Japan Society: Points of Departure

The exhibit currently on view at Japan Society, Points of Departure: Treasures of Japan from the Brooklyn Museum, was enabled by the temporary closure of the Brooklyn Museum's galleries for renovation.  This made possible a loan of choice artifacts from the Museum's permanent collection for display in a carefully designed setting at the Society's Gallery.

The exhibit was not at all what I had expected and quite different from other exhibits of Japanese art I have encountered over the years.  Perhaps this was partly because so small a number of items were chosen to document so vast a cultural history.  The folding screens and ukiyo-e one customarily associates with Japan were here, of course, but so were artworks whose presence I found surprising.

The exhibit began with a selection of ceramics and everyday items from the earliest periods of Japanese history.  These included ceremonial bells meant to be buried in the fields at planting time, polished hand mirrors, sword hilts and early examples of glazed pottery whose technique had been imported from China.  Also shown were two earthenware pottery Haniwa pieces from the Kofun period - a horse's head and a figure of a shamaness.  It was the very primitiveness of these two pieces that made them so impressive.

There was also from the Muromachi period a homely Negoro wine ewer whose beauty lay in the manner in which the red lacquer coating it had rubbed off in an irregular pattern through repeated daily use.  The owner's ability to appreciate its worn appearance derived from an understanding the aesthetic principles of wabi and sabi that are so fundamental to Japanese culture.

Immediately following these were a number of examples of contemporary ceramics created by still living artists.  Among these were Kishi Eiko's Recollected Vista (2012), a geometrically shaped stonework in which had been implanted thousands of tiny tiles to form a mosaic effect, and Fukami Sueharu's Infinity II (1994), a glazed porcelain whose futuristic shape was reminiscent of a Brâncuși sculpture.

In the next room were several religious sculptures, including two cypress wood lion guardians (Koma-Inu) from the Kamakura period, two small Bodhisattvas (whose hand gestures, or mudra, were unfortunately not explained to viewers) and a large image of a seated Buddha from the Heian period.  A crystal had been implanted in the Buddha's forehead in place of the usual caste marking as though to indicate the Buddha had transcended all worldly rankings.

Following this, one entered a room dominated by two large folding screens, both of them anonymous works from the Edo period.  The first of these, Cherry Blossom Viewing Picnic, is one half of a set (the other half is in a private collection in Japan) and depicts a woman surrounded by ladies-in-waiting and escorted by samurai, none of whom appear particularly warlike, as she walks among the sakura.  The second, Views in and Around Kyoto, is an enormous work that shows everyday life in that city.  Many of the most famous festivals and shrines are carefully depicted.  So great is the detail that one could spend hours searching through it from one scene to the next.

Finally came the ukiyo-e, though there were not as many examples as I had expected and all were familiar works by well known artists.  These included Andō Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai and Tōshūsai Sharaku.  Hiroshige was represented by several prints from the series Three Views of Japan (c. 1855) while those by Hokusai included two prints done almost entirely in shades of blue from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (1826-1833).  Another lesser known print by Hokusai was the Announcement of a Farewell Performance of Bando Mitsugoro III (1820), a simple depiction of the seven changes of outfit this actor would use in his valedictory appearance onstage.  The most striking print on view was Sharaku's portrait from 1794 of the famous female impersonator Segawa Kikunojō III in costume and makeup.  It succeeds very well in depicting how completely the actor was able to assume his role as a woman and is one of the artist's best known Kabuki portraits.

The most exciting part of the exhibit came at the very end in a collection of Ainu craft works.  Their presence at this exhibit was a something of a surprise since the primitive Ainu were not recognized as being Japanese by Wajin until the Meiji period even though they had inhabited the northern island of Hokkaido since time immemorial.  The inclusion of these works in the Brooklyn Museum collection was due to the efforts of ethnographer Stewart Culin who represented the Museum on field trips to Japan in the early 1900's.  (During these trips Culin also amassed a large personal collection, later acquired by the Museum, portions of which were shown in a small room at this exhibit.)  The Ainu crafts were highly sophisticated works whose style immediately reminded this viewer of similar pieces created by Native Americans in the U.S. Southwest.  Among other items, there were two gorgeous long robes, carved wooden prayer sticks and beaded necklaces.  What made these beautiful pieces so striking was the contrast they presented to traditional Japanese art tradition, a contrast that unwittingly emphasized the isolation this indigenous race had endured for so long a time.

All things considered, this is an exhibit well worth seeing for its unique viewpoint on Japanese art.  It has been thoughtfully organized and, though the selection is small, the priceless pieces on display do enable a better understanding of one of the world's greatest cultures.

The exhibit continues through June 8, 2014.