November 1,2023: Japanese Woodblocks and French Cooking

 

Munakato Shiko was the featured artist at the National Museum of Modern Art. He was well known for woodblock prints and illustrations, and did work in other media as well. Here we see one of series he undertook with poems of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass

“When doing business in Japan, process, manners, and how you work on something is more important than the final results.” — Hector Garcia

I am not sure if the above statement is correct, but there does seem to be a high level of attention here to giving a high level of attention. And there seem to be a lot of rules...but it makes for a good aesthetic. For example, here is the sign outside the breakfast room at our hotel...

It's hard to believe enough people did this to require a sign, but... Since it is in English at the top and not Japanese, I have to assume my ilk is the worst offender. 

Today we decided to visit the National Museum of Modern Art . It was the first national museum of art in Japan and dates back to 1952, when it was established as an institution governed by the Ministry of Education. The building is somewhat utilitarian in appearance much like US government buildings of the 1960-70s, but the contents are anything but. 

Exterior ot the MOMAT

We were only about an hour's walk from MOMAT, so we decided to access it via the Eastern Garden of the Imperial Palace. Even though we walked through extensively yesterday, you don't get tired of the topiaries, plants and animal life. 

Wood/metal doorway to the grounds of the Imperial Palace

A blue heron and a cormorant share a log. There were koi and larger carp in the moat surrounding the castle. 

The featured artist at the MOMAT was Munakato Shiko. I have to admit, I did not know this artist but I  gained a lot of respect for him while viewing his work.

Mr. Shiko-san lived from 1903-1975 and was recognized for excellence in woodblock prints. He was the third of 15 children born to a blacksmith in the Aomori Prefecture in Honshu.  Due to the impoverished conditions in which he grew up, he only made it to elementary school. He said his drive to be an artist came from viewing van Gogh's Still Life: Vase with Five Flowers which a friend showed him on a magazine cover.  During his journey to become the van Gogh of Aomori, he had to work repairing shoes.  He was rejected by the Japan Art Academy no less than four times. Please note his thick glasses. He had severe myopia. Which brings me to the next photo...

Mr Shiko-san's myopia was so severe, he had to work in very close proximity to his media and work. 

Mr. Shiko-san is seated to the extreme right. I include this because he has a tuxedo cat in his arms. Gotta love this guy!

Around 1926, Mr Shiko decided to concentrate not on illustrations and oil painting, but woodblock prints and had works included at the 1932 and 1936 summer Olympics in Tokyo. Enter World War II (they don't say these words much in Tokyo...very sensitive topic), his home and many of his prints were destroyed during a firebombing attack in 1945. It's hard for me to say this, but his cat didn't survive either :(

He relocated to Fukumitsu Town which held much religious meaning for him. Many of his works are Buddhist, Hindu and even Christian. 

Evil spirit.

There are many animals in his work: monkeys, cats, dogs, and here horses

He also made this garment for a friend

A woodblock print screen. I left the nice Japanese lady in the foreground to give perspective to hte size of this work. He has many large prints displayed. 

An example of the woodblocks he made. Woodblock is a form of relief printing and is based on the principle that parts not to be printed are cut out of the wood.  Woodblocks were introduced into Japan in the 7th century from China and were first used for printing sacred Buddhist texts. 

The MOMAT has numerous floors mostly dedicated to Modern Japanese artists with a few paintings by modern European and American artists thrown in for comparison or as sources of inspiration. 

A screen: Funada Gyokuju, Flowers (Image of Evening), 1938

Shimomura Kanzan, Autumn among Trees, 1907

In the spirit of inclusiveness, we have Paul Klee, Thoughts in Yellow

Overall, it was a nice sojourn in the museum and a good introduction to modern art in Japan.  From the museum, we embarassingly enough went to a mall for pizza where they had the chain restaurant Eataly. We tried to order one pizza but they wouldn't let us do that and said we both had to order something, so Paul ordered a half green salad. 

There are A LOT of rules here. No sitting here, no eating while walking, and no talking there. We had a guided tour in a museum where the signs said: Be quiet. No lecturing or explaining.  Makes for a difficult guided tour in some ways, but we can't complain about the noise level!

From here we were off to the kissa jazz club that wasn't open yesterday. The kissa sat at most 12 people and appeared to be run by a woman of advanced age who was totally into her audio equipment. She also had a robot dog that provided a lot of amusement. We noticed that the Japanese seem to enjoy vocal jazz quite a lot. Maybe the lady recognized we were from the US because she played Tony Bennett and Diane Krall's CD, Love is Here to Stay. 

This robot dog walked up to our table and even laid on his back for a belly scratch!

Suntory time for Paul in the jazz kissa, Blue Eyes

Blue Eyes is a very tiny basement space where they play vinyl and CDs on high end stereo equipment. 

From here, we were off to dinner. As many of you know, Paul, an NPR jazz radio host and IT wizard, is also an avid walker/hiker, wine conneisseur, and gourmand. It doesn't matter if he has NEVER been to a city before, he will extensively research and find the very tastiest restaurants and tonight was no exception.  We went to Bistro Simba, a very small restaurant that will seat about 20 people total. Small restaurant spaces are a Tokyo norm. 

Tucked away on a side street, the chef at Bistro Simba is Japanese but worked at French restaurants and decided to return with his haute skills to Tokyo. The Japanese in general appear to be very partial to French food (and who can blame them.) The chef also specializes in French wines at the restaurant, most of which are not on the open market,  are  made for his cooking and are biodynamic. 

There is no menu at Bistro Simba. You get whatever the chef makes, multiple courses, small portions but just enough food. When it tastes this good, you don't need to make the decisions. 

All in all, it was another great day in Tokyo with wonderful weather and we are grateful for the opportunity. 

‘If Japan is enigmatic, then Tokyo is the heart of that riddle, its rhythm and essence so utterly alluring that it demands to be explored. It has a depth that keeps travellers in a constant state of rapture and delight. Whatever your vice, Tokyo has you covered.’ – Michael Ryan

Paul's Ponderings:   Another great day out in Tokyo.   The weather was perfect again -- even a bit hot -- and we decided to walk over to the modern art museum via the palace grounds that are about a mile away.    We'd never heard of the printmaker in the special exhibit, but he was very prolific and did this work despite severe visual accuity issues.   The variety of it all was pretty impressive, not to mention the large scale of some of the works.    We ended the day with an impressive meal at Bistro Simba.  The chef basically picked the menu and it was clearly all made with local ingredients and cooked to perfection.   Apparently French cooking is a pretty big deal here in Japan and this was a good example of someone local matching was an excellent French restaurant would do in Europe.   Later in the week, we'll see what someone doing Italian food in a small setting in Tokyo can do.