July 7th, 2024 – contemporaneous annotations follow:
Make a start: Because I’m a hermit, this kind of slipped past my malfunction radar but: today is the last of a Hokusai and Hiroshige exhibit in Okayama / it’s almost 11, I’m still in bed with coffee, trying to rally – and since its both the last day & a Sunday, will be hectic, yikes! Off to the Okayama Prefectural Museum…
Backgrounder:
From official exhibit guide (machine translated) https://c.sanyonews.jp/hokusaiandhiroshige/#about:
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) and Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) were masters of ukiyo-e landscape painting. Hokusai was known for his bold compositions, while Hiroshige stood out for his lyrical depictions. How did these two unrivaled artists create their masterpieces? Hokusai continued to engage in a variety of creative endeavors over his 70-year career as an artist, and created Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji as one of his culminations. Meanwhile, Hiroshige was just an artist who had yet to produce a hit work at the time of the publication of this work, but he would go on to carve out his own artistic domain in a different direction from Hokusai, such as with Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido.
This exhibition will trace the challenges faced by these two artists through a total of 213 works from the Edo-Tokyo Museum’s collection, including all 46 pieces from Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, as well as Hiroshige’s landscape masterpieces such as Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido and One Hundred Famous Views of Edo.
All works are in the collection of the Edo-Tokyo Museum.
note: these woodblock prints (keep in mind, were designed by the credited artist, and then created by a team of very specialized craftspeople, and then produced on quite large scale. In some cases, treated as rather disposable or temporarily amusing /decorative or as packing paper, which is how several made their way to the Netherlands/Europe and into V. v. Gogh’s collection. In the case of this magnificent collection, they never really leave the Edo-Tokyo Museum but, was (i think) undergoing renovations and first scheduled to be displayed in Okayama in 2020 but public health situation delayed until recently
This being an art exhibit, of course the main point is to savour and bask in the presence of these living masterpieces so these photos aren’t meant to be “beautiful” just meant to jog my memory for things which i experienced so can recall the feeling of being there at the time, seeing the tiny details – a single strand of hair, a diligently placed stamp, the remixing and flattening of landscapes – and the heart pounding spine tingling head spinning feeling of being part of the ongoing story of these prints and whew! I do spend quite a bit of time thinking about the life situation of the artists: What were they thinking? What were they eating? How did they keep up such a pace to do hundreds of different views? It’s all quite exhausting and bewildering to me / such admiration
I’m not above a tiny bit of cheese when the situation requires documentation of being rather ecstatic #Hokusai
Wasn’t really meant for a quality representational snapshot as the lighting and situation wasn’t made for photography but can’t resist a bit of a souvenir (proof of my existence). Here’s the proper direction(s) with unfortunate reflection(s)
Great thing was seeing 100s lined up at once – of course there some are ubiquitous but then others are complete surprise and stop your heart. The colors were exquisite – and while there wasn’t information about how many prints were made of each one, so glad these survived
It was incredible to see hundreds on display all at once and getting to see the variations of style between he and the 30 years younger Hiroshige
Seeing this Hiroshige – which the van Gogh “remix” hangs in my barn as well as various other places for the last 25 years – made me a bit dizzy, so much I had to sit down #Overwhelmed #LousyPhotosButAnyway
Definitely leaned in to try to understand the technique – which is obv so different obviously then Vincent’s interpretation with oils
And then the dear fella’s posthumous tribute portrait and his various artifacts and utensils offered pause for thought
Hiroshige plays with perspective and definitely more people in the foreground then Hokusai who “fantasizes” landscapes a bit more
Importantly for art enthusiasts: below is Hokusai towards end of his life doing an original painting rather than woodblock prints which required a team (carvers, colorists, printers etc) as he was constantly seeking to expand his skills making something unique, one-off & precious
Thought a lot about my artist pal Marty in Moab who would so enjoy all of this (despite the rather unappealing blah vibe of the museum and the hectic crowds)
Side Hustles
And (in timing with the release of new bank notes featuring “the great wave”) was a corner exhibit detailing all the new notes and changes – including security and design considerations (pardon lousy photos)
Since today was last day, closes at 5, last admission 4:30 and people were going in at 4:29. I grabbed a few extra flyers to mail to friends who collect papers and make collage
Gift shop, café and postcards
I love to exit through the gift shop and love to load up on everything, in this case: great wave versus Godzilla boxer shorts, a variety of postcards (of course), a museum exhibit book, probably a paper folder, maybe a handkerchief, and a gatcha treat for Ichiro
In this case the exhibit gift shop was in a corner due to the end of the show, and the main gift shop area was being set up for the next exhibit about studio Ghibli animation creations, which no doubt was extremely popular
From the café (along with gift shops, i enjoy museum cafés), got a table and wrote, “Head kind of melted from the hundreds of exquisitely preserved, vibrant, tactile, detailed and luminous prints by two masters whose lives overlapped – 30 years apart in age // Hokusai lived till 90, Hiroshige till 63 iirc”
Of course, wrote postcards and immediately went to mail one to pal Banghi in OlyWa
{Pardon my disintermediated annotations as I sit outside waiting for my ride, taking it all in… Like to jot thoughts down before drifts away}
Recap: I used up a week’s worth of “energy pellets” – which isn’t ideal because some significant projects coming up *but* lately feeling really down, blue & creatively low so was a real spark + I navigated logistics reasonably well considering heat and crowds. Yeah me :) xo
Note to self: I spend so much time either at home or hospitals & other medical treatments (+ recently dentists) that my usual creative flow dwindled to a trickle (coupled with increasing distain for computers and web publishing) so today helps chart a return to analog forms (which last longer)
Further Evidence
Exhibit overview: https://c.sanyonews.jp/hokusaiandhiroshige
Exhibit catalog pdf: https://c.sanyonews.jp/hokusaiandhiroshige/assets/leaflets_hokusai-hiroshige2024okayama.pdf
Bonus Round
Related to recent Hokusai and Hiroshige block printing exhibit: dig this legend Dave Bull doing modern recreations with fresh legit carvings from shop in Asakusa. Have any of you folks visited in real life?
Ok, another artifact
In my continual repair of wholly denim trousers, attached this patch with a pretty decent whipstitch mixing vintage VW bus, Hokusai’s giant wave with Fuji – purchased from a guy in a Volkswagen bus by Vancouver Art Gallery
Other Japan exhibit/museum dossiers include:
* Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo) in Matsue
* Kobayashi Issa in Shinano
* DT Suzuki zen in Kanazawa
* Miwaki Ruins Jomon-era in Noto
* Rodin Wing, Shizuoka
* Hokusai, print master in Nagano
* Shinse Kinenkan in Kanazawa, (feat. traditional apothecary)
+++
Field Notes regarding exhibit/museum/gallery/garden dossiers:
These posts, such as they are, are for recollection, inspiration, reference and possible remixing. I say this to remind myself these round-ups are not meant to be textbooks, comprehensive guides, analysis – critical or otherwise, or a “master’s thesis”. So much goodness in these exhibits – whether grand and well-funded museums or (my favourite) grassroots operations, or even spontaneous art around the edges in unexpected circumstances – that i enjoy archiving.
Also noting often, museums have a “no photo” policy and of course, art and artifacts are best experienced in-person, or with fine reproductions at least, so consider my humble dossirs as a stand-in, in the meanwhile, with a special eye to shut-ins and other who have a hard time getting out and about.
As such, these round-ups will be lightly annotated with usually (just) the name of the museum, possible circumstance and/or approximate date of the visit, possible link to museum website and or map for your reference and then a flow of photos.
I almost always buy museum exhibit books, as well as many other items from the gift shop, so if you have any specific questions about any of the pieces displayed, please leave a comment and I’ll do my best to add some additional colour commentary – no guarantees.
