conflict with the Yamato leaders. A bronze mirror was unearthed from the same area inside the tumulus and, shield-shaped, it is extremely unusual (possibly unique), though the gods-and-beasts motifs on the back are common on mirrors of this period. The originally stacked combination of mirror/shield, and giant sword is thought to have been a means of repelling evil spirits from the body of the deceased. This extraordinary sword is on display at The Museum, Archaeological Institute of Kashihara, Nara Prefecture from March 30th to April 7th.
Elsewhere, two exhibitions at the Nakano Museum and at the Shohaku Museum of Art are showcasing early modern Japanese art of the late nineteenth century up to the 1950s. The latter holds a vast collection of works by early Nihonga artists Uemura Shoen, Uemura Shoko, and Uemura Atsushi. Nihonga was the neotraditional genre that pivoted Japanese art toward its modernity – or sought to reflect it – and is characterized by delicate lines, pale pigments (derived from minerals and vegetables native to Japan), and a shift away from overtly religious subject matter to nature and elegant women. It was self-consciously “Japanese”, emerging as it did in a largely manufactured way during Japan’s imperial formation and its buttressing of a national identity. Much Nihonga is very beautiful and deserves more attention from the international audience. There is quite a bit of continuity with Edo period woodblock prints for Nihonga adopted, for instance, the genre of Bijinga (“pictures of beautiful women”), which makes up the larger part of Shoen’s oeuvre. Shoen was adamant in her insistence on portraying refinement in her women, and even though her prize-winning “Apparition of Flame” is close to a Yureiga (ghost picture) and represented the perennially fascinating subject of deranged female jealousy, its subject, Lady Rokujo, is the aristocrat figure of Genji Monogatari, noble both in character and by way of her share in the reverence accorded the literary work in the world of classical Japanese literature. Son Uemura Shoko, and his own son Atsushi (now director of the Shohaku Museum of Art) both excelled in Kachoga, paintings of birds and flowers. Yamato Bunkakan, meanwhile, is exhibiting literati ink painter Tessai Tomioka, and abstract, calligraphic works of contemporary artists are on show at Kita Modern Art Museum. Listings below.
Tomio Maruyama Tumulus Sword. Photo by Maiko Umeda, Mainichi Shinbun June 17th, 2023
Kashihara Shrine Treasure Museum 橿原神宮宝物館
Special Exhibition: Kashihara Shrine Votive Swords November 3rd – May 12th
Welcome Back to the Buddha Statues – 50th Anniversary of Excavations April 1st to April 30th
Kawaguchi Seiren and Sakamoto Tairen Two-person Exhibition March 8th – June 2nd
Kinpusenji Temple Zaodo 金峯山寺蔵王堂
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of Yoshino Omine World Heritage registration: Promoting major repairs to the National Treasure Niomon Gate & Special unveiling of Japan’s largest treasured Buddha statue March 23rd to May 6th
Spring Exhibition: Masterpieces of Modern Japanese Painting – From Meiji to Showa March 12th to April 14th [first half] & April 23rd to May 26th [second half]
Nara Prefectural Museum of Art 奈良県立美術館
Special Exhibition: Seiyo Ogawa and Asukaen: A 100 Year Journey April 20th – June 23rd
Nara Prefecture Complex of Manyo Culture 奈良県立万葉文化館
Special Exhibition: Jump Out! Yoshifumi Hasegawa March 16th – May 6th
1250th Anniversary Special Exhibition: Kukai – The Worlds of Mandalas and the Transcultural Origins of Esoteric Buddhism April 13th – June 9th
Nara City Sugioka Kason Calligraphy Museum 奈良市杉岡華邨書道美術館
Learning from Kason’s calligraphy – Calligraphy of kana works ① Focusing on Fine Print January 13th – April 14th
Nara University Museum 奈良大学博物館
The Phantom of Continental Japanese Literature – [Poet] Katsumi Ikeda and His Era II January 22nd – March 23rd
Nara Prefecture Historical and Artistic Culture Complex なら歴史芸術文化村
Special Exhibition: Commemorating the Completion of Repairs: The Nio-san Statue of Taimadera Temple April 6th – May 12th
Juhokan (Treasure Hall) Special Opening April 20th to May 10th
Sakurai City Center for Archeology 桜井市立埋蔵文化財センター
Special Exhibition: Treasures Connected to Sakurai: Unexpected Discoveries December 6th – April 21st
Special Exhibition: Diligence: Drawings, Sketches, and Main Paintings March 22nd – May 6th
Tenri University Sankokan Museum 天理大学付属天理参考館
Special Exhibition: Andes World Reflected in Potteries Part II: Southern Peru April 17th – June 3rdThe Museum, Archaeological Institute of Kashihara, Nara Prefecture 奈良県立橿原考古学研究所附属博物館
Special exhibition: The Serpentine sword of Tomio Maruyama Tumulus – The giant iron sword as revealed by the cleaning process March 30th – April 7th
Special Exhibition: Yamato Province and Koriyama with Yanagisawa Bunko Materials January 27th to May 12th
Special Exhibition: Admiring Letters – from the Scriptures, Literature, and Written Messages – February 23rd to April 7th
Yamato Bunkakan 大和文華館
Centennial Exhibition: Tomioka Tessai – Footsteps of an Intellectual Giant April 12th-May 19th
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Translations
The Splendid World of Automatic Music: The Nagamori Music Box Collection
I just received a copy of the newly published The Splendid World of Automatic Music: The Nagamori Music Box Collection (from the Nagamori Culture Foundation) which I translated from Japanese to English. Gorgeous, isn’t it? A luxury book for the enthusiast, introducing 243 antique music boxes from the collection.
(Nagamori Culture Foundation, maria publications, Kyoto, 2024)
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Spirit of the Fight: Swordsmanship and Its Artful Practitioners
Pride of the Aristocracy, Soul of the Samurai – Collections including swords of Regents and Shoguns.
Till March 31st at Kasugataisha Museum
A superb exhibition of swords at Kasugataisha Museum comes to a close at the end of this month. Japan can always be relied upon to throw a good show, large or small, since its repositories of premodern art and historical artifacts are often ones – temples and shrines – that are full of exceptionally high quality offerings to the gods, or objects that were created as icons. They therefore demand treatment as actively sacred objects that (arguably) require expenditure of greater preservation efforts than those deemed absent of holy alliance or meaning do. Whether preservation is indeed superior or just different is a question worth exploring – though this isn’t the place to do that. But admirers of sword manufacture, swordsmanship, decorative art, as well as historically situated ideologies of warfare, and those interested in how weapons crossover into the worlds of highly refined dance costume and choreography and of social status signified by apparel, will find rich pickings at Kasugataisha’s exhibition.
As is often the case with museum and art exhibitions in Japan, English (not to mention other foreign languages) information is rather scarce, but that should not dissuade the enthusiast or the curious. To a certain extent the pieces on display speak for themselves. They range in age – the exhibits date from the 12th to the 19th century – and in type, long and short, shakudozukuri and hyogogusari types, and some small koshigatana hip-swords. The smiths and donors of several are attested – the former are mainly of Echizen and Bizen provinces, both famed for their swordsmiths, and the latter include the Fujiwara regency and Ashikaga shogunal clans. Materials used in the hilts and scabbards are of a rich variety: black and red lacquer is common, but brocade is sometimes used, as is mother of pearl inlay, along with rock crystal and semi-precious stones, stingray rayskin (called “sharkskin”), and silverplate.
Though the swords on display are largely ones offered to the deities of the shrine, viewers might be reminded of not only how rare the possession and acquisition of skill in handling swords were but also how meaningful possession and skill were. Swords were generally considered not merely objects, but inhabited by souls or spirits, and so they possessed an identity for their owner that went beyond that associated with function as weapon, personal belonging, or symbol of status/authority. They were additionally embedded in a much wider culture of meaning: particular battles (and a history, cultural memory and ideology of battles) and warcraft; a now extinct hierarchy of power; a world of other objects imbued with spirits; and a world in which the body of a fighter operated in distinct ways. Brutal though he may have been in practice (as illustrated by some gory scenes in the 18th century Kasuga Gongen Genkie picture scroll) the sword-wielding warrior moved according to a certain choreography. The phenomenon of subsuming violence and killing into an elegant, luxurious part of a nobleman’s apparel (and, in the 17th and 18th centuries, its non-functional inclusion in the wear of the non-fighting samurai class) is also something to keep in mind. In part, this subsumption reflects societal attitudes toward fighting and battleground death – swordsmanship has cross-culturally often been an art as much as a method of destruction – something nicely encapsulated in the title of the exhibition. The same collusion of meaning and function smoothed into dignified art is found in traditional dance: a lot of fighting moves and scenes are used in courtly Bugaku.
A sword that is part of a Bugaku costume for the “Taiheiraku” dance and dated to between the 17th and 19th centuries is on show. It has an attractive white sharkskin hilt, inlaid rock crystal, and some exquisite bronze metalwork of curling vines leave and flowers. The shark (ray) skin, that appears like a sheath of multiple tiny white beads, was imported from the India, Thailand or Indonesia, and was both a luxury material but also quite durable and provided a good grip. Other pieces are similarly ornamental and had been forged and decorated specifically as offerings to the deity of the Kasuga Grand Shrine by patrons and members of the clan who worshipped this deity as their clan god.
In 1135, the Fujiwara regent Tadazane and his son Yorinaga offered a rosewood sword to a newly-introduced young Wakamiya deity. Its mother-of-pearl inlay and black lacquer motifs of birds, trees, and mountains over silver plate are a one of a kind technique called Kinban kurourushi densō. It is a uniquely beautiful work of art and craftsmanship. Yorinaga would have been 15 years old at the time. He died in the Hogen Insurrection just 21 years later, the battle that decisively ended Fujiwara dominance and marked the real start of the rise of samurai. The intensity of the often violent power struggles between factions throughout the feudal age is another background against which to understand these sword offerings – as symbols of power sought and requested from a higher power, in that power was as much a sign of plenty as the riches that adorned these swords were.
Please see the April 2024 exhibition listings for current and upcoming sword shows at The Museum, Archaeological Institute of Kashihara, Nara Prefecture, and Kashihara Shrine Treasure Museum.