After this entry I hope to get back to the usual Wednesday respectively Wednesday-Weekend format with the updates.
So, as already mentioned, the days after the ski trip were filled with university work, but after
finishing that annoying sideline there were also some interesting things happening this week.
Together with a friend I have been to an exhibition in the city museum of Kobê about Ukiyo-e (浮世絵). Ukiyo means roughly "the fading world", as in "this world" (here and now, the world of the living) and "e" simply means pictures in this context. Ukiyo-e are the Japanese colour woodcut (also meant for printing) and pictures, which emerged during Edo-times and which concentrate on depicting everyday-life of the people, their festivities (many times Kabuki actors were painted) and their surroundings, which was a first in Japanese art. It can maybe be a little bit compared to the "Biedermeier", concerning the middle classes as well. In the Western world Ukiyo-e has become the definite perception of traditional Japanese picture/painting display, whereupon Katsushi Hokusai and his series "36 views of Mount Fuji" is perhaps the most famous.
Especially interesting, for me personally, is the fact, that Japanese Ukiyo-e also had some influence on European art after the opening of Japan, for example van Gogh was heavily influenced by it and allegedly had been on search for a "Japanese landscape" in France, to base his paintings on, after the role model Ukiyo-e. He reproduced some Japanese works in his style and colours as well. Other artists, whose works were influenced by Ukiyo-e, were Gaugin and Klimt among others.
However Ukiyo-e also encompasses "vulgar" depictions like courtesans and sex scenes, which is why they sometimes encountered problems in Japan itself (although more likely in selling them as because of restrictions by law) and why they were rejected by Western art critics. As well as because of their depiction of the simply life, a critique which Biedermeier also has to face again and again.
Unfortunately, as is the case with most museums, taking photos was strictly forbidden, which is why I can't show any. Instead a picture from the Internet, no worries though, after 200 years the copyright has expired:
"The great wave of Kanagawa" from Hokusai's "36 views of Mount Fuji"-cycle (I have the seen the original in the museum)
Visiting the exhibition once again showed me why I loathe Modern Art, especially abstract. If you look at these pictures, the details, the interaction of the colours/ hues and its splendour, the atmosphere, as well as the artistic skill e.g. to create a wonderful and aesthetic picture just with nuances of the colour blue on white canvas, so must modern abstract "art" appear amateurish to us. No matter if its directions like Jackson Pollock and his "Action Painting", or the like which emerged in the last 50 years, whereas especially in Austria one can find extreme positions in Mühl and Nitsch.
What bothers me the most in this is the separation of vision and skill. An artist of course should and has to have a vision to create a great piece of art but nowadays the term vision seems to have become "self-propelling" without the need for exceptional skills. Often it seems that one just needs to make something upsetting or abstract and know a marketing expert, who knows how to market it in the right way and sell it as art, and one becomes famous as long as you state that you had a vision for that "piece" and converted it into the piece or wanted to express something by it. I take myself as an example: As mentioned before I am a complete failure concerning visual arts (thank God not music) but even I can dump a bucket of blood onto canvas, drill a hole into a can of paint and run over a canvas, or put balls in pantyhoses and sew them together. Yet, put me before a picture by Da Vinci, van Gogh or Klimt and tell me to reproduce it and I will simply laugh into your face and leave.
On the point, in my opinion real works of art are not easily copied without the aid of technical means.
The sad thing is, that nowadays often artists with huge skill and potential have no chance whatsoever to get known, because the "scene" and many critics deem their paintings to be too unspectacular, not agitating enough or simply too "nice". In this regard if one takes a look at art history, irony stares right back.
At this point I want to apologise for the long rant about my personal views, especially because it has nothing to do with Japan, but I just had to get it out.
Since we spoke about Klimt, here is an imprint on a box of Pocky (chocolate sticks)
Another box had an imprint of a painting by Renoir ("Little girl carrying flowers")
I also have been to an Okinawa restaurant this week. This cuisine has some peculiar features, for the long-lasting Chinese influence as well as their own cultural mannerism. Unfortunately I did not have my camera on me, so there are no photos, but next time I'll be eating there I won't forget it.
(for the Anime-fans among you: The anime "Samurai Champloo" takes its name after the Okinawan dish "champuru", which approximately means "mix", and in the anime it points to the mix of modern and traditional elements)
Since I was apparently the only (Western) Gaijin (foreigner) in the restaurant, the waitresses (there were only girls) played a little joke on me. It is normal that waiters greet a customer when he passes them or say goodbye when he is on the way out, there are special phrases for that in Japanese (note my entry with "irrashaimase" on that), sometimes they even do that every time even if it is the same customer. If you leave a restaurant, the nearest waiter next to the exit will additionally bid you farewell, such are the rules of politeness.
In any case: As we were taking the bill after dinner, all waitresses assembled unnoticed (Japanese can do that) in a half circle behind me, and as I set foot on the stairs to the exit, all of them loudly shouted together "Please visit us again" (with a big grin on their faces), and they were amused by my surprised expression.
Interesting (and funny) facts/opinions about Japan:
The island of Okinawa (沖縄) is actually only the name of the main island of the prefecture Okinawa, which is comprised of a whole chain of islands, which actual name is Ryûkyû (琉球). Because of their intensive contact with China and other Asian countries as well as their relative great autonomy until the start of the 17th century, originally the Ryûkyû islands posses a discrete culture and language, which is quite similar to Japanese today, but can be seen as different nonetheless, especially concerning the Okinawa-dialect, which is clearly different from standard-Japanese.
During the Middle Ages (starting from ca. 1000) the Ryûkyû Islands were an independent kingdom, which, albeit heavily influenced by China and paying tribute to it, was for a long time for all purposes a sovereign nation because of China's policy of quasi-isolation. In the year 1609 a Daimyo conquered Ryûkyû, with approval of the Shôgun, by which the islands formally lost their independence, yet since the Daimyo also was content with tax duty and a low level of direct control the culture could exist in relative autonomy, especially since the King as institution was preserved, so that the control by Japan would stay concealed from the Chinese missions.
With that, Ryûkyû was more or less in double subjection to China and Japan, which lead to several problems and tensions among the population and that made reforms necessary, which ultimately lead to a boom and further strengthening of the specific idiosyncrasies of Ryûkyû.
After the Meiji-Restoration in 1868 and the disengagement from China (since Japan defeated China in several battles) the prefecture of Okinawa was established and subsequently, the King was abolished, all areas of life came under direct control of the government in Tôkyô and Japanese culture and language was spread more invigoratingly (nowadays this is often viewed as kind of an assimilation policy).
Okinawa is especially known for its role in the 2. World War, since it was the only venue of a battle on real, inhabited Japanese soil (Iwo Jima is practically uninhabited with the exception of the military), and it is the second most costly battle for US forces in the Pacific War, after Iwo Jima. Thus the islands were under US occupation and administration until the 70s, and up to today the US have their second largest navy base of the pacific there. The relationship between the population of the Ryûkyû islands and the government in Tôkyô is still a little strained, since only in the past 10 years support for the original culture and language has begun (albeit not by the government/ state), whereas especially the language is a problem since many of the young emigrate to the cities of the main islands and cannot speak the Okinawa-"dialect" anymore.
