Many years ago my father told me that from his point of view, the Japanese did not have a sense of humour. He must have known something as he lived in the country for over ten years, worked there and spoke the language fluently. For over ten years, I too went back and forth from France working with the Japanese but really never understood if they were sending me up or being very serious. Was it black humor? After years of to and fro, one Japanese colleague finally asked me to dinner at a sensible hour, 7pm and not at 5pm. Women’s dining time. I thanked him and he added, «You are no longer an object of desire so I can ask you out late.....» Charming. I had just had my 40th birthday but he wasn’t to know that. During the same visit it was hot and I asked to go out and buy a suitable Tshirt. The young woman accompanying me took me to a second hand «grandmother’s outlet». I scowled and asked her how old she thought I was - «very old» she answered» - «like my grandmother who is 55». Getting better eh? I have many stories like that over all those years of business meetings. So today I decided that once and for all I would see if the Japanese had a sense of humor. An exhibition at the Maison de la Culture du Japon had caught my eye. «WARAI l’humour dans l’Art Japonais» «Warai or Humor in Japanese Art from Prehistory to the 19th century.
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| WARAI |
My goodness is it black humor.
The exhibition is a reworking of The Smile in Japanese Art, which attracted more than 300,000 visitors to the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo in 2007.
Three quarters of the display are selected especially for the event in France and include many new finds that have never been shown in Japan. The exhibition presents humorous themes from the Jomon period (ca. 12,000 BC–500 BC) up to the final years of the Edo period, called Bakumatsu (1853–1867), and the subsequent Meiji period (1868–1912) through roughly 100 works including relics like dogu and haniwa clay figurines, otogisoshi short narratives illustrated with simple pictures, otsu-e and ukiyo-e folk art, Zen paintings, and wooden statues of the Buddha by sculptors Enku and Mokujiki.
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| Habuwa Boucliers carreirs 6th C |
I think many of us tend to think in stereotypes for Japanese culture - Zen, the Manga, Buddha, Tao and more but there are so many smiles in what I saw but I am still not sure if they were laughing at me or with me......
Are those smiling faces on the dogû figurines....
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| The Devil.....Ôtsu image - 17-18th C |
How about Kuniyoshi’s painting of
«Assembled people who make one person» ? Around 1847.....
Or another
Ôtsu image of the «Devil followed by a rat with a holly leaf»?
And of course the riduculously funny story of the farting competition. I watched it as the images scrolled for ten minutes. The story is ludicrous and very funny - but black humor.....Kawanabe Kyôsai around 1867
.
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| Roll: The Battle o Fardts186 |
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| Kuniypshi: Beautiful cats lazing in Summer 1842 |
Animals can look nasty and yet somehow even if they are up to tricks, they still seem to be pretty docile and loving. Utagawa Kuniyoshi had a strong attraction to cats and even when he was teaching, he came with a large cat, hidden in his kimono.
Over 100 pieces, pictures, scrolls, statues and accessories - and perhaps I forgot to say : Warai means laughter or laugh....and I am still not sure about their sense of humor even if I did a lot of smiling......
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| Kyôsai: acrobat spiders 1871 and Tamatsus hima an important divinity - Mokujiki 1807 |
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| Kuniyoshi - gold fish ! 1842 |
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| Kuniyoshi: Assembled people....1847 |
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| Toad - Hôji, 1785 |
I
I came out somewhat dazed.
Next door to
the Japanese Cultural centre is the Australian Embassy. One of the
ugliest in Paris. A large poster caught my eye. Luminous...."Desert
Masterpieces from the Helen Read Collection". You need to be patient to
get into the embassy. Controls are fierce and Oz humor not forthcoming. I
skipped trying to be light hearted, retrieved my bag, coat....and went into
the exhibition.
The
exhibition features some 30 contemporary paintings from communities
across the vast central and western desert regions, and the outstations
from where many of the original Papunya Tula artists – currently showing
at the Musée du quai Branly - originated. It is certainly true that
this Aboriginal art has developed into one of the most significan art
movement of the late 20th century.
Dots
became prevalent in Aboriginal art in the 80’s I would think. Maybe
earlier....One major collector in Paris told me that there was a demand
for such work - and lo and behold it became very fashionable. I
frankly don’t like it. Too busy and looking at it for any length of
time, my eyes tire. When there is space, and even something which is
defineable in their work or Dreamtime, I love it. There were some 5 or
6 works that I really enjoyed looking at and went backwards and
forwards trying to find something which could I could relate to. There
was nothing. I was quite alone and the space is tremendous. Light flows
in from the large windows and it is a joy to see work in such condition.
An incredible contrast from what I had just seen.
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| Millie Skeen Nmpitjn 1996 | His father's land and knives used to cut cooked kangaroo |
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| Judy Napangardi Watson 1997: Women with their utensils.... |
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| Judy Napangardi Watson 1997: Women represented with their coolamons and digging sticks |
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| Judy Napangardi Watson 1997: Dream of women collecting food from the vine |
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| Eubena Nampitjin 1997 | : Country with hills and creeks. |
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| Eubena Nampitjin 1997:f the legendary goanna men who created the ountry. |
The Branly Museum is only ten minutes walk from the embassy and as the two exhibitions are linked off I went to see «The Roots of Aboriginal Painting» ...............WOW, but that will be a further chapter.
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