Monthly Archives: February 2008

National Treasure no. 1

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It survived centuries of invasion, occupation, and civil war. It burned down in a few hours last night. Korea’s National Treasure no. 1, Namdaemun, or the Great South Gate, was the oldest surviving wooden structure in Seoul. It was built in 1398, by the first King of the Yi Dynasty. Although it had been given three major renovations during its lifetime, it had never been burned down. It will have to be rebuilt completely. I did notice in some of the wire photos that many of the largest beams seemed to be intact. The signboard was also saved.

But it’s just tragic. I was in shock when I heard the news. It had only been open to the public just two years ago. It had been closed to the public for almost a century before that. T and I were fortunate to have been able to visit it in 2006. It’s inexplicable that this happened. Though Namdaemun marked the southern boundary of the original Seoul, it now lies in the center, surrounded by a wide, busy intersection. During our visit, there were intimidating plain-clothes guards and security cameras everywhere. It’s unbelievable that the fire could have escalated so much. Apparently the 100+ firefighters thought the fire was extinguished only to flare back up with a vengeance.

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Above is a picture that I took when it was newly opened to the public. Namdaemun is so closely identified with Korea that you’ll find it prominently displayed in textbooks and tourism literature. The equivalent of such a tragedy in the U.S. would be if the Statue of Liberty collapsed, or if the Declaration of Independence went up in flames. Except Namdaemun is centuries older.

It’s amazing that a wooden structure survived for so long. Perhaps we should be grateful that it’s been with us for such a long period. But if an arsonist is indeed responsible, as some reports suggest, what possible motive could that person have? And how did he get through all the security undetected?

Originally, the gate, and wall (long ago demolished by Japanese imperialists), were constructed to keep out tigers at night. Now, of course, tigers exist on the peninsula only in remote mountain areas. Perhaps, now that the gate is open, the tigers can come back.

Photo credits. Top: from Reuters. Middle: by Wind

Edo Portrayals of Courtly Love

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Courtly Love: The Tales of Ise Illustrated at the Idemitsu Museum of Art

After visiting the Mitsuo Aida Museum (previous post), I went a few blocks up the street on to the Idemitsu Museum of Art, known for its East Asian art collection. Unfortunately, none of the permanent collection was on display. Instead, the main exhibit consisted of art portraying the Tale of Ise, a series of stories that predate the more well-known Tale of Genji.

From what I gather Ise was like a Don Juan, a paramour who writes love letters to the ladies of the court, sets out on adventures, leaving a trail of heartbreak, but he never finds lasting love. The bulk of the exhibit consists of hanging scrolls that have a lot of gold as a background. Though the tale is from the Heian Period (794-1195CE) most of the art was from the much later Edo Period (1603-1868CE). I can’t say I was overly impressed with the art. Like most Edo period court art, they were overly stylized, and heavily formal portrayals lacking nuance, depth or detail. Some of the “masterpieces” especially by Sotetsu, were muddy and the strokes appeared lazy.

I did find one special scroll by Iwasa Matabe (1578-1650) called “Azusa-yumi” that stood out from the rest. It has a striking background of geometric lines that merely suggest the architectural structure of a gate and manor that is transparent to the two melancholy lovers portrayed, as if the world melted away between them. It’s subtle and suggests the delicate dance of courtly love. I also enjoyed Hanabusa Itcho’s “Death of Narihira”, a whimsical portrait of Ise that parodies a traditional painting of the Buddha surrounded by his followers, animals and bodhisattvas.

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Other exhibits at the museum included a pottery sherd exhibit that had a nice broad representation of pottery in Japan in context with East Asian ceramics.

Also in a small gallery were some self-portraits of Edvard Munch that I’d never seen before. I’m not a fan of Munch and his tortured art, but I did find the self-portraits to be revealing. His eyes are buried in a blur of misery and his face was twisted in his personal anguish.

One of the highlights of the museum is the seating area with a view of the moat and forest of the Imperial Palace. There’s a free tea dispenser and you can sit among the mellow chatter of old people talking about the exhibit.

Overall, it was a beautifully installed museum, and judging by the fact that I couldn’t find any of the art at the exhibit on the internet to put on this site, I realize it took a lot of effort to put the series together. The picture above is not from the exhibit but from another organization, but it portrays scenes from the Tale of Ise. It’s rare for a museum to gather items from many sources to narrate a single theme. Though I didn’t know much about the story of Ise, I found it was a great way to get an overview of the different styles of art during the Edo Period.

“When It Rains, Be in the Rain. When It’s Windy, Be in the Wind”

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02mitsu1.jpgI went to the Mitsuo Aida Museum because it was one of the museums I could visit with my Grutt Pass. I had never heard of Mitsuo Aida before, but since the museum is prominently in the Tokyo International Forum, one of the centers of the performing arts in Tokyo, I figured he was an artist of some renown. I wasn’t disappointed.

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The museum itself is small and simple, consisting of a main gallery and an annex next to it. The walls and the floors are made of earthen material, which contributed to a feeling of being in an adobe structure. There’s a nice cafe with sunken seating. The atmosphere was serene and all the writings had English translations beside them. I tried to read the Japanese first and found that I could understand most of it because the words are simple and the writing so clearly written.

The title of this post is one of his poems. Here are some of my other favorites:

I felt that someone was looking at me.
I turned my wheelchair
And found a little flower blooming there.

I couldn’t do it, or
I didn’t do it.
I wonder which one?

If you spend all your time only thinking,
The sun will set.

A poem for my children.
It matters not the path you choose
Nor the way you walk it.
What matters is living that life to its fullest.

Waiting for the Spring

There was also a special exhibit of Tomihiro Hoshino. Hoshino suffered an accident while demonstrating for his high school gymnastics students, and he became paralyzed from the neck down as a result. Hospitalized for many years, he eventually learned to write and paint with a brush in his mouth. His delicate watercolors of flowers capture the ephemeral spring. And his calligraphy seems to float around his paintings like pollen.

After reading all the poems, the themes that emerged were about waiting, patience, acceptance, gratitude towards his mother who took care of him, and flowers. Lots of flowers. I think he identified with flowers because they too were rooted to one place for long periods of time, and they represent the fragility of life as well as the ability to endure the winter and produce beauty. Here is a website of some of his works with English translations.