06-14-2009, 04:14 PM
I renewed my membership just for this exhibit. Members get entrance to an exclusive preview, which I saw on Thursday.
The exhibit showcases the collection of the Hosokawa clan (misspelled Hokosawa in Treasures, and any publisher loves finding a misspelling in someone else's pub). The Hosokawa clan is still powerful in modern Japan. Their mon is a circle surrounded by eight smaller circles, symbolic of nine planets. Most notably, they retained Miyamoto Musashi.
Room #1 contains some armor, some swords, a helmet, some painting scrolls and a banner. There's really only about half a dozen suits of armor and swords showcased in this exhibit. The rest is padded with paintings, tea sets, masks, and paintings. It's all magnificent, prime examples of each art form in it's highest splendor, but I was hoping for more actual samurai pieces given the title. Many years ago, Asian Art did a spectacular exhibit of samurai helmets and that pretty much all it was - dozens of amazing helmets. Nevertheless, Lords of the Samurai isn't in the least bit disappointing. It's an absolute must-see. The armor and swords that are displayed are utterly stunning. It's top-of-the-line cermonial stuff and the detailing is staggeringly beautiful, an awesome display of the majesty of samurai gear. The two swords displayed in room #1 are the only complete ones currently on display. They have very ornate and unusual tsuba that seem unwieldy. These are dress swords and the sword furniture is past the point of practicality, but fascinating none the less. The armor, like each of the suits on display, has astounding details which only emerge if you stare at it for quite a spell such as minature crosses, heart motifs, mon, butterflies, and Buddhist guardian images.
Room #2 has several suits of armor and naked blades. The armor is simply stunning in details. The longer I looked, the more patterns emerged, subtle, elegant, each worked into the design with that divine aesthetic structure so characteristic of fine Japanese art. There's a nice tsuba display, hung so you can see both sides. The sword blades were totally amazing. Spend some time with the first one. It has a double hamon. As your eyes caress the edge, you'll notice a supple wave pattern so evenly spaced that its seductively voluptuous. But if you stare even longer, more will emerge. This blade is a stripper, doing it just for you. A second line appears when the light angles is just so, revealing delicate fingers with long stroking nails - just a teasing flash - then its gone, replaced with those Rubenesque curves of the initial line. The middle blades are tachi, which are displayed traditionally, blade to earth (katana and wakazashi are blade to sky in a house fo war). Sadly, this deprives us of proper lighting of these blades because they are resting on a pillow of fabric. Asian Art should have figured a way to light that display from the bottom up. The last blade has a spectacular blade with a serpentine cut out. After seeing so many stupid modern fantasy swords with dragons molded into the pot metal blades, it's staggeringly reaffriming to see the real thing. The janitor is probably still mopping up the pool of drool I left in front of that display case.
It was room #3 that got me. Room #3 opens Tereo's original handwritten copy of his master's work, Go rin no sho, the Book of Five Rings. Musashi's original is lost. This was the one that survived. I worte my provost thesis on Five Rings and it's been forever since I thought about that seriously. As I read the captions, extracts from translastions I had poured over in the past, I realized it was stupid. I know those captions. I used to have a lot of that memorized. I can read that in my library at home. I should just look at the scrolls, look at the calligraphy. Recently, I've have some appreciation of calligraphy despite being illiterate to it for the most part, which is doubly so in Japanese. But you can see the excitement in Tereo's hand, how he sometimes runs out of space with his charcters. The collection also contains two of Musashi's paintings: Horse and Wild Swans. Beyond being the kensei (sword saint) Musashi was also an expert painter and carpenter (in fact, Five Rings uses carpentry as a metaphor throughout). I had studied Musashi's art in books - traditional brush painting, like swordsmanship, is all about the stroke. It was one of those ecstatic museum moments, to see these paintings in person. But the pieces that totally overwhelmed me was Musashi's bokken set. They have his swords. As a carpenter, he handcarved both weapons and anyone who knows anything about Musashi, knows it was all about the nito-ryu, the two sword method, and he fought his most famous duels with wood against steel. I've seen a lot of bokken, even the high-end artisan stuff - hell I sell the things. I still train with them. I keep one as a pillow sword. But these, these were handmade by THE MAN. My lord. It was such an epiphany to stand before them, I felt like kneeling like Wayne and Garth. I was absolutely shivering in the presence. Musashi's swords.
There's some more armor and art in Room #3 but I was still reeling from the Musashi exhibit. At the end, there are two paintings by one of Japan's most famous artists Hakuin: an Enso and a Bodhidharma. The Buddhist symbols, so prominent in my own personal practice, guided me gently back to earth.
Lords of the Samurai runs until Sep 20. They are going to switch out the exhibit halfway through; some 50 pieces will change. They didn't want to expose these pieces for too long because many of them have never been shown to the public ever before. See it now. Then see it again later.
Every time I'm in striking distance this summer, I intend to stop by. If any of you are there too, members can take a guest.
The exhibit showcases the collection of the Hosokawa clan (misspelled Hokosawa in Treasures, and any publisher loves finding a misspelling in someone else's pub). The Hosokawa clan is still powerful in modern Japan. Their mon is a circle surrounded by eight smaller circles, symbolic of nine planets. Most notably, they retained Miyamoto Musashi.
Room #1 contains some armor, some swords, a helmet, some painting scrolls and a banner. There's really only about half a dozen suits of armor and swords showcased in this exhibit. The rest is padded with paintings, tea sets, masks, and paintings. It's all magnificent, prime examples of each art form in it's highest splendor, but I was hoping for more actual samurai pieces given the title. Many years ago, Asian Art did a spectacular exhibit of samurai helmets and that pretty much all it was - dozens of amazing helmets. Nevertheless, Lords of the Samurai isn't in the least bit disappointing. It's an absolute must-see. The armor and swords that are displayed are utterly stunning. It's top-of-the-line cermonial stuff and the detailing is staggeringly beautiful, an awesome display of the majesty of samurai gear. The two swords displayed in room #1 are the only complete ones currently on display. They have very ornate and unusual tsuba that seem unwieldy. These are dress swords and the sword furniture is past the point of practicality, but fascinating none the less. The armor, like each of the suits on display, has astounding details which only emerge if you stare at it for quite a spell such as minature crosses, heart motifs, mon, butterflies, and Buddhist guardian images.
Room #2 has several suits of armor and naked blades. The armor is simply stunning in details. The longer I looked, the more patterns emerged, subtle, elegant, each worked into the design with that divine aesthetic structure so characteristic of fine Japanese art. There's a nice tsuba display, hung so you can see both sides. The sword blades were totally amazing. Spend some time with the first one. It has a double hamon. As your eyes caress the edge, you'll notice a supple wave pattern so evenly spaced that its seductively voluptuous. But if you stare even longer, more will emerge. This blade is a stripper, doing it just for you. A second line appears when the light angles is just so, revealing delicate fingers with long stroking nails - just a teasing flash - then its gone, replaced with those Rubenesque curves of the initial line. The middle blades are tachi, which are displayed traditionally, blade to earth (katana and wakazashi are blade to sky in a house fo war). Sadly, this deprives us of proper lighting of these blades because they are resting on a pillow of fabric. Asian Art should have figured a way to light that display from the bottom up. The last blade has a spectacular blade with a serpentine cut out. After seeing so many stupid modern fantasy swords with dragons molded into the pot metal blades, it's staggeringly reaffriming to see the real thing. The janitor is probably still mopping up the pool of drool I left in front of that display case.
It was room #3 that got me. Room #3 opens Tereo's original handwritten copy of his master's work, Go rin no sho, the Book of Five Rings. Musashi's original is lost. This was the one that survived. I worte my provost thesis on Five Rings and it's been forever since I thought about that seriously. As I read the captions, extracts from translastions I had poured over in the past, I realized it was stupid. I know those captions. I used to have a lot of that memorized. I can read that in my library at home. I should just look at the scrolls, look at the calligraphy. Recently, I've have some appreciation of calligraphy despite being illiterate to it for the most part, which is doubly so in Japanese. But you can see the excitement in Tereo's hand, how he sometimes runs out of space with his charcters. The collection also contains two of Musashi's paintings: Horse and Wild Swans. Beyond being the kensei (sword saint) Musashi was also an expert painter and carpenter (in fact, Five Rings uses carpentry as a metaphor throughout). I had studied Musashi's art in books - traditional brush painting, like swordsmanship, is all about the stroke. It was one of those ecstatic museum moments, to see these paintings in person. But the pieces that totally overwhelmed me was Musashi's bokken set. They have his swords. As a carpenter, he handcarved both weapons and anyone who knows anything about Musashi, knows it was all about the nito-ryu, the two sword method, and he fought his most famous duels with wood against steel. I've seen a lot of bokken, even the high-end artisan stuff - hell I sell the things. I still train with them. I keep one as a pillow sword. But these, these were handmade by THE MAN. My lord. It was such an epiphany to stand before them, I felt like kneeling like Wayne and Garth. I was absolutely shivering in the presence. Musashi's swords.
There's some more armor and art in Room #3 but I was still reeling from the Musashi exhibit. At the end, there are two paintings by one of Japan's most famous artists Hakuin: an Enso and a Bodhidharma. The Buddhist symbols, so prominent in my own personal practice, guided me gently back to earth.
Lords of the Samurai runs until Sep 20. They are going to switch out the exhibit halfway through; some 50 pieces will change. They didn't want to expose these pieces for too long because many of them have never been shown to the public ever before. See it now. Then see it again later.
Every time I'm in striking distance this summer, I intend to stop by. If any of you are there too, members can take a guest.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
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