[Art Exhibition 2024 #50] Japanese Art Experienced Through the Five Senses at the Mitsui Memorial Museum
Exhibition Period: July 2 (Tue) – September 1 (Sun), 2024
This is the 8th installment of the "Art Play and Heart" series, planned to coincide with summer vacation with the goal of helping visitors become familiar with Japanese antiquities and Eastern antiquities accepted in Japan. In this exhibition, we invite you to appreciate paintings and crafts while utilizing your five senses.
Imagine the scent of flowers or the cries of animals expressed in the works, empathize with the feelings of the people depicted, or feel the coolness of a beautiful waterside scene. Sharpen your senses—sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell—and try listening to the voices of the works. New discoveries and surprises are sure to be waiting for you!
The exhibition is structured by selecting works from the museum's own collection and setting specific themes.
A collection exhibition is truly where a curator's skill is shown.
This time, the works are presented under themes such as "Imagine the taste," "Feel the temperature," "Smell the scent," "Imagine the texture," "Listen to the sound," and "Imagine the feelings."
Placing importance on the senses to appreciate works might be a good approach to confronting art.
Although it is exhibited under the "Imagine the taste" category, the texture is purely metallic, so it doesn't look very appetizing.
However, apart from that, the craft works of this era are truly amazing.
They are a collection of masterpieces that seem to be the culmination of the Japanese craft techniques that have continued in an unbroken line.
In Japanese art, whether it be crafts, paintings, or sculptures, while the techniques for realism are impressive, thetechniques of omission and emphasisare simply excellent.
This is likely one of the major differences from Western art, which aimed for thorough realism.
A plate painted by Maruyama Okyo.
There are quite a few works like this that involve a division of labor or collaboration, but I am weak against words like "one-of-a-kind" or "limited collaboration."
Perhaps because it is a plate, this is also exhibited in the "Imagine the taste" category, but I could hear the "sound" of the crane's spread wings flapping.
This is a folding screen by Maruyama Okyo.
The category is "Feel the temperature."
I feel like you could say anything for that.
The work itself is, of course, wonderful.
A reproduction of the National Treasure tea room "Joan."
There are three tea rooms designated as National Treasures, and this is one of them.
Its size (or lack thereof) is only 3.5 tatami mats.
Yet, for some reason, it feels larger than the 8-tatami mat Japanese-style room in my own home.
A crystal ball that looks like something a fortune teller would have.
The pedestal is also gorgeous.
The category is "Imagine the texture."
I really want to touch this.
Once again, a Jizai Okimono by Kozan Takase.
The category is 'Try Listening to the Sound'.
I can't help but feel it was forced into this category.
Of course, the work itself is wonderful.
It's being slashed quite violently. Looks painful.
The category is 'Try Listening to the Sound'.
What kind of sound? The sound of blood spraying out with a 'psshhh'?
I feel like it fits the sense of touch better than the sense of hearing.
The next piece is amazing.
According to the caption,
Monks are manipulating 'farts' like arrows and fighting. From the sharp, unwavering straight lines used to depict the farts, you can almost hear a high-pitched 'Poo!' sound. If you look closely, there is even someone whose eboshi hat has been blown off by a fart. In this era, having your eboshi fall off and revealing your head was considered very embarrassing. The combination of two major embarrassing happenings—farts and losing one's hat—must have made the people of that time smile.
Doraemon's grumbling, 'How foolish, truly foolish,' crosses my mind.
This isn't really 'Try Listening to the Sound', is it?
Is it okay to include this in 'Try Listening to the Sound' as well?
The tactile sensation of wind hitting the skin is also quite strong.
Overall, I can't help but feel that the categorization was forced, and halfway through, I stopped caring about the classification, but since there were many masterpieces and fine works after all, I enjoyed the exhibition itself.
The zaibatsu collections, both Mitsui and Mitsubishi, are wonderful.
[Art Exhibition 2024] Summary Magazine ↓
いいなと思ったら応援しよう！
ありがとうございます。励みになります。