JAPANESE ART

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22102, 4 November 1933, Page 9

JAPANESE ART

EXHIBITION AT MUSEUM DISTINCTIVE SATSUMA WARE. The principal feature of interest to those who pay a visit to the Museum at the present time is the exhibition of Japanese materia] in the upper gallery of the new wing. Here has been gathered a representative collection of the arts and crafts of the Japanese people, and visitors will scarcely fail to be impressed by the evidence contained in these cases of a culture and artistic tradition as definite as, though widely different from, that of Europe. For the present display the Museum is indebted to a number of its friends and supporters, who have placed on loan some of their choicest pieces, many of them of considerable intrinsic value. To members of the public who are not especially interested in objects of art for their own sake, the exhibition should be of value, as revealing something of the temperament and mental attitude of a people which is at present forcing itself upon the attention of the world and more particularly of the nations bordering on the Pacific. The first of the series of cases in the gallery contains a selection of metal pieces, which reveal something of the skill in handcraft of the Japanese craftsman of the higher class. The most spectacular of these exhibits is a figure in bronze, iron and gold of a small boy pushing a cart, and the eye will also becaught by a beautiful iron jewel case inlaid with gold and elcctrum. A series of 25 sword guards, some of them probably of considerable age, recall the days when the Samurai, or warrior caste, dominated Japan, and close by a figure representing a wrestler of powerful physique issuing a challenge to combat boars evidence that it is not only among the athletically minded of the Western world that the cult of the strong man has its devotees.

The second island case includes a small collection of Persian material, among which are two small textile pieces, several powder flasks, and a dagger or two. One of these last-named from its ornamental haft and sheath was evidently intended for use by a Persian lady-—the Don Juans of Isfahan must needs be of sterner stuff than the hero of Byron’s cantos. The most Interesting of the powder flasks is one made of elephant’s hide, with pictures upon its side, executed in enamel, of hawking scenes, with figures of followers of the sport. Among the Japanese pieces the attention will be caught by a series of medicine boxes, called Imro. These, some of which show Japanese lacquer work at its best, are in sections, in each of which the Japanese valetudenarian _ carried some drug or fancied cure against the ills of the flesh;

In the third island case is a small collection from Siam, of porcelain ware principally, but also including fine series of bronze Buddha heads, illustrating the artistic influence of the Buddhist faith upon the races with which it came in contact. The remainder of the exhibits here are from Japan, and comprise principally examples of the skill of the Japanese carvers in wood and ivory. In the first wall case will be seen a group of largQ and extremely beautiful vessels, examples of the famous cloisonne art of Japan. In this work the outlines of practically every detail of the design are defined with narrow bands or ribbons of metal, soldered edgewise to the base, in such a way that the whole surface to be decorated is covered with shallow cells which are then filled with the appropriate enamel colours, ground to a fine powder, moistened, and packed into their respective cells. The visitor will here be able to see something of the attention to the most minute details which is so characteristic of the work of the Japanese craftsman, and of the artistic effect of the finished production this case provides a remarkable example. Farther along a case is devoted to archieological specimens, collected by Mr and Mrs E. G. M. Foord, representing the stone/age in Cambodia, Japan, and China. As an example of the crude efforts of the progenitors of the peoples which built the inner city of Peking and the palaces of Kyoto the collection is literally a sermon in stone upon the eternal progress of man. The pride of the exhibition is the case containing the Satsuma wave. This buff-coloured pottery of quaint forma, with decorations in gold and colour, is remarkable by reason of the fact that this pottery alone seems to have retained some of the more ancient forms introduced by the old Korean potters, who taught the Japanese so much of thenart. The decoration of the pieces is very minute and careful, and the faces and details of the costumes of the figures will bear close examination under a magnifying glass. A number of pieces in the collection are signed by the artists whose work they represent, one of these being Taizan, one of the most famous makers of Japanese porcelain ware. As an example of the infinite pains to which tin’s master craftsman went in order to perfect his work, it may be mentioned that upon two tiny vases in the collec--1 tion he is said to have worked for 300 days, and another somewhat larger is the product of 250 days of patient application of .the highest skill. This Satsuma ware Ims been loaned by Mr O. Balk, who collected it during his residence in Japan some 40 years ago. The final group of objects is of a spectacular order. Included in it are some marvellous examples o,f the work of the Japanese carver in both wood and ivory, and the contra! piece is provided by a huge cabinet which must represent many months of labour by its Japanese makers. Less beautiful, perhaps, than the best work of the Chinese, and lacking that power of restrained emotion which characterises the best in all art, it fittingly sums up the achievements of the children of Nippon, as represented in the Museum’s present display.