Shukado News Letter No.11

Dear Customers & Friends,
Hello. Hajime Mashite. Dozo yoroshiku onegai-shimasu.

This is Sachiko Stone, Shukado sending vol.11 Shukado Newsletter.

It is the first time for you to see my name in this newsletter. Let me briefly introduce myself.

I work at Shukado. I am translating the contents of the Japanese Fine-arts.com with other bilingual staff. I live in an old town area of Tokyo called shita-machi in Japanese.

Tanaka shacho has been extremely busy these days so I am writing this newsletter on his behalf.

Making a change from previous newsletters, I would like to write about a beautiful scenic spot in Tokyo.



Although the Somei-yoshino cherry blossoms have already gone, Japanese gardens are full of seasonal flowers from spring to early summer. There are many Japanese gardens and parks you can visit in central Tokyo. When you have a chance to visit Tokyo on your business trip or for pleasure, it would be a good idea to visit such gardens and parks.

The word "niwa" as used today means "garden", although it first indicated a purified place for the worship of native Shinto spirits. Besides providing spiritual settings, Japanese gardens are designed specially to evoke emotional responses to the viewers. Audrey Yoshiko Seo writes: "(Japanese) Gardens reflect the attempt to commune and collaborate with the natural power and beauty of the divine. ---- The empathy the Japanese people feel for the forces of nature enables them to appreciate the fleeting quality of beauty or mono-no-aware, an acute and often melancholy sensitivity to things." She also commented: "In the Tale of Genji, Prince Genji builds a villa whose quarters correspond to the four directions associated with the four seasons. In each quarter of the villa he housed one of this favorite consorts and the garden of each woman's residence specifically designed to evoke the particular beauty and emotional qualities of that season."

This week, I visited "Kiyosumi Teien" in Kiyosumi Shirakawa, which is close to the districts of Ryogoku and Kinshi-cho in eastern Tokyo.
(http://www.tokyo-park.or.jp/english/park/detail_04.html#kiyosumi)

This park is a typical "Kaiyuu (circuit) style" Daimyo (Japanese feudal lord) garden created in the Edo period. The garden features sen-sui (garden pond or lake), tsuki-yama (hill garden) and kare-sansui (dry landscape garden) and is famous for beautiful cherry blossoms and other seasonal flowers including azalea, hydrangea and Japanese iris. Part of the parkland is believed to have been the house of Mr. Bunzaemon Kinokuniya, a famous merchant in the Edo period. In 1878, Mr. Yataro Iwasaki, a founder of the Mitsubishi group, bought this premise and built a garden for his employees and also for inviting important business guests. In 1932, the Mitsubishi group contributed this garden to Tokyo City, and after some repair work it was opened to the public.

It was very warm when I visited Kiyosumi Teien. When I entered the garden, I first saw the fresh green trees and the big pond. Although I could see skyscrapers in the distance, I felt very peaceful there. As I walked along the little walking path, I found so many turtles enjoying sunbathing on little stones. I also saw many beautiful birds, gigantic carp and pretty flowers. I also walked on the stepping stones paying my utmost attention not to fall into the pond. Uniquely shaped stones which were formed by the natural power were located along the path. Those stones were brought from all over Japan. There were little stone Buddha statues standing lonely in a dead end corner.

At the very end of the garden, I was struck by a lovely surprise. When I entered the space called Jiyuu HIroba, beautiful pink yaezakura blossoms came into my eyes! Yaezakura has more than five petals and blooms later than the Somei Yoshino cherry blossom. They were very gorgeous. In that square, there is a stone tablet inscribed with a haiku poem by Matsuo Basho "Furuike ya kawazu tobikomu mizuno oto (A frog jump/ Amplifies/ The pond's antiquity/ With its water sound)." Matuso Basho started his trip of "Okuno Hosomichi (The narrow road to the deep north)" from here.

You can see the beautiful pictures I took in the Kiyosumi-teien at the President's blog http://picasaweb.google.com/shukado/KiyosumiGarden

Kiyosumi Garden

After this wonderful walk, I felt a little bit hungry.

In the vicinity of the Kiyosumi Garden, there are some other nice spots where you can have a rest. You may have heard of the Japanese proverb "Hana-yori-dango", which literally means "Dumplings rather than flowers". This actually refers to the practical being preferred over the aesthetic.

Iseya (http://mpn.cjn.or.jp/mpn/contents/00002090/shop.html) is one of the best places to enjoy dango after a visit to the Kiyosumi Garden. Iseya started its business 100 years ago in this area.

There are cafes such as Sacra Cafe （http://sacracafe.com/sacra/index.html）and Jolly Job Dog Cafe (http://www.jolly-job.com/) within 5 minutes walk from the garden. You can enjoy beautiful organic food, sweets and coffee at Sacra Cafe and delicious Italian food at Jolly Job where you can enjoy your lunch or dinner with your dog.

Ummm... My visit to the Kiyosumi Garden ended up with "Hana-yori-dango".

I hope you will enjoy the nice pictures of Kiyosumi Garden on the president's blog.

I would like to wrap up my newsletter by introducing to you this week's recommended items:

---------------------------------------
Ukiyo-e Catalog just published !
---------------------------------------
We announce you Ukiyo-e catalog again;
Shukado Japanese Art Catalog Ukiyo-e special edition vol.1.
https://www.syukado.jp/en/catalog/index.html


We just started distribution of the catalogs.

Total 183 artworks are posted in this beautiful full color catalog of 44 pages with
detailed comments. It costs you ONLY 10 dollars . (via paypal : This is shipping fee)

Already we have accepted about more than 50 sets of subscription and more than 20 items of order.

Do not hesitate to subscribe:
https://www.syukado.jp/en/catalog/index.html


If we post the catalog to the address in Japan, shipping cost will be free.
In that case,you can subscribe here: (Japanese page)
https://www.syukado.jp/jp/support/catalog/index.html or
Please order the catalog via e-mail: info@syukado.jp

*********************************************************
New Arrivals:
I would like to introduce some of our new arrivals:
*********************************************************
Kikuchi Keigetsu's modern woodblock prints
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107000351/
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107000352/
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107000353/
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107000354/

We proudly introduce very precious beauties of Kikuchi Keigetsu.


Kikuchi Keigetsu (1879-1955) was born in Nagano prefecture. His favorite subjects were images of beautiful women and historical character.

His lines of drawings represented very sensitive and noble spirit. His core job was just a real painter, but also produced rather small lot of woodblock prints.



Okay,that's it.

See you next week!

Sachiko & Chiaki



**We are sending Shukado News Letter - the information of
new arrivals.
If you would like to join our mailing list, please visit here:
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/mail/join.htm
backnumber:
http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/
---------------------------------------------
Japanese Fine Arts.com by SHUKADO
Address: Sone Building 7F, Ginza 6-4-8, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061
TEL:(international number)+81-3-3569-3620 FAX:+81-3-3569-3621
email: info@japanese-finearts.com
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/

ONLINE GALLERY SYUKADO (Japanese)
http://www.syukado.jp
master@syukado.jp

Shukado President's Blog(including backnumber of Shukado News Letters)
*Blogger site
http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/
*Ichiroya site
http://www.ichiroya.com/blog/Chiaki/

Shukado Newsletter No.10, Masayoshi #2

Shukado Newsletter No.10 from Japanese-FineArts.com
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/
Masayoshi # 2

Dear Customers and Friends,

Hello. This is Chiaki from Ginza, Tokyo. This is our 10th Shukado newsletter.

It has been five months since we opened our website
Japanese-finearts.com and we have received several complements for our
sales at e-Bay. Please check the link as below:
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=shukado&ftab=AllFeedback

We have also received a surprisingly positive comment from our
customer: "Words can't describe how pleased I am with book and
incredible service -Thanks!" by Mr. and Ms. Hauntmaster

We are very glad to receive such words of complement from our
customers. I believe that this is a result of extensive efforts made
by Ms. Kuwata who is in charge of customer relations and Ms. Kondo who
is in charge of shipping. I would like to seek our customers'continued
patronage.

By the way, let me continue the story of Nakamura Masayoshi.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
After Masayoshi left Nitten which is one of the representative art
organizations in Japan and was created as a result of the First
Ministry of Education Art Exhibition, he created a series of paintings
which challenged the existing concept of Japanese style paintings. For
example, he used fluorescent colors, which no other artists (not
limited to the artists of Japanese style painting) used for their
artworks, for his artwork titled "Rose" (this is one of our gallery
collections) and he sometimes painted people in a grotesque style.

Masayoshi created his own artistic style as if he were walking in the
wilderness.

This may be due to the effect of the sudden transition from
Impressionism to Fauvisme happening in the art history at that time.
However, there is another factor which is unique to Japanese art
circles.

First of all, "art" in Japanese writes "Bi-jyutsu" (literally means
technique of beauty). While art in English simply means to "express
something", art (Bi-jyutsu) in Japanese refers to the technique to
create "something considered to be beautiful ". In other words, people
in the Japanese art world were obsessed with the concept of "beauty".
Therefore, this trend was accelerated by the conservativeness of the
famous art organizations and nipped the buds of new ideas and talents
that grab the hearts of people.

This situation may have led Masayoshi to voice "Creativity means
ugliness". Since he believed that the art means to express people's
inner self, he had to challenge the existing value of "beauty" and
"art" in the Japanese art circles at that time in order to show
concrete examples through his artworks.

He even dared to say "You should not be too skillful." Even when
someone asked him "What should I do if my painting skill gets too
good?" he answered "If your skill is getting too good, you should quit
painting."

His passion for his revolt to the existing value of "beauty" and
devotion to express his inner self may have come from the fact that he
spent most of his life for fighting against his disease. He expressed
himself in his artworks after his extensive consideration of what was
essential for his limited time left for his life.

The other thing that Masayoshi made his best effort was to teach
children at his own art school. He may probably have found the true
"art" in children's artworks rather than in those of mediocre
professional artists.

One of his artworks we can introduce is here:
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107007120/

Here, the vivid colors are liberally used and it gave lively impression to this work.
Japanese Artists never have used poster paint, but with which he
challenged to create new style . That means he became a destroyer of
"Nihonga" or "Japanese Style".
------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Arrivals:
I would like to introduce some of our new arrivals:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Utamaro II, "Shiduka of Tamaya"from Yukun Jihitu-gaku Hinagata
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107008310/
---------------------------------------------------------------------
>From the lettering above her head her name Shizuka and the store name
Tamaya are figured out. Her beautifully layered kimono and her delicate
hand on the collar are lovely. Next to Shizuka, her prentice accompanied
by her is depicted.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Good condition Triptych, Night Viewing of Cherry Blossoms by Sadahide
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000790/
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Against back of the figures, cherry blossom trees are depicted here. To
the woman's kimono on the left " Genjiko no zu (diagram)" is studded
showing this is one scene of the Tale of Genji. For, "Genjiko" was a
game to choose a scent out of fifty four based on fifty four tales of
Genji and players guessed and answered the scent in reference to "
Genjiko no zu (diagram)".


Hope you have great week!

Sincerely yours,
Chiaki Tanaka of Shukado


**We are sending Shukado News Letter - the information of
new arrivals.
If you would like to join our mailing list, please visit here:
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/mail/join.htm
backnumber:
http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/

---------------------------------------------
Japanese Fine Arts.com by SHUKADO
Address: Sone Building 7F, Ginza 6-4-8, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061
TEL:(international number)+81-3-3569-3620 FAX:+81-3-3569-3621
email: info@japanese-finearts.com
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/

ONLINE GALLERY SYUKADO (Japanese)
http://www.syukado.jp
master@syukado.jp

Shukado President's Blog(including backnumber of Shukado News Letters)
*Blogger site
http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/
*Ichiroya site
http://www.ichiroya.com/blog/Chiaki/

Spring has come at Toranomon, Tokyo

Shukado News Letter No.9 Masayoshi#1

Dear Customers & Friends

Hello from Tokyo!This is Chiaki Tanaka, sending vol.9 Shukado Newsletter.
It has been really warm in Tokyo for these days. Although until a week ago, we had to wear winter coats in the morning and evening, it is so warm today at noon that I have some sweat even without a coat. I guess that it is getting warmer in other countries in northern hemisphere as well.

By the way, we are now preparing hard copies of our "English Catalog". We have issued 13 volumes of printed Japanese catalogs and they have artist names and titles in English. Our upcoming English catalog contains deeper description of the artworks and smaller details in English.

Our wish is that more and more people know more about Japanese fine arts in depth.
In the 19th century, the first "cultural ambassador" of Japan to Europe was the crumpled ukiyoe prints used as packing materials. Ukiyoe's witty and extraordinary refined composition caught on people's curiosity towards unknown country.

On the other hand, I feel pity that Japanese hand paintings created after the Meiji period are not well-known to the people overseas. There are a lot of outstanding artworks created during the modern and post-modern periods.

Unlike our website, this printed catalog can be enjoyed while leisurely lying on the bed or the sofa in the living room. You can carry it in your bag and take it on the train, airplane or to the restroom. Please give us a request for this catalog. The catalog will be ready for distribution in April.

We have made the request form on our website, so please click the link shown below.https://www.syukado.jp/en/catalog/index.html

*******************************************
Well, this week's featured artist is:

This artist said "Creativity means ugliness".
This phrase sounds like Damian Hirst's, doesn't it? This artist passed away in 1977. He was a Japanese artist who lived 30 years ago and died at the age 57.
For the people, who think that creativity means art and art means beauty, his words may sound quite shocking.

However, he was a very serious person, may be too serious. In the Japanese art world of these days, many artists place emphasis on the "shocking impact" of the artwork rather than the "pleasant beauty". In a sense, he challenged this approximately half a century ago and no body else dared to do this with their artworks. Artists in the modern time, who are taking this challenge seems to have some sort of calculation. On the contrary, he committed himself so much in the quest for creativity just for its sake.

His name is Nakamura Masayoshi (family name, first name).

Japan's fine art associations in the post-war Japan were very conservative and may be it is still the case for them. Although fine art association's most important mission is to facilitate new art movements, in reality, similar artworks are repeatedly created within this association.
Nakamura took his courage to challenge this trend. Although he won the prize at Nitten (Japan Fine Arts Exhibition) and he became the youngest judge for this exhibition, he announced to withdraw his membership from them only after one year of his membership. He is a short tempered person; therefore, he was fed up at once with the unfair judgments by the conservative Nitten based on their nepotism or favoritism.

At his early years as an artist, his artistic style was very typical one for Japanese paintings in the post-war Japan. He had to do so in order to win the prize from the biggest authority in the Japanese art world to be financially viable as a professional artist. His artworks at that time are:
http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/2008/03/bbbb-aaa.html#girl

After his withdrawal from Nitten, his approach to his artworks dramatically changes. For example:http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/2008/03/bbbb-aaa.html#maiko

He used to like calm colors in sepia tone and had extensive training as a Japanese painter. After a while, he challenged to break his old styles. In the traditional method of Japanese paining, pigments are mixed in animal glue called nikawa. Nakamura mixed artificial glue and fluorescent paint to use for Japanese paintings. Then he claimed that this is the true Japanese painting style.

It can be said that his artworks are not only objects for decoration but also the symbol of resistance against the existing authority or the declaration for the creation of new art.I would like to feature his life history in the following newsletter.

**************************************************

New Arrivals:
I would like to introduce some of our new arrivals:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Katsushika Hokusai's Ukiyo-e Book "Bansho Zukou " #108000730
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hokusai, as you know, was the strongest master of Ukiyo-e. His most well-known prints are "Fugaku 36 kei" or "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" which was created between 1826 and 1833. Since he initially led ukiyo-e world in the edo period, he published a lot of books of exemplary illustrations. This "Bansho Zukou" is one of his illustration books. Various kinds of people, animals and plants are vividly depicted in this book and every page is full of lively and spontaneous graphics.
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000730/
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Yoshida Hiroshi's Woodblock Print: Omuro in 1940 #107001930
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Yoshida Hiroshi(1876-1950) is one of the best shin-hanga (new woodcut print movement) artists in the middle 20th century. His prints are richly detailed landscapes and captivating art fans in all over the world.　The motif of this work is the big gate of Omuro which is famous temple in Kyoto. Light colors are used for the gate of the temple and these subtle tones create not only beautiful piled up shades, but also depth in this work.
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107001930/

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Abuna-e or Risque Scene by Eisen #108000770 and by Eizan #108000780
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Keisai Eisen(1791-1848) is a famous artist specialised in bijinga (woodcuts of beautiful women) . It is well-known that Vincent van Gogh reproduced Eisen's work in the work The Couresan(1887).Kikugawa Eizan (1787-1867) was an ukiyo-e painter and print artist, he worked at first for his father who was a Kano school artist.

Abuna-e captures glimpses of nude or partially nude females involved in everyday activities such as bathing, washing their hair, enjoying the cool of the evening, or putting on makeup. See the woks on the links below.
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000770/
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/108000780/

Did you enjoy our collections of Ukiyo-e? Hope you have great week!
Sincerely yours,Chiaki Tanaka of Shukado

**We are sending Shukado News Letter - the information ofnew arrivals.If you would like to join our mailing list, please visit here:
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/mail/join.htm
backnumber:http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/
---------------------------------------------

Japanese Fine Arts.com by SHUKADOAddress: Sone Building 7F, Ginza 6-4-8, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061TEL:(international number)+81-3-3569-3620 FAX:+81-3-3569-3621email: info@japanese-finearts.com
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/
ONLINE GALLERY SYUKADO (Japanese)
http://www.syukado.jp

master@syukado.jp

Shukado President's Blog(including backnumber of Shukado News Letters)
*Blogger sitehttp://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/

*Ichiroya sitehttp://www.ichiroya.com/blog/Chiaki/

Shukado News Letter No.8

Dear Customers & Friends


Kon-nichi-wa, hello from Ginza!

This is Chiaki Tanaka from Shukado,and this is vol.8 Shukado Newsletter.

For these 2-3 of years, it is said that Japan has been seeing the "Spiritual boom".

As a matter of the fact, a spiritual counselor, Hiroyuki Ehara and his TV program called "Oura-no Izumi" or "the Fountain of Aura" are creating this boom.

In this program, famous TV personalities and actors or actresses are invited as guests and their deep worries and traumatic experiences are revealed through his mediumship and he suggests the guests some clues to solve their problems.

At the time of his mediumship performance, Ehara talks about the personal details, which only the guest knows such as details of his/her room. This is the trick to make the viewers believe that he has some kind of special abilities. Moreover, he tells the guest about his/her previous life, numen and the color of the aura and explains that the current life is connected to the previous life. In the end, he mediates the words of the dead parent or relatives to give some advice to the guest and the guest finds the direction of his/her future.

The program seems to be very persuasive and famous actors or actresses appear in this program, therefore, the viewers are drawn into the program.

My younger sister is very quick to catch on a trend. We call this kind of person as "Mee-her". She is watching this program every week. I think that it is typical of her, but the program is quite interesting so I would not blame her for being a blind follower.

There are some people who criticize this program as a "made-up". Such people say that Ehara could know the private secrets from advance investigations and there are some rumors that he caused some violent incidents with the staff of the program. They point out that the previous lives of the guests are usually staged in Japan or Europe not in Africa and they find this very strange.


Some other people even give warnings for the danger of peoples' crazes for something unbelievable or extraordinary while saying that the Aum Shinri-kyo terrorist attack revealed that danger of desire or passion for such things.

The other day, one junior high school student who was refused to join in the group committed suicide saying "I want to re-born to seek better life". After this incident, Ehara was accused for his influence through the media.

Although I initially thought that he was a bit dubious, after reading his book, I could understand his thoughts of "inevitable fate" in his life. To be brief, he was not intending to be a professional spiritual counselor even though he had a special ability to see ghosts and people's aura since his childhood. However, his father died at his young age and his mother too when he was a teenager, then he came to think deeply about "What is the purpose of my life?" and "Why is my life so unusually difficult?" After a while, he came to a conclusion that people live to brush up his/her own soul, which is connected to his/her previous life.

His story telling someone's previous and present life seems to be a little bit inconsistent but it captures and touches people's mind or even makes people cry or appreciate their own lucky life. It is easy to say that that is a cheap trick for tears but simply fake stories cannot move people. Probably, his powerful speech backed by his heavily agonizing past or his fate touches people's mind.

Although I do not believe in "previous life" or "people's aura" at all and I think that some of his remarks are a bit doubtful, I agree with his comment "People live to brush up his/her own soul. I may have a little bit of spiritual way of thinking because I cannot explain theoretically about it, however, I believe that even when people face a lot of difficulties, if they believe that there is a fate created by God or something similar to God, people can be very strong in their lives.

The another reason why this kind of people can be popular and famous in Japan while some people point out the danger of craze for supernatural or extraordinary things is the lack of strong base of religions in Japan. Japan is categorized as a Buddhists country, there are numerous small Buddhist sects and 100 thousands of temples (the total number is similar to that of convenience stores) in Japan. However, as a matter of fact, Japanese people see them as the organization to run the funerals or take care of cemeteries. Not many people ask Buddhist monks for their advice. We of course need someone to explain why people experience unreasonable difficulties; therefore here comes the cult religions. "Millionaire wannabe" boom can be said as one of this kind of cult religions.

It is not a religion, but the love for the birthplace or the patriotism which were serving drives for Japanese people after the Meiji era when the existence of God became faint or fear for the invasion from other nation or the self-confidence as a reflection of such fear were all smashed away by the defeat in the WWII. Japanese people may be suffering from the emptiness in their mind while enjoying economic growth.

Looking at this from different perspective, new thoughts, religion and ideas which may serve good for the people in the world may spring from this place where the freedom of religious activities and speech is guaranteed and people are open minded about religions. Although such a situation may be unique to Japan, the negative effects of rapid modernization may be causing such a trend of spiritual boom.

What is the situation like in your country with regard to the issue of psychological problems and spirituality?

Before ending my news letter, I would like to introduce new items; the artworks of Utagawa Kunisada.

http://www.japanese-finearts.com/sp/list.php?spid=S474bd5a96dea4

We recently added a lot of Yakusya-e prints (Actors' portraits) created by Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1864) at our website.

http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/search.php?md=0228
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/search.php?md=0229

They look cool, don't they? Kunisada's yakusha-e's impression is very distinctive and brilliant. High level of printing technique with detailed touch is used for those prints. While Hokusai, Hiroshige and Utamaro are globally well-known ukiyo-e artists, Kunisada was the most popular ukiyo-e artist in the late Edo era and probably was most prolific.

Ukiyo-e has been studied extensively overseas rather than in Japan. However, overseas scholars' focus of their intellectual curiosity had not been placed in Kunisada's artworks until recent times. There are some scholars who are now reevaluating his works. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunisada

Please take a look at the life history of Kunisada who created the foundation of ukiyo-e.

I hope that the readers of this newsletter will know more about old and new Japan through our newsletter.

See you next week!



**We are sending Shukado News Letter - the information of
new arrivals.
If you would like to join our mailing list, please visit here:
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/mail/join.htm
backnumber:
http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/
---------------------------------------------
Japanese Fine Arts.com by SHUKADO
Address: Sone Building 7F, Ginza 6-4-8, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061
TEL:(international number)+81-3-3569-3620 FAX:+81-3-3569-3621
email: info@japanese-finearts.com
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/

ONLINE GALLERY SYUKADO (Japanese)
http://www.syukado.jp
master@syukado.jp

Shukado President's Blog(including backnumber of Shukado News Letters)
*Blogger site
http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/
*Ichiroya site
http://www.ichiroya.com/blog/Chiaki/

Shukado Newsletter No.7 Genji#3

Shukado Newsletter No.7 Genji#3

Dear customers and friends,

Ohayo-gozaimasu, good morning from Ginza,Tokyo

This is Shukado Newsletter No.7 from "Japanese-finearts.com by Shukado".

Today I will continue to talk about the Tale of Genji or Genji Monogatari.

For these several years, Japan's imperial family has been suffering from some problems with their family affairs. The most serious problem is the Crown Princess Masako’s mental illness. She might have lost mental health after the wedding with the Crown Price Naruhito. The reason of her illness is said to be that rigid and outdated traditional rules of the imperial family puzzled the Crown Princess who used to be an intelligent and active diplomat agent before her marriage. But nobody knows the real reason.

Last week the top-ranking officer of the Imperial Household Agency made a comment at the press conference that the Crown Prince Naruhito’s family should pay more frequent visits to their parents, the Emperor and Empress, and make more opportunities that they could meet their grandchild, Princess Aiko. It was surprising that a mere bureaucrat advised the imperial family what to do and we could imagine there was a something serious problem happening in our imperial family.

On last Saturday, which fell on his birthday of 48 years old, Naruhito spoke to the media that he would try to increase their visits to the Emperor, but refused to talk further about it because, he said, that is their private matter.

Although, in my personal view, the problem of the imperial family does not seem to matter to non-Japanese nationals, most Japanese people are seriously concerned about the future of imperial family or of this nation. However, to tell the truth, when I was a teenager, I thought I do not have anything to do with the imperial family or imperial system of Japan, or I even thought that the imperial system in Japan was nothing but useless.

As I grew up, off course, I changed my mind. Because I came to know that Japan needs the imperial system to maintain its unity as a nation. That is the reason even General Douglas MacArthur did not destroy our imperial system. In Japan, the imperial family (or system) is still recognized as more important symbol of the nation of Japan than the Constitution of Japan or anything else.

The legitimacy of emperor is enhanced some cultural symbol. In another words, admiration for noble of royal dynasty is assured by imperial culture, which large people love. Very important one of them is The Tale of Genji.

The story and writing style of Genji is very beautiful, but the content is full of love and hate relations and crazy behaviors in a way.

The Hikaru Genji or “Shining Genji”,the main character, has so many love affairs that he seems to be in a kind of mental illness. But he does not think himself “fickle”, but faithful and caring.　 Actually, he gained popularity among women due to his honest and caring attitude and his exceptional handsome features make him even more attractive. Although in those days there was a practice of polygamy, his curiosity and obsession to women went too far and people around were perplexed by his behavior.

When I read the beginning of story, his love affairs seemed to be as a part of his follies of youth. But as the story develops, his behavior seems to be over the top. For example, he dared to kidnap his favorite noble girl called Murasaki no Ue to his house and married her, or he had a love affair with a wife, Fujitsubo, of his father, the Emperor.　Genetic father of the boy born to Fujitsubo was Hikaru Genji, but this fact was kept secret between Fujitsubo and him. After a while, the boy became the Emperor and Hikaru Genji gained his political power.

Such conducts which sometimes contradicted with his careful personality caused a lot of interpersonal conflicts including mental sufferings and jealous for his lovers, political jousting, political battle among imperial member, death of his lovers and acquaintances and escape to the priesthood. Reading through those dynamic interpersonal relations and the death of Hikaru Genji, readers see the subtleties of human nature through human’s infinitive desire with constant changes as well as the beauty of passions and humor. Every character appears in the Tale of Genji gets old and dies in the end regard less of how they live their lives. Even after Hikaru Genji passes away, the story goes on. This reminds the readers of the sense of mortality or “monono aware” which means the sadness, the fleeting beauty in life and nature and deeply takes roots at the base of Japanese culture.

In my opinion, the most notable thing with the Tale of Genji is that if this story were to be written as a modern literature, it might be a very grotesque story, but the writing style of the Tale of Genji is very subtle and nothing is depicted in a revealing manner. Various love affairs and strong passions are described through waka (Japanese poetry) and conversation through misu (bamboo blind) in a very indirect way. This makes a great contrast with modern films (e.g. Quentin Tarantino’s), which are full of violence. Although this story is very long and contains some odd episodes, in my view, its writing style gives sophisticated and beautiful impressions to the readers.

There are lots of paintings depicting some scenes of the Tale of Genji and the most famous one is the Genji Monogatari Emaki (the Picture Scroll of the Tale of Genji). With each painting, stories and emotions of the characters are depicted in a very suggestive way and tricks were made with them by the artists so that the people who do not know much about the story or children just see those paintings as pretty or nice.

A good example of this is our recommended item, the byobu (http://www.japanese-finearts.com/item/list2/107006610/) depicting two scenes from the Tale of Genji. The left panel shows the scene of Asagao and the right panel Momiji-no-ga.

In the episode Asagao, Hikaru Genji let a child to play with snow in the garden and talk about the old stories to his young wife Murasaki-no-ue (a kidnapped noble girl). Hikaru Genji told her not to worry too much about his flirtation because she was suffering from mental illness from such behaviors. Although this scene of show play is usually depicted for this volume Asagao, it is not much to do with the main story of this volume. In the main story, Hikaru Genji fell in love with a lady called Asagao but he was dumped by her then this snowy scene comes next followed by his mother in law whom he had an affair with appeared in his dream and said not to tell their secret to her. Even though the snow man which the child made is nothing to do with the main story, it was often depicted in the artworks based on the Tale of Genji. The snowy scene looks very beautiful and heartwarming; however, the sufferings of Murasaki-no-ue are hidden behind this scene.

The scene of Momijino-ga is one of the most beautiful and gorgeous ones in this story. Hikaru Genji and his best friend Kashira-no-Chujo performed an excellent dance called Seigai-ha on the celebration of the Emperor’s birthday. Fujitsubo, who was pregnant with Hikaru Genji’s child, saw their rehearsal because she can not see it at the ceremony. Fujitsubo who was suffering from this secret saw his wonderful performance and was fascinated by his beautiful figure. His dance with outstanding beauty at the stage enchanted the most of audience and he gained his fame to be promoted in the Imperial court.

It is not sure whether the scene depicted with this byobu is the rehearsal or the actual stage, but seeing the little number of audience, this looks like the rehearsal. If so, the Emperor and Fujitsubo, who were viewing this rehearsal, are not depicted with some kind of intention. This artwork just focused on the beauty of the dance but it does not give the details of Fujitsubo’s sufferings or even her existence in the view.

This byobu’s painting emphasize just on elegant and pleasant feelings with dainty motif and for the people who do not know much about the story, they just see the gorgeous beauty in this artwork. This representation technique is a typical one to hide the complicated love and hate story of love affairs like the Tale of Genji to be subtly presented to viewers for appreciation.

I my opinion, the writing technique used by Murasaki-shikibu still has some kind of charm more than just writing a long story for us after 1000 years since it was created.

In Japan, we celebrate the Doll Festival on the March 3rd. This festival is one of the traditional events that tells the gorgeous scenes of the Imperial culture. In another words, it is a festival which transformed the world of Genji into a popular event.

It is fun to decipher what kind of traditional Japanese theme is actually expressed or depicted in such artworks. It is something like the Da Vinci Code that was in fashion a few years ago, isn’t it?

By the way, looking at the current royal family again, they are considered as role models for the Japanese national. Therefore, they may see their family issue is representing the collapse of the Japanese family system and feel anxiety. The Crown Prince refused to give details of the issue at the press conference saying “this is a private matter”. This remark gave unfavorable impression of him being irresponsible as a royal family member. However, there have been a lot of earthly stories such as political tactics and power struggles around the Emperor like the story of Genji and the Imperial system faced several crises after the Heian period. Current Imperial family also has their problems with modern issues. The Japanese people should be more relaxed to see their problems. The most serious issue for the current Imperial family is the succession to the throne and their legitimacy. I hope that they come up with a solution to this issue harnessing the combination!
of traditional and modern wisdom.

That’s all for this week!

See you next week!


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TEL:(international number)+81-3-3569-3620 FAX:+81-3-3569-3621
email: info@japanese-finearts.com
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Shukado News Letter No.6 Genji#2

Dear customers and friends,

Kon-nichiwa,hello from Ginza,Tokyo

This is Shukado Newsletter No.6 from "Japanese-finearts.com by Shukado".


It has been really cold in Tokyo. As for this year, it is said that it is colder in northern hemisphere than that of previous years. Last week, the news said that there was a snowfall in Afghanistan causing a serious damage for local residents. What is the weather like in your country?

About 80 days has passed since we opened our website. We are very happy to receive many purchase orders from many countries. As we expected, we have biggest number of orders from U.S. while we saw orders coming from Canada, Germany, Czech Republic, Spain, Austria, Holland, Switzerland, etc. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude for our customers. Thank you very much! I feel that this is the benefit of the age of Internet where we can exchange e-mail and trade with people from allover the world!

To our surprise, we have not received any order from U.K. and France. People from those two countries first discovered the value of Japanese fine arts in the old times. We are looking forward to the orders from customers in those countries!


By the way, let me refer to the continuation of my writing on “The tale of Genji”. I have been researching The Tale of Genji in order to write this news letter since last week. To be honest, I am puzzled to find out that the world of the Tale of Genji spreads in a massive scale like a little cosmos.

The Tale of Genji a very long novel consisting of 54 volumes or chapters. In addition to that, as the time passed, the story of the 54 volumes developed and expanded as if 54 children of Murasaki-shikibu had their individual children and, 1000 years later, numerous amounts of descendants are living in 2008.


For example, if you search “Genji” or “The Tale of Genji”with Amazon U.S., you will get quite a lot of hits. You will be able to find several translations, videos, games and more.


I also heard that, in France, a richly bound book of The Tale of Genji translation by René Sieffert with wonderful artworks taken from various kinds of The Tale of Genji picture books was published last year.
http://www.amazon.fr/Dit-Genji-coffret-volumes-monogatari/dp/2903656371

The overseas impact of The Tale of Genji has been seen around only about these 100 years. Not to be mentioned, in Japan, there are countless numbers of goods related to The Tale of Genji including manuscripts of the original writings, translations made in later periods, paintings and picture books depicting characters and scenes from the Tale of Genji. The images of the Tale of Genji are used as graphic designs for kimono and other products.

When Japanese culture and the source of power in Japanese politics are discussed, many people often mention that there is a “vacuum” or “emptiness” in the center. At the time of Murasaki-shikibu, the Emperor had a political power in Japan. After a while, “Shikken”or Emperor’s political advisors became de-facto rulers. Then Shikken’s reign was taken over by samurai warriors and samurai’s reign continues for about 700 years. However, in theory, the Emperor was always considered as a greatest political figure.

Some academians say that “The Tale of Genji” played a very significant role for the “story” or “illusion” of Emperor’s political governance. Although I have not looked this theory in detail, if I were to believe in this story, I, as a Japanese national, would feel very much like taking close look at The Tale of Genji once again.


It can also be said that “emptiness” also exists in the structure of “The Tale of Genji” itself. As I mentioned in the previous newsletter, its original manuscripts do not exist at present. Even direct manuscript of the original does not exist. Current “The Tale of Genji” was re-constructed from variations derived from manuscripts passed down from generation to generation surviving war fires.

By the way, the manuscript written at the time when The Tale of Genji was written looks like this:
http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/2008/02/part-of-genji-monogatari-emaki-national.html


This is a part of scripts from “The Tale of Genji Picture Scroll” which was created in the area near the imperial palace in early 12th century and is the oldest existing manuscript of the tale. This scroll is designated as a National Treasure.


Although this script is written in very elegant and dainty Higarana or Japanese phonetic alphabet, most of Japanese people in the modern time can not read such writings.


Modern Hiragana consists of about 50 letters (the combination of 5 vowels of a,i,u,e and o and 9 consonants of k,s,t, etc. ). Since Hiragana was invented as phonetic alphabet writing by simplifying shapes of Chinese characters, there were several different letters for one sound. In the Heian period, there were approximately 300 letters with Hiragana. After a wile, in the Meiji era, the number of Hiragana letters was reduced to current number of 45 letters to be taught at schools. Since then, old Hiragana letters became obsolete and Japanese people became incapable of reading old scripts.


Even if you can read old Hiragana letters, it is extremely difficult to understand its meaning since old Japanese grammar is quite different from that of modern Japanese and the relations between a subject and a predicate is further vague with old Japanese.

Therefore, Japanese people in the modern time have double or triple obstacles in having a clear picture of original “The Tale of Genji.”


Despite its difficulties in understanding the meaning, don't you think the strikes of the writing look very elegant and beautiful? Calligraphic works from the Heian period are exceptionally beautiful. Therefore, even now, Japanese people appreciate their beauty and treasure manuscripts, scrolls and dankan (a piece of calligraphic work) created in this period. You can see such artworks in the museums in Tokyo and Kyoto.

From art dealer's view point, I would like to touch upon their market value. Beautiful calligraphic works from this period are priced around a couple of million yen (several tens of thousands US dollars). As for very precious ones, even a piece of such artwork is highly valued for a few billion yen (a few million US dollars). Unfortunately, it is prohibited to export many of such artworks (designated as National Treasures or Important Cultural Assets) by Japanese government. It is pity that overseas readers of this newsletter can not purchase them even though having enough money. But don't be disappointed. We are hoping to introduce you some super class calligraphic works from this period in the near future. Please wait for a little while until then.


Sorry, I went off the main topic. Let me get back to it.


To be honest, in reality, there are not many Japanese people who completely understand the content of The Tale of Genji. On the other hand, there are millions of modern Japanese translation, manga comics and paintings based on it. Additionally, various kinds of artworks in a wide range of genre influenced by the tale can be seen now. Therefore, it can be said that most of Japanese people are living unconsciously with the influence of its images and stories,


However such influential existences of the“Emperor”and “The Tale of Genji” serving as binding tools of Japanese people’s mind do not stand out in the society. This may be very Japanese phenomena that important figures are always low-key. In addition, Japanese people do not think so seriously about their main belief, “Buddhism”. While many people have funerals in Buddhist style, Christian style wedding is the most popular followed by Shinto or Buddhist style wedding. Although I sometimes pray for God, I am actually not aware of what sort of God I am praying for.


Making additional comment on the “emptiness” in the core, except Prime Minister Koizumi who had stayed in the office until last year, many of our previous Prime Ministers did not have strong leadership and their stints were very short. This may be due to the fact that Japanese people have temperament to avoid having a strong leader and, as a result of this, a low-key person always serves as a de-facto leader. I do not think this is a very good thing for Japanese politics.

I got off the track too much. I shall stop writing this newsletter here.


For your reference, this year marks 1000th anniversary of the compilation of The Tale of Genji and its anniversary symposium as well as exhibitions and lectures will be held this year. Please visit the website as below for more details.
http://www.2008genji.jp/iinkai/english.html
http://www.pref.kyoto.jp/2008genji/index.html

The topic of The Tale of Genji will continue next week.

**
We have Two NEWS.

News One: Shukado Catalog No.13 / Early Spring of 2008 Edition was just published last Friday!
Why don't you see that:
https://www.syukado.jp/en/catalog/index.html

News Two: Our staff, Ikuko Kuwata just married Smoky (American) YESTERDAY!
http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/2008/02/ikuko-just-married.html

She is our customer servicer for overseas and also in charge of editing the Shukado Catalog, the latest edition of which was just printed on last Friday!

Please BLESS her and her new husband!!

**

Everyone, please take care of yourself in the cold weather. I also wish the people in the warm country their well-being!

See you next week!

Chiaki Tanaka

**We are sending Shukado News Letter - the information of
new arrivals.
If you would like to join our mailing list, please visit here:
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/mail/join.htm
backnumber:
http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/
---------------------------------------------
Japanese Fine Arts.com by SHUKADO
Address: Sone Building 7F, Ginza 6-4-8, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061
TEL:(international number)+81-3-3569-3620 FAX:+81-3-3569-3621
email: info@japanese-finearts.com
http://www.japanese-finearts.com/

ONLINE GALLERY SYUKADO (Japanese)
http://www.syukado.jp
master@syukado.jp

Shukado President's Blog(including backnumber of Shukado News Letters)
*Blogger site
http://japanese-finearts.blogspot.com/
*Ichiroya site
http://www.ichiroya.com/blog/Chiaki/