Flashing Back To The 80s In Japan

In late November of 1983--in my first month's employment in the president's office at SMU--Vicki and I traveled with the senior administration to attend the Mirage Bowl in Tokyo, and then stayed another week with the president and provost and others as guests of sister university Kwansei Gakuin, near Osaka and Kyoto. Whether hosted by the Mirage Bowl or by KGU, we were the beneficiaries of legendary Japanese hospitality. There is no way we could ever top that visit. Plus there was a football game.

View from our hotel room

At the Mirage Bowl, even more pageantry than an American football
bowl game

Our cottage at the inn near Kyoto

Vicki by the water feature; scenes like this led to our trying our
own hands at Japanese gardening...alas, the soils and climate of
Dallas are very different from those of Edo and Kyoto...

Autumn in the garden

At a palace

"I'll drink to that!"

Eating very fresh lobster at the all-lobster restaurant in Osaka; among
quite a few memorable incidents from that trip; this occasion gave
new and special meaning to the expression "live lobster"

At the sushi bar after the honorary degree ceremony; I was seated
between Vicki and the dean of international education, both unwilling
to eat raw fish, trying to cover for them and not offend our hosts...

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...

The Met: China

September 26th we did the Met's very large China section, first the docent-led tour, then wandering on our own. We spent a very edifying month in China in 2008, seeing several of the great museums there as well as scores of other sites and sights. But we have not been back, nor do we expect to go back, so this was perhaps our last extensive look at Chinese art. 

Jade plaques, Hongshan period, c. 3500-2000BCE;
such things are found mostly in the large mortuary sites
of the period...of which very little is known

Painted jar, neolithic, c. 2300BCW

Stemmed cup, neolithic, c. 2000BCE

Bronze wine container, Shang dynasty 13th century, BCE

Bronze cauldrons, Shang, 13th BCE

Bronze wine vase, Shang, 13thBCE

Arhat/Luohan (guardian of Buddhism), 10th century, CE; 
life-sized, glazed, with a companion piece across the entrance
to the hall; very impressive

Bowl with dragon, Five Dynasties period, 10th CE

Dragons were very "in" during the Ming and Tang
dynasties; also instant orange juice

Bronze mortuary objects, Han dynasty, 200BCE-200CE

Camel and riders, Tang, late 7th CE; interestingly, the riders appears
to be non-Chinese, that is merchants from afar; also the camel; emerging
Silk Road

Female rider, Tang, 8th CE

Banquet scene, Five dynasties, 10th

Hanging scroll, Crows in Old Trees, 13th, Luo Zichuan; interesting
that by this time, nearly as in Europe, artists began signing their works 

Long hand-scroll, Duke Wen of Jin Recovering His State (I swear
I am not making this up), attributed to Li Tang, 12th century

Detail thereof; gin always wins...some say

Hanging scroll, Farewell by a Stream on a Clear Day, 
by Zhao Yuan, Yuan dynasty, 14th century; we visited
the great karst mountains on two occasions in China, first
on the River Li, and second in Wulingyuan National Park

The Met is sufficiently large that it can present entire rooms, houses,
gardens, temples...here is a Chinese hall, fabricated by Chinese artisans,
using historically-correct traditional methods and materials...

Incredibly beautiful armoire

No nails, no screws, mortise and tenon...

Now in the scholar's garden, mountains (rocks from Lake Tai, 
near Suzhou); brought from China and assembled by specialists;
we saw the real thing on a visit from Shanghai to Suzhou in 2008

And water feature...

Now in a large hall with large format objects

A giant mural, said to be the Buddha of Medicine; southern China,
14th century, associated with the master craftsman Zhu Haogu; 
originally in a monastery

Click to enlarge; can't tell the players without a program

Statue of a Bodhisattva, Qi dynasty, 6th century

Steele, Wei dynasty 6th; we visited the Forest of Stones in
Xian in 2008

Detail; I like to think of this as the Hotel Steele;
perhaps the Rotel Steele