Irish-American Sir Alfred Chester Beatty ensured the preservation of his vast and impressive amassing of Asian art by bequeathing it in its entirety to the people of Ireland. Now selections from this rich vein of artistry have made their way to Hanover and are on display in the Hood Museum of Art.
"Tales of Japan," the traveling exhibit, chronicles three centuries of pre-modern Japanese scroll painting and woodblock prints from the late Muromachi and Momoyama periods (1573-1615) through the end of the Edo period (1615-1868).
From the ephemeral beauty of delicate cherry blossoms in springtime to the acrimonious discord of bloody civil wars, the pieces in Chester Beatty's weighty assemblage tell the collective story of cultural, political and aesthetic revolution.
The transition of the exhibition space to a simulation of pre-modern Japan is excellent. At the top of the stairs leading to the Lathrop gallery, where part of the show is assembled, a tokonoma, or alcove, traditionally part of a formal area to receive guests of honor, engages visitors and prepares them for the majesty of what is to follow.
A changing ikebana floral arrangement by Marcia Shibata and David Wilde imbues a sense of both movement and repose while compositionally enhancing a scroll, which hangs on the back wall of the tokonoma.
Located just inside the entrance to the Lathrop gallery, a black-bottomed reflecting pool honors the visitor and encourages a moment of reflection before taking in the rest of the show.
An elegantly geometric installation, the pool is surrounded by tatami mats and a traditional fabric wall, which serves as a temporary enclosure to house a reading room as well as mats for thought and rest. The harmonious composition is anchored by a paper screen.
The main section of the exhibit consists of painted scrolls and albums illustrating the changing ethos and pathos of the Japanese people. The pieces tell stories of devastation, profound bliss and meditation, obsequious and unanswered love, and ostentatious displays of victory and wealth.
The rise of the merchant class in the middle Edo period procured a demand for recreational themes such as kabuki theater and geisha as well as the soaring popularity of the woodblock print.
Scroll painting began in Japan during the Nara period (645-794) as a direct result of the great infiltration of Chinese culture. With Japan's ecumenical embrace of T'ang dynasty China's monarchical style of government and the adoption of Buddhism from the Korean kingdom of Paekehe in 552, most Japanese artists were devoted to copying Chinese religious paintings of the life and teachings of Buddha.
In the Momoyama and Edo periods, the focus of this exhibit, a unique blend of aristocratic and proletarian tastes emerged. A relatively pure style of Japanese painting surfaced called yamato-e, meaning Japanese picture, which was comparatively free of Chinese influence. This new style was characterized by whimsical brushwork, compressed spatial organization, rich colors and fine detail.
Nara-e and Nara-ehon, meaning picture and picture book in the Nara style, showed copious use of gold dust and foil as well as thickly applied bright colors. A naive treatment of figures and landscape was accentuated by more stylized mists and clouds, which served a decorative purpose while punctuating scenes in the long horizontal scrolls, or e-maki. Several of the exhibit's best pieces are in this Nara-e style.
The extensive exhibit , which utilizes the entire second floor of the museum, contains a variety of captivating and rare art. One of the more remarkable pieces is the only existing copy of Yoshitsune's "Invasion of Hell." The brilliant colors of this work invoke a dynamic sense of dissonance. "The Biography of Zoga Shonin," the story of a daft old man who rode an ox and carried a dried salmon as a sword created in 1711, is one of two examples known to exist.
The "Mai no Hon Emaki" scrolls from the seventeenth century is reputed to be one of the finest sets of painted scrolls from the Edo period. This set of six scrolls, executed in ink, colors, silver and gold on paper, is of the highest quality and was probably commissioned for a daimyo, or provincial feudal lord.
While the collection of work is itself impressive, some of its splendor is lost in its poor lighting. While it is understandable that the fragile nature of the light sensitive paper necessitates a dim environment, the exhibit was frustrating to examine. Surely the Hood could have done better to facilitate the viewing of a compendium of art as magnificent as this.
For an inexperienced visitor, the set up of the exhibit may be unclear. A small, poorly lit sign explaining that scrolls should be read right to left was visible only on the way out of the Jaffe-Hall galleries. The narrative, a vital aspect of the exhibit, is easy to miss entirely.
The narrative thread throughout the collection--and subsequent title of the exhibit--reflects a Japanese propensity for storytelling. However, the museum placards were so replete with descriptive information of great military conflagration and despondent love that they omitted virtually all information pertaining to the relative significance of each piece and the pristine condition of the scrolls.
There are several programs available in conjunction with this exhibit, which may shed some light on the information left out of the exhibit. Otherwise, a little independent research may be necessary in order to fully appreciate the beauty and grandeur of this splendid amalgamation of Japanese art.
The show runs through November 28. Remaining events include: a lecture entitled "The Monkey as Mirror" by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, an anthropology professor from the University of Wisconsin, on October 19 at 4:30 p.m. in Loew Auditorium; a gallery talk titled "The Seventeenth Chapter of Genji" with Professor Dennis Washburn of the College's Asian Studies department on October 24 at 2 p.m.; a lecture on "Sudden Disaster in Early Modern Japan" by Andrew Markus, a professor of Asian studies at the University of Washington, on November 12 at 4 p.m. in Loew Auditorium.