Enjoying Fine Art - A Casual Trip to Tokushima: Naruto City Edition -

Today's Nagu-Tour is going to be academic!

I've arrived at the Otsuka Museum of Art, a place I've wanted to visit for a long time!

Over 1,000 paintings are on display here. The unique feature is that they are ceramic board paintings; simply put, they are perfect copies of paintings fired onto ceramic boards. Of course, they have the approval of the authors and owners.

You can enjoy the impact of full-scale reproductions, and because they are copies, you can view them up close and carefully. Plus, works scattered all over the world are gathered here in one place.
This is just irresistible.

Here is a sudden Nagu-Tour point!

Museum Fan

I never had any interest in art museums until now. It wasn't until I reached my 50s that I finally started to understand the fun of it... (Too late!)

As a beginner like this, I didn't have the image that art museums would be crowded. That's right, they get incredibly crowded. So, I made a plan to enter first thing in the morning and leave before it gets really busy.

In the first place, I use parts of my brain I don't usually use, so I get tired.
Two hours is my limit.

I'll prioritize seeing the works I like.

Vermeer

People meet by chance, don't they?
And then, you end up falling in love with them.

I once visited Delft for work.
I grew to love that city, and I (arbitrarily) felt a sense of closeness to Vermeer, who spent his whole life there (lol).

View of Delft (Top painting)
And, standing in the same spot, click!

Moving on.

Monet's Water Lilies

This is ceramic art. An arrangement version!
There is an outdoor space surrounded by Monet's Water Lilies murals.
If you look at it carefully, it takes so much time—like, wow. It had just stopped raining, but that created a great atmosphere.

Almond Blossoms

Van Gogh is one of my favorite artists, but my favorite work of his, Almond Blossoms, was not on display.
Too bad...

Also, you can see seven Sunflowers here, including the one that was destroyed by fire. It's an interesting endeavor, isn't it? Being able to restore and display a painting that was lost to fire is a strength of this museum.

◇◇

Calculating

In my 50s, I've been taking my time to look at paintings. Along the way, I've realized that there is much to be gained from viewing art. (I'm a calculating guy)

I couldn't put it into words well, but
I encountered this book and became convinced.

Viewing art is beneficial.

And,

This is sudden, but here is a book introduction.
※The link below is an affiliate link.

Please at least read the sample pages. If you can solve the CT scan quiz in the introduction, you don't need to read this book. If you couldn't, by all means, check it out! (I had absolutely no idea...)

The author argues that human intellectual production has three stages: 'perception -> thinking -> execution,' and that you need to train your perception before you can train your thinking skills.

If your starting point is wrong, you won't reach your goal, even if your reasoning along the way is correct.

That is what it means.
Well, that makes sense.

And, believe it or not, observing paintings is actually beneficial for training your perception, which is your starting point.

No way!

If you thought that, please give this a read.
It contains practical methods for training your perception.

In the world of note, there are people I respect because their articles are interesting and their perspectives are unique. Such people are those with excellent 'perception'.
There are photos of ordinary street corners that make your heart skip a beat, aren't there? The person who posted them perceived something in an instant and pressed the shutter.

The reason I remembered this book this time is because,

Many of the paintings exhibited at this art museum are introduced as real-life examples in the text of this book. After reading this book, viewing these paintings is even more exciting.

Finally, if you are interested, I recommend buying the physical book. Since it is a book with many pictures and diagrams, it is not quite as good as an e-book.

My introduction to the book has become passionate and long...
You can polish your sense!
It was a story about how you should polish your sense rather than logical thinking or presentation skills.

Give up.

After spending three hours at the art museum, smoke started coming out of my head.
Time to retreat from here.

See ya!
I'll be back! (In the style of Shingo Yanagisawa)

With that, I'm heading off to lunch.

The key to traveling is to shift your timing.
Avoiding the crowded shops inside the museum, I headed outside.

- Next Episode Preview -

Where did we head for lunch!
The fluttering part at the end of the wind chime is a hint.

Speaking of Tokushima's specialty fermented products, it's that, isn't it!
We are heading to the town that prospered because of that.
Oh, what I ate wasn't a fermented product, but soba.
When you think of soba in Tokushima...


( to be continued... )