The Met: Japan

We toured the Met's Japan collection on the same day we did China, with the similar advantage of having been to Japan personally and having maintained a passing acquaintance with its art. We were there for two weeks in 1983, along with SMU's senior administration, band, and football team, mostly for the Mirage Bowl in Tokyo, but also as guests of "sister" university Kwansei Gakuin near Osaka. Nothing surpasses Japanese hospitality. Our home in Dallas also featured an atrium we turned into a sort of Japanese garden. Having now reviewed my pix from 1983, I'll have to do a short blogpost on them, following this post.

Fudo Myoo, wood, lacquer, etc., 12th century; a Buddhist
deity...uses his sword to slash through ignorance...could be
really handy now...even better would be one that slashes
through lies and disinformation

Assorted Buddhist figurines I forgot to document

Writing box, wood, lacquer, gold, silver, etc. 18th

Hanging scroll, Grapes, by Motsurin Joto, 15th;
representative of the three perfections in Japanese
art: poetry, painting, calligraphy...

Closer up

Lacquered box, mother-of-pearl inlay, etc., 17th

Jizo Boddhisvatta...13th...Jizo is an enlightened being
known for leading others along the path of Buddhism...
rescuing souls from hell and protecting children...also why
when stepping on a Lego piece, Japanese always say
"Jizo Christ!"

Screens are very big in Japanese art history, and this is the first of
several here...Screen with Chinese Poetry, Ryokan Taigu, 19th

Another hanging thing, Maruyama Okyo, Dragon and Tiger, 18th

Japanese and Chinese Poems of the Four Seasons, attributed to
Konoe Sakihisa, 17th 

Another screen, whose name, attribution, and age I neglected to get

Ninsei-style incense burner, 17th century

Poetry card, scenes from The Tales of Genji; Edo period

Screen with scenes from The Tale of Genji; okay, The Tale of Genji,
is an 11th century work, argued by some to be the first novel, and 
certainly the first large literary work by a woman, the Lady Shikibu
Murasaki, Japan's Shakespeare; I bought a copy when we were in
Japan and tried mightily to read it...

More Tale of Genji

Tea ceremony equipment 

More tea ceremony

Yosa Buson, Hanshan and Shide, hanging scroll,
ink and color, 1770s; painting evolves...

Hara Zalchu, Orchid Pavilion by a Winding Stream, hanging
scroll, ink and color on silk, 1829; our docent on the right

Modern Japanese art...a basalt Water Stone, Isamu Noguchi, 1986

Kohei Nawa, PixCell-Deer#24, taxidermied deer with
artificial crystal glass...and now for something completely
different...there really is a stuffed deer inside all the glass...