OCTOBER 2004
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Rose pops over with present and card for Henrietta; it's good to see her looking well again. She's able to go back to work next Wednesday. I'm still icing the cake that Richard made for Henrietta last night.
Arrive in London at the Osborne Studio Gallery at about 5 with the corrugated horse piece for the charity exhibition for the Spinal Injuries Association. The gallery does have quite a horsey feel, bronzes of dogs and horses and a facade painted in racing green. R's parked a little way further down the road so I'm rather pleased to see a shop with marzipan animals in the window so buy a couple of pink elephants, crocodile and a bear as little after dinner gifts.
Drive to Tate Modern to have a look at Still Life/Object/Real Life which covers the whole gamut from Rousseau's beautiful vase of flowers, Picasso, Braque a couple of fascinating Leger's and his black and white experimental film we had seen previously in the big Paris exhibition up to Damien Hirsts shelves of shells, Sam Taylor Wood's video of decaying fruit and Julian Opie's white car plywood sculpture. We meet Nathan in the bookshop there and then make our way to the OXO Tower which is also on the South Bank. It's really crowded but has the most magnificent views across the Thames and over London all lit up. the dome of St Pauls looks quite magical. Henrietta and Kev look well. I'd also invited Vicky Churchill a young writer and musician friend of Nathan's; she wrote a very successful children's book 'Sometimes I like to roll up in a ball' when she was only 22 or 23 but also writes music and plays in a girl band. She and Henrietta chat about a placement she did as a writer in a school recently for Art Week. The waiter's very good and after the meal brings in the cake with lighted candles though not sure how our 'Happy Birthday' sounded over to the jazz pianist and bass who were playing almost next to us.
Nathan and Vicky cycle back to Stoke Newington and we run Henrietta and Kev back to Blackheath. As we are driving back through London at 2am I ring Nathan to make sure he got back safely; they are actually in pub playing pool!
Arrive home about 4.30 am.
It's good to be back in the studio where I divide my time between the new newspaper work for Standard Chartered Bank, Frank Grace's, Elsie Adler's and the Pursport's commissions.
E mail from Alistair giving the address of their office in Japan in case for any reason we should need help or assistance whist we are there.
Feel back on momentum today; it's amazing how a couple of days out of the studio can be disorientating, even when enjoyable.
Standard Chartered's first newspaper composition now beginning to look more tangible and solid. Also spell on the Graces particularly the right hand side of the frame where I paint a copy of the blue book on their vineyard in Chianti on the edge of the bedside bureau so it can only be seen from the side and some refining to the tassels and drapes. The books on Elsie Adler in New York 's library commission also get some further definition.
My Mum pops in on the way back from doing the Sunday tea at the senior residents club. It's wonderful to see her looking well after the cold and at 82 she doesn't see herself as one of the old people she's preparing the teas for; but then some of them are very much older than she is. One lady who often conducts when they have a singsong is 92.
R's stretched and primed the canvas for the second of the Standard Chartered Bank commissions and carved another pot for the Pursport's construction.
Cheque from Tempest Radford, half payment for the two newspaper commissions; really pleased they have been so prompt as I haven't met or dealt with them before.
Eddy our builder comes and we arrange an appointment later in the afternoon to meet the man who will probably do the groundwork excavations and foundations. It is going to mean knocking down the garage which we are rather dreading as it houses endless things that are seldom or never used.
Alter the size of the newspaper on Elsie Adler's commission to accommodate The New York Times. Paint in the decorative carving to the front two posts on the Grace's venetian bed each of which sits on the wooden frame. Also paint more newspapers and heads on the top of the frame for the first of the Standard Chartered commissions.
Margaret Green rings to say that a couple of Ronald's colleagues had phoned up to say they had seen two of my paintings in the newly revamped Plaza Cinema in Lower Regent Street; I suspect they might be Late Night Movie and The Western that both sold that sold to an entertainments empire mogul from my Burford show.
Professor Ken rings in the evening. They are back from their Cape Cod house and he has also been to Prague. I thank them for loaning so many of their paintings to the Rutland exhibition and ask if Monday evening would be a good time for their return as the exhibition ends this weekend.
Hear on the news that Paul Allen is one of the owners of the new space craft that has just achieved it's second flight outside the earths atmosphere, winning a substantial monetary prize for the achievement. It's the first private enterprise space ship. Paul collection includes one of my large newspaper works.
back here on earth I'm looking at wooden cabins and sheds with a view to finding a home for all the things from the old garage until the new one, which will part of the new wing, is built. They take three weeks to deliver. Having got a picture of the sort of things that are available I phone round and there's a man in Tewkesbury who can custom make one and erect it for the end of next week. It's 10 foot by 12 with double doors so should house a lot of the timber and my shop window mannequins, which I bought in the mid eighties for the museum show I had in Cheltenham in 1986.
Spend the day working further into the heads and newspapers on the new commission: then back to the Grace''s canvas. It's amazing how I always find so much more to do when it's nearing the time for it to go!
Whole day devoted to Frank Grace's commission.
Nice e mail from Richard and Elaine (sweet shop commission) saying that he will be going to South Africa again in a few weeks but has asked friends there to collect some newspapers for me to use in the Standard Chartered Bank's commissions.
Richard shows me on the internet images of the new King Crimson boxed set of CDs. The 21st Century Guide to King Crimson (Vol. One 1969-1974) They have also used several of the newspaper works.
It's a beautiful bright sunny day for the opening of the new student accommodation units at the National Star College. It's lovely to see so many familiar faces when we arrive, it feels a tremendous honour to have the privilege of opening it. I talk briefly about how i first met students when Myrtle Barter, then head of art, brought them to my exhibition at Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum in 1986 and that when she invited me to visit them, the art department was in a terrapin hut; but in 1991 I had the pleasure of laying the date stone for the new creative art department which was opened by the Queen the following year. How I have watched them grow from strength to strength last year winning a Beacon Award for the mosaic fountain project at the General Hospital and Rob their first full time photography student winning a national competition sponsored by The Daily Telegraph. And the contrast between the residential facilities when they had in those early days been housed on the upper floor of the Manor House; how curious I had been about the strange tube-like chutes that ran from the upper floors to the ground as fire escapes looking rather like a Turner prize exhibit or contemporary art installation; whereas these beautiful new and refurbished accommodation units are purpose built to help students learn to live independently through those transition years from being a student to being an adult, where I imaged there would be much sitting up through the night putting the world to rights and the occasional slice of bunt toast.
It was wonderful to be able to chat to the students afterwards, particularly good to get feed back from the group of photography students who had gone to visit Birmingham Central Library yesterday to see the amazing Frith Collection of tens of thousands of photographic postcards. It ties in with a project that Sue Bazani has set them on taking photographs of or for each new student at the College to then print on postcards for them to send home. It really seems to have caught their imagination, they all spoke with such enthusiasm about it. They were also all documenting the opening with their cameras.
It was a most enjoyable occasion.
Go back via the darkroom where we collect the Grace's commission which has just been photographed. I take the liberty of sounding Barry out to see if they might like to give a very informal talk or chat to the photography students.
Richard then leaves with the painting which he delivers to the Graces in London at about 7.30. I'm most relieved when he tells me they were most excited by it. He then visits Nathan via the Apollo West End in Lower Regent Street (not Plaza!) to see my painting Late Night Movie that we had been told was hanging in the atrium. They go for dinner at an Indian restaurant and Nathan tells R about his plans for the course on film making he is teaching at Central St Martins.
Meanwhile I'm working on the sweetshop
Nice e mail from Frank Grace saying they are extremely pleased with the painting and that it exceeded their expectations.
R goes to Birmingham to deliver a seagull painting and to collect cheque for Puck, Titania and Bottom in Bed. I paint a row of shops although only one has content, being a hat shop, opposite the sweet shop on the Pursport's construction. The piece is looking far more convincing now that a background has begun to emerge.
Today death announced of Jacques Derider the French deconstructionist.
Nathan started teaching his course on film making today. The students mostly seem to be already working in the film industry or to have degrees in film studies.
Rose [who's from Zimbabwe], one of our new tenants from number 80 comes to see me she is wanting some part time work and as I could probably do with some help in the house, she is going to start on Thursday.
Have now painted in the upper section of background on sweet shop; windows and rooftops against the skyline and a jar of fudge.
Spend a lot of time writing postcards to the children in year 9 at Catmose College who had each written a poem for me based on the exhibition. I've been trying to write a few a day but haven't always managed it so there were seventeen still left to do!!
R has gone to collect the works from the Catmose Gallery in Rutland as the exhibition ended on Saturday. On the way back he returns Professor Ken and Nancy Simmond's paintings and constructions; they are very generous patrons in loaning so often to exhibitions that wouldn't be able to take place otherwise. Likewise Robert Fripp and Toyah are also wonderful patrons. Richard and Ken go out to dinner. Meanwhile my energies are expended on the sweetshop - now have jar of nougat and another of multi coloured boiled sweets; and a little to the New York Times on Elsie Adler's commission. Christopher Reeve "Super Man has died so sad as he was such a pioneer for the disabled.
Japanese Rail Passes arrive. They can only be used by visitors [ whose passports have to be stamped before they become valid ].
Eddy and his cousin Les start work taking up the bricks from the drive and the cotswold stone from the dry stone wall. This is to be the awful bit, all the dismantling !!!
Write to Professor Bill In man [Bill the Pill] to say thank you for the copy of his book "Don't tell the Patient" that he kindly gave me when I met him and his wife at the opening at the Star College on Thursday. He did a lot of research on side effects of the contraceptive pill and almost eliminated the risks of thrombosis. A remarkable man, he contracted polio when he was a medical student at Cambridge. he returned to his studies after three years of hospitalisation and treatment. During this time he developed his interest in drugs: what they can achieve and their harmful side effects. After the thalidomide crisis of the early 1960s he was appointed to the committee on the Safety of Drugs [1963] having written to voice his concerns and he developed a system of monitoring the effects of drugs on patients. In 1980 he founded and was director of the Drug Safety Research Unit at Southampton University. A wonderfully buoyant man; I became engaged in conversation with he and his wife June when he was demonstrating the capacity of his wheelchair to change shape and elevate him (so that his head can be on a standing persons head level) or form into a fully horizontal bed. He spends 24 hours a day in it. He's just written his autobiography and is looking for a publisher, any ideas?
Very big bash on Sweet Shop, considerable progress made.
It's pouring with rain when the man who's made the shed arrives to put down a base and erect it. And as Richard has flattened the earth and raked it, it's all rather like a mud bath but he's very efficient and it only takes a couple of hours and there it is a new home for all my years of accumulated props, mannequins, timber. rusty buckets and things that might come in useful for a piece of sculpture one day !!!
paint box of pink sugar mice and sherbet fountains onto the lower shelf of the sweetshop.
Order 100 metres of Italian poplar to be turned for the making up of the frames for the commissions from Japan which will be delivered on Tuesday just before we leave. Rose from number 80 comes to start work; I more or less leave her to it. When I pop over to see how she is getting on I can hear her singing, which is rather nice as it always seems to me to be a sign of happiness; I know she's very keen on gospel music and has already started attending St Michael's
Add three more children's faces looking in through the bottom shelf of Sweet Shop at the mice and sherbet fountains, which makes a considerable difference to the composition.
E mail from Alistair saying MJ wonders if it would be possible to increase the sizes of the Japanese commissions by 15% in each direction. This seems to cause problems with the stretchers which will have to be specially made at Cornellissens.
Eddy and Les have now been joined by a man with a chain saw and mechanical digger and his three assistants. It's really looking rather sad, like a bomb site but will be even more so on Monday when the garage is knocked down.
R's carved and primed me another jar which I paint full of bulls eyes; I seem to remember them as being spherical with black and white stripes
Rose from 80 is working away in the house again and seems to be very good at just getting on with it.
We go off to the University for a meeting with the head of Art, Media and Design to discuss the possibility of an open competition for their students to design a photography trophy that we will present to one of the photography students at the National Star College next year.
Eddy and Les are still here when we arrive back so I thank them for all their hard work through the week before returning to the studio to take photos of Sweet Shop . Then it's onto the commission for Elsie Adler in New York which has to be there for middle of next month.
Cheque arrives from Cantilever Bars as deposit on commission. R's put the painting on its easel in front of the french windows for me to work out whether I want to enlarge the figures behind the bar or lift them up slightly.
Am now making good progress with Elsie Adler's commission; R has put in the mastheads and a couple of book titles. I rework bookcases, floor and generally over the whole surface.
R's still busy clearing out the garage [before its demolition tomorrow], moving things into the new hut. Richard and Rose, who we have given some of the plants from the areas that are being dug up to, kindly move the flowering cherry into the kitchen garden and a weeping catoneaster into the pavilion garden.
Both the bar painting and Elsie Adler's commission are in the forefront today.
Letter from the Spinal Injuries Association saying that the painting I had done for the exhibition has sold. 50% will go to that charity and I am going to give the 50% that would have come to me as a further donation towards the National Star College's art department trip to New York. It''s so wonderfully exciting and ambitious to take 19 students in wheelchairs to the big apple. Phone call from New York its Lee checking on Elsie Adler's commission.
As we leave Eddy and Richard and some of his team are on site surveying the new foundations. It's grey and damp as we bid farewell. We are a bit late reaching Heathrow as there have been a lot of roadworks but manage to check in on time. When we board the captain says that we are late departing as we are waiting for a party of Japanese nationals who are connecting with this flight from Madrid but it's a good thing as a typhoon is due to be hitting the Narita airport area during the night so the later we are the more likely we are to miss it. Flight actually very smooth and on arrival at Narita it's grey but mild although we meet an American on the train to Tokyo who tells us that the airport had been almost deserted because 400 domestic flights had been cancelled due to the typhoon that hit last night.
The sun comes out as we reach Tokyo so everything looks bright. We manage to locate the JR Railway Pass office as although we purchase them in England they have to be stamped and issued on arrival. The timing seems to be perfect for the connection for the train to Kyoto. They are much better designed and efficient than British Railways and I am impressed to see that there is an area designated for wheelchair users and the disabled - no having to travel in the guards wagon here. The sun stays out which enhances the dramatic mountain ranges that we pass, like cut out layers in gradually fading muted colours. Interesting glimpse of Nagoya en route where we are heading in a few days time - looks very modern and sophisticated. It's almost dusk when we arrive at Kyoto. The area around the train station is fairly modern but as the taxi wends its way towards the hotel we see rather more of the old style Japanese buildings. We are certainly not disappointed when we reach hotel Gion as promised our room overlook the roofs of old timber buildings in the Gion entertainment district. The shoguns liked to keep the theatres, geishas, bars etc. in one district. There is a beautiful temple surrounded by numerous tiny shrines which looks exquisite glimmering through the dark with the occasional ringing of bells as people offer up prayers to the deity. We then wander through the tiny back streets hoping to capture glimpses of geishas and sure enough we do. Walking swiftly, individual girls, head erect and beautifully presented, these elusive creatures disappear rapidly into doorways and passages. I'm not sure if it's the sight of me with my camera that hastens their exits. I soon develop a technique of pursuing them at great speed but it takes longer for my camera to focus in the dark so I've probably got more rear view shots although a wonderful girl with an entourage of business men is pointed out to me by a Japanese woman proceeding down one of the busier streets. I ran to overtake them and walking backwards across a zebra crossing manage to get some front views. She's beautiful, quite rounded and the businessmen chuckle at being in the picture too. She stops still on the other side for me to get a shot and when I thank her does a wonderful mimic of my English voice only hers is with an American accent - she says "thanks awfully" which seems somehow surreal when uttered through the tiny red lips on the painted white face; and almost as suddenly as she is gone another girls rounds the corner, also in yellow; looks very young and quite fragile. She's sweet and when she realises I am trying to photograph her, stops and stands for me. These girls devote their lives to being Geishas, foregoing marriage and motherhood, highly trained in music singing and dance, they entertain wealthy men and certainly look more regal than the western concept would convey. They are the perfect hostesses, leading the conversation and the meal.
We then went to find somewhere to eat and end up sitting at the bar for a deep fried tofu salad with mizanu (a a Kyoto endemic vegetable, light and crunchy texture) and R had salmon spring rolls. We shared a mixture of fruit and extraordinarily flavoured ice creams, including green tea. Wander back, phone my Mum who I had left in charge of posting out numerous correspondences and the photographs of the Elsie Adler commission to Lee in New York and make a quick call to Nathan - Henrietta will still be at work so can't call her. All in all have been very pleased with first days gathering of inspiration.
Yes, this is me getting up at 6am! It's a glorious sunny day and we set out just after 8 to explore the Gion area by daylight. It's very quiet as we wander the narrow streets looking altogether different to the way they had last night. we breakfasted in a first floor cafe frequented by young trendy Japanese; interestingly when I asked for green tea they brought two cups, one almost an opaque viridian, sweet; the other the green tea I normally drink. Tuna sandwiches for breakfast though was not our usual fare. Whilst walking up towards some interesting rooftops silhouetted against the sky line through an almost deserted side street, two beautiful geishas colourful in the sunshine, are walking up behind us. When they see me turn with my camera they disappear down a side alley. I pursue them running to overtake and make pleading noises to try and slow them up but the poor girls aren't sympathetic and keep walking, with me running backwards trying to focus the lens. It must seem like rather an intrusion into their secretive lives; I wished I could explain that I'm not a tourist but an artist researching for paintings, would it make a difference?
We find another temple complex surrounded by shrines and gardens, it's beautiful with virtually no one around. Covered in intricate carving the wood is a deep brown. As we wander round the surrounding area we are peering through an entrance into a beautiful formal Japanese garden. There's an old man sat to one side with a white cloth on his head - either a workman or the gardener. he very kindly opens the gate and lets us in. It's wonderful to observe that even the minutiae of mosses and stone crop covering the ground have been allowed to form their natural patterns, contrasting with the black boulders and beautifully shaped pine trees, often with stilts supporting a branch or limb. he has the most beautiful aged face and allows me to take two photographs of him. We now have to find our way back. Luckily R has kept his bearings so are soon passing the hotel on our way to look at the temple and shrines that we had also seen in the darkness on our arrival yesterday. The gods must be smiling on me as bliss of bliss a Buddhist wedding is in progress. It seems somehow absurd for something so intimately beautiful to be taking place so publicly in an open temple in the middle of the park. Again I hope that my presence on the outskirts with a camera is not an intrusion. It's exquisitely beautiful. The bride's circular headress making a wonderfully symbolic and abstract shape from the back. we then take a taxi transferring hotel to northern higashiyama district ready for this afternoons Festival of the Ages. People are already assembling along the road sides up to the shrine. Lots of areas cordoned off with reserved seating. It's only 12 so we go into the Museum of Modern Art to see a design exhibition by Kenmochi Isamu. Very evocative of the 50s and 60s, when the japanese influence infiltrated contemporary design in the west. Furniture, utensils and packaging, even a little truck. We also have time to look at the Permanent Collection. I'm amazed to spot a very Balthus like nude and it turns out to be by Fujita who was a great friend of Balthus who also had a Japanese wife. Interesting to see how many Japanese artists had migrated to paris during the 20s and 30s; the influences are very apparent.
Then out into the brilliant sunshine again, it's really quite hot, to decide where to stand for the best vantage point of the festival which will proceed under the huge orange tori. We decide on the shrine where it's heading for. the police are there edging us back inch by inch. Eventually a rope cordon is run across the road and rush matting (tatumi) is laid either side for everyone to sit on though I stay standing. It's a breathtaking pageant going back through Kyoto's history, each age played by the thousands of participants all dressed authentically to evoke the era and recall its remarkable past. the more important dignitaries, often a shogun with his vast entourage. One can see how terrifying they would have been in battle. The fabrics for the costumes have been dyed using the same pigments and techniques of each period. The opening was particularly beautiful - hundreds of japanese women clad in identical costumes dancing as they paraded in exquisite sequence.
We are feeling a bit tired by now so back to the hotel for a short rest before setting out for the mountains and Kurama. The guide books had said that if you could find a taxi driver to take you within walking distance it was certainly the best way as the trains are overcrowded, although would get you slightly closer. We are really pleased when the taxi driver we hail seems to agree although somewhat dismayed when he drops us at the station where we would have to change for Kurama. the police are there again and seemed to be telling people they can take no more as the trains are already over full. R thinks perhaps we'd better give up butt having come over 6000 miles, I'm not going to give up yet. I can see a row of taxis but as we ask each one he crosses his arms to indicate you can't get in when lo and behold a guardian angel appears in the form of a tall handsome young American, maybe teaching at the nearby University of Kyoto. he asks us where we are trying to get to and we explain that the trains won't take any more people and neither will the taxis. Then in fluent Japanese he speaks to one of the drivers who says he can take us to within a kilometre of the village and sure enough we go through he first police cordon up to the second where he drops us. We walk through the darkness climbing gradually. As we reach the village there are bonfires or braziers outside each of the traditional houses. This is a local festival enacted by the villagers, which is obviously so popular although as the books say one must be sensitive ot the fact that it is a pilgrimage rather than a celebration. As we are walking through the little houses a father and two small children come out in traditional costume and he begins to chant with the children echoing him. They light enormous bamboo torches which the children also help carry. gradually more and more appear and an enormous drum. The excitement is electric. The men with the drum and enormous flaming torches are almost naked at the back apart from their sumo type thongs, only the chest and arms are covered and white headbands tied at the back. The heat is intense with flaming pieces often dropping from them to the ground which an old lady ladles water onto. This could never happen in England, much too dangerous, it makes bonfire night look positively tame. As they process, moving to the beat of the enormous drum on wheels, it's spectacular. I can't believe we've manage to be this close and even clamber up and over the wall and fence into the grounds of the shrine. being small I manage to make my way to the front and with the help of a young Japanese girl who moved to one side for me. This ritual feels so ancient and terrifying that I'm sure the spirits it sets out to frighten away scarper pretty quickly. I'm also freighted when these enormous torches that take several men to carry upright sometime fall to the horizontal. I can't believe that they don't sustain burns on their bare flesh, it must be mind over matter. And that even the onlookers only momentarily move back when one of the torches becomes too close for comfort. It is one of the most spectacular things I've ever witnessed and can't believe my good fortune to have been able to see it at such a close proximity. It's almost refreshing to walk back down the mountain for a few miles passing through villages of traditional houses in the darkness with only the sound of rushing water in the river and the distant train, before reaching the last of the police cordons and 'civilisation' in the form of a bus that we get to just in time for me to call out in my questioning English voice "Kyoto?" Again good fortune in the form of a Japanese man who speaks good American English who says it goes to north Kyoto and that if we take a ticket from the machine at the entrance to the bus we pay on exit. he's kind and also tells us when to get off. We manage to hail a taxi which gets us back to the hotel in time to grab a copy of the English speaking Japanese paper The Daily Yomiuri where we are alarmed to read that 62 people sadly perished in the typhoon and that there are still 21 missing and that it had hit parts of Kyoto province. Thirty six people including an 89 year old man were trapped standing on the top of their bus in the pitch darkness that was submerged in water and that by the time the helicopters arrive to rescue them was up to their waists. The wife of the old man said she was very pleased he had hung on.
During the intense heat of last nights fire festival my camera stopped working; also Richard had forgotten the charger for the iBook. So we travel to Oiki-dori the electrical area of Kyoto and locate a shop that has Mac accessories. They also advise us where to go for a shop that deals in Canon to have my camera looked at. Am most dismayed when the man tells me it's broken so decide will have to replace it with the newer version. A very nice Japanese girl helped us in her softly spoken English translating for the canon technician who demonstrated all the parts and their actions. So we are off again. After taking the tripod and extras back to the hotel we walk up to the Heinan Shrine through the enormous (also) orange tori. The shrine had not been open to the public yesterday as all the participants from yesterdays Festival ended up within its central courtyard. Today it's full of visitors, again the sunshine. Then onto park of the Imperial Palace. Sadly we can't see the Palace as we are told that it's not open until Monday and that you have to have permission from the Royal Household to join the tour. But the park's very pretty and we pick up cones from the numerous fir trees. We had popped in to the Tradition Craft Museum en route
Rather delighted when we return to the hotel to see that there is a performance of Bunraku, noh and Mai also music by Japanese lute (koto)players, a tea ceremony and Nageire flower arrangements. It's a general introduction to the arts of Kyoto, all aesthetically and spiritually orientated. It's all a wonderful preparation for seeing performances in nagoya and Tokyo. We are very fortunate as having missed the beginning of the first performance the young man on the desk says we can go in and see the rest then stay for the second performance. It's a quite magical evening.
Dinner in small restaurant where the proprietress teaches us how to use chop sticks properly and explains the various dishes.
We pack our bags and stow them in the hotel lobby and go off to the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art to see 'The Art of Bijinga through Images of Kyoto Women'. It's a beautiful exhibition, again travelling back retrospectively through the history of painting women in Japan. It's interesting to see how in tact the Japanese tradition stayed until the 1890s when the Western (particularly French) influence crept in through Japanese artists starting to travel to Paris, the then centre of artistic movements. One of the most apparent changes is in the use of oil paint and texture rather than the matt flatter areas of colour that the Japanese aesthetic is so very good at. A lovely painting of a large group of geishas, some of whom are smoking from the 1920's; muted colour, very atmospheric. Fascinating to see that more latterly Japanese artists combine both traditions - often large scale figures again surrounded by large areas of flat muted colour and again bringing into use the tradition of Japanese screen painting and the use of silver and gold leaf. The women are on the whole dressed in their traditional richly patterned and beautifully coloured costumes. A stunning exhibition.
Then onto the Zoo through the Museum's beautiful garden. I want to observe both the animals and the children. It's Sunday so there are lots of families there. A beautiful female cow elephant feeling almost prehistoric, as does the polar bear and the giraffe. Two dramatically marked zebras. Unfortunately all the big cats were enjoying the wonderful sunshine, one leopard lying on it's back with it's legs in the air; the lions were sunbathing too. Small children running and pointing in admiration everywhere.
Back to the hotel to take taxi to Kyoto Station via the JR booking office for the train to Nara. It's interesting to see how the buildings on the outskirts of Kyoto are the traditional Japanese houses and most of the towns we pass through are likewise although of course round the station as we enter Nara it's the more usual sophisticated cityscape. But embarking from the taxi we are not disappointed in Hotel Nara with it's pagoda shaped roofs. Built at the turn of the 19th century it's in the national park, a designed World Heritage site. It's silk clad walls and wood panelling. The Emperors stay here. Nara is high up and surrounded by the mountains, noticeably cooler that Kyoto and has the great advantage that we are able to walk to all these wonderful temples and the Museum. Dinner in the rather grand dining room.
We borrow bikes from the hotel. It's much heavier than mine and takes a bit of getting used to. We cycle through the deer park and have to leave them halfway. Nara's very steep and there are innumerable steps up to the shrines. First we visit the Kasuga-taisha shrine complex; the whole of the route up is lined by hundreds of stone lanterns dating back to the eleventh century, often covered in moss varying in height upto about eight foot. It's a most beautiful route up with the sacred deer who have roamed this area for longer than the Japanese. We pass a group of Shinto monks making their way to the shrine. This is one of two World Heritage Sites within a mile or so of each other. On the way back down I stop my bike to photograph a group of yellow capped school children who become so excited that they mob me so eager are they to be in the photograph, reducing everyone in the area to laughter. Also see a Shinto bride and groom being pulled along in a rickshaw, the circular shape of her head dress silhouetted against the black of the rickshaw. The driver kindly stops for me to take a photograph. We then wend our way to the right, still in the park, to the Todai-ji Buddhist temple. Traffic's often held up by the deer who wander across the roads. Stalls begin to line the route selling deer biscuits; I buy a packet and am immediately surrounded by deer all trying to take them from my hand. exquisite delicate creatures with the most slender legs, they become quite determined and pushy when food appears. Later when we buy a cooked yam to share, they nudge and nibble at my jacket, persistent until they are given all that we have. Hysterical screams come from a group of school girls who run away as the deer take over their picnic table. This is a frequent occurrence, sailor collared uniformed school girls running and screaming as the deer pursue them in search of food.
as we near the temple through a huge and ancient gateway we look in awe at the two enormous guardians, eight metres high carved in wood in the eighth century. The awe increases as we pass through the second gateway and see the enormous Temple Hall the biggest wooden building in the world (Daibutsu-den) housing the biggest bronze sculpture in the world. High up in front of this benevolent Buddha a priest seems to be measuring out and preparing an incense bowl, tiny against the massive Buddha and his surroundings. To either side he is flanked by a beautiful gold Heavenly Guardian and a Kannon. I photograph people wriggling through the hole at the base of one of the pillars, thought to lead to enlightenment and eternity since it is exactly the same size as one of the Buddha statues nostrils. They have been wriggling through that hole for the last three hundred years. This building replaces the previous even bigger structure (begun in 759) that was destroyed by fire. The vastness is accentuated by the huge numbers of school girls in parties with their teachers speaking at them through megaphones.
After dinner wander round the locality in the dark. Lots of tiny traditional Japanese houses. Very quiet by comparison with the Gion area of Kyoto.
Japan is in a state of nervous apprehension that another big earthquake might strike within the next week in the Niigata Prefecture, 150 miles north west of Tokyo. it's not that far removed from Fukushima where we were in 2001 fo the museum show.
After five days of glorious sunshine we wake up to a grey wet day. We are really pleased we decided to do the temples and shrines yesterday and left the National Museum for today. A wonderful exhibition mainly of ancient statuary, Buddha and his disciples from the Nara Period (8th -9th centuries) They are magnificent pieces, proud and beautiful. Then related works from the earlier Indian and Chinese roots of Buddhism and Japanese culture. Upstairs there are ancient Chinese bronze utensils, kettles, cauldrons, bells, wine jars, steamers dating back to 1100 and 1000 BC. Exquisitely decorated and well crafted - far in advance of British culture of the same era. China seems to have been in advance of most other cultures at that time.
We then walk in the rain to visit the 7th century pagoda (the oldest in Japan) at Horyu-ji.
We then head south to the Nara-machi area which has many streets of small traditional Japanese houses, little shops and workshops. Visit a traditional Nara house which has an interesting bamboo flue for the smoke. Beautifully aesthetic in it's simplicity and use of space and materials. Wander back through the little streets to the Hotel. We've been moved to a new room just opposite the Emperor's suite.
decide t go to the Japanese restaurant in the Hotel. We have a really nice waitress who describes the different ingredients in each dish and chooses two different types of saki for us one served cold, lighter and sweeter that the one served hot. The cold one comes from the one mountain that women still aren't allowed up. But the water there is particularly good, which in turn makes a better saki. The hot one is dryer. The meal was a lot more fun than the formality of the dining room with its French cuisine and less interaction between waiter and diner. And it's western classical music - I love Pachenball's Canon but it seems incongruous in a culture with its rich abundance of traditional music and arts. She has been to England and we exchange cultural anecdotes. She is very informative and she tells us that the suicide rate in Japan has increased to 30,000 a year, mostly male and often provoked by the failing economy affecting their businesses. That the government have not yet really addressed this issue but that she thinks they will be forced to confront it by recognising this syndrome
Japan has certainly been revealing itself to us not only in the full glory of it's ancient traditions and arts but in the tragic phenomena of natural disasters. The typhoon of last Wednesday took 80 lives now increased by the earthquake's toll of dead and injured an rendering thousands of people homeless or without services. This will also set back its recovering but faltering economy. One can see how a people pitted against nature's extremities are so fervent believers in Buddhism, Shinto and their combined powers, which they often call upon in prayer by ringing the bell and clapping their hands to attract the attention of whichever deity the shrine is dedicated to. The surrounding trees and anything that is narrow enough to allow itself to have a paper prayer tied to it asking for help or good fortune in all areas of life. In Gion where there was an absence of trees the prayers are pasted to the lantern posts.
We take the train from Nara to Nagoya via a change at Kyoto. Nagoya is a hugely sophisticated city of towering skyscrapers and like most cities a consumers paradise - though harder to find a fruit shop. We walk to the Design Museum which is fascinating. Wonderful exhibits from the 20s and 30s reflecting the Art Deco movement that was also happening in Europe and America. Strange how new concepts, like seeds in the wind, can occur in different parts of the world at the same time. They have been very inventive in the way they display exhibits; there are two glass lift shafts that are constantly showing changing items with screens that show notes on the thinking behind the object. Interestingly the Museum is set inside a huge department store called Loft. We wander round the art materials floor and compare quality and prices of the items with those in the UK. The rather strange plastic female nude lay figures which of course lacked all the subtlety of the real thing. On the book floor we look at Manga, the illustrated comic strip books that are so popular here; mildly disappointed as the illustrations lack the strength of draughtsmanship in the Americans DC and Marvel. The manga are a combination of doe eyed sentimentality and aggression; Hello Kitty with teenage angst. After browsing them for some time we select a few of the more interesting. They feel too Western and not enough of the wonderful Japanese culture and tradition, as in Noh, Kabuki and Bunraku which doesn't seem to be imbued with sentimentality but has a strength in design and story telling which appears to be lacking in most of the comics.
In this mornings Japan Times the story of the miraculous discovery of a two year old boy from car buried under and earthquake mud and debris. They also recovered his mother sadly pronounced dead and were still searching for his sister. Also Japanese hostage taken in Iraq.
Death announced of dear John Peel at the age of 65. I shall miss his music programme on the BBC World Service where he still played more obscure and experimental music and Home Truths on Radio 4.
Return to bright an sunny weather. We take the subway to the Tokugawa Museum of Art in Ozone the walk from the station we visit a pet shop; exotic kittens with beautiful markings, pointed faces and enormous triangular ears. Very noisy and pandemonium seems to break out when I go in to take a photograph. Then into a supermarket. beautiful in the wide range of colourful packaging and exotic content. Enormous polythene bags of rice often with a map on showing the exact region of Japan where it has been grown. As well as producing 40% of Japan's cars, Nagoya is a centre for agriculture.
The Museum is situated in a park which we locate with comparative ease. It's fascinating; it has been divided up to show reconstructions of the rooms in Nagoya Castle where the tea room was of great importance, the using of highly regarded old utensils became part of this ritualistic ceremony. The order of rooms and objects where Tokugawa entertained his guests. Everything arrange precisely to create the ultimate in aesthetic beauty. There is a reconstruction of the Noh theatre from the castle. It was here that Noh theatre became elevated from a traditional Shinto ritual to high art in which the shogun would also often take part as amateur actors. Two of the beautiful Noh masks and costumes and kimonos on display.
On our way back from the station to the hotel we visit the Nagoya Museum of Art. The museum's interesting collection includes an enormous Red Grooms, quite satirical like a three dimensional cartoon called The Woolworth Building, a beautiful Chagal, a wonderful set of Diego Rivera lithographs and part of one of his amazing propaganda murals - Workers of the world unite -plus others from the Mexican school including a tiny Frida Khalo. They are also showing an exhibition of Roy Liechtenstein prints, particularly interesting as they are often woodblock, which is a Japanese tradition and often printed on Japanese handmade papers. Most of the works seems to be borrowed from Japanese collections and is not the exhibition that was showing at London's Hayward Gallery last year. Because his print editions are so large there are probably exhibitions of his works on paper showing all over the world; certainly my dealer Robert Sandelson did a show to coincide the the Hayward's.
In todays paper there is an article on Nagoya saying that commerce and industry are thriving here and it is fast becoming Japan's second city rather than the current holder, Osaka.
We are off early and at the Toyota Commemorative Museum by 9,15. There's a bit of confusion when we arrive as they don't seem to be expecting us. Alistair had arranged with the secretary in their Tokyo office for us to be given a guided tour and free access; they are very nice and when we show them the print outs of the e mails that had been sent with the details they are helpful and discover on phoning Tatiami that there is another Toyota Museum on the outskirts of Nagoya, which seems to specialise in a history of cars rather than the robotic machinery etc. that makes them and the looms that preceded them, invented by Toyoda, the founding father of the company. He was the inventor of Japan's first automatic shuttle loom.
The Museum is fascinating in that it is one of the old Toyoda factories and houses the whole historic range of looms and spinning machinery plus the whole history of the construction of the Toyota motor car and the machinery, now automatic, used in the making of them. Fascinating to see that in it's infancy all the parts were manufactured by hand. The Museum is vast in it's physical structure and the concepts housed within.
After returning to the hotel we set out to explore the streets and facilities in its locality. The department stores are amazing and often house galleries on one of the floors. Find a Citibank ATM where I draw out yen from my dollar account, strange trying to work out in two other currencies exactly how much one is getting. We pass an HMV shop and guess it's a pretty cool experience to go in and find several of my paintings reproduced on CD and DVD covers, one of which I had not seen before. They are particularly interesting as some of the packaging is made of card rather than the jewel cases I have seen in the UK. The colour is more intense, reflecting Japanese taste perhaps.
We find a little fruit shop and manage to reduce the two women working there into fits of laughter when we ask for and describe Brazil nuts. The younger of the two is very helpful when we inquire about a Chinese restaurant that is in the area mentioned in the Rough Guide book, it's very close at hand and she takes us to it, describing and translating the dished on the menu. It's crowded and you can see how both Japanese youngsters and foreign visitors would make a bee line for it, the meals are enormous and although much of Japanese culture sprang out of the Chinese, it is much heavier and not as exquisitely presented in the minimal aesthetic we have noticed so much here. Yuka pops back in to see that we are alright and do not need any more help with the menu. We invite her to join us. Only 22 she's been to both Australia and the USA whilst at high school and college. The trip to America coincided with 9/11 and they were a week late in returning, which she says was a time of terrible anxiety for her parents although she enjoyed the prolonged stay. her mother teaches food science to small school children and is currently teaching them to make the small green creatures that are the symbol for Expo 2005, (it's aim is to teach people to love the earth) in marzipan. Yuka also studied food technology. The fruit shop specialises in making up juices so when Richard tells her that he normally makes me a carrot and orange juice in the mornings she says she is going to try it out tomorrow and add it to their list. She is very impressed when we show her the CD covers and says she is going to buy some tomorrow and is very excited that we are artists. She has just returned from Korea where she met an actor who is well known in Japan. She lives in a small town Toukadai which translated means peach (tou) blossom (ka) town (dai). Like the numerous Japanese who ride their bikes on the pavement, she rides hers to and from the bus station each day.
It's pouring with rain as we set out for the Noh Theatre at Nagoya Castle. This is a beautiful theatre, recently constructed in 1997 and is dedicated to traditional Japanese performing arts. Today there are lute players, singers and a flautist, most of whom are middle aged or older. I think that their lives have been dedicated to perfecting their arts which they often begin to learn in their early childhood. Also a group of martial arts swordsmen, each one demonstrating their skills individually. The positions and timing seem to be the important qualities. Every movement made with great precision; really quite frightening when you are sat on the front row as we were!!
We walk through the torrential rain to the subway taking the train to Sakae. It's a red train advertising Coca-Cola on the outside with a bottle painted on each carriage. Looks like a moving Andy Warhol. Again the trains are run with amazing precision; there are markings on the floor to show where the doorways will be when the train stops with small queues forming at each. It's a wonderful way to observe the Japanese who often sleep through their journeys or read a book. The subway trains have a single row of passengers on either side facing each other whereas the JRs have double seats that can be turned to face either direction. All the pedestrian routes through subways and on pavements have raised markings for the visually impaired; again a lot more provision than in the UK. All museums have a group of wheelchairs at the entrance ready for disabled and the aged and sometimes push chairs for the very young.
The subway stops directly under the Matsuzakaya department store, which has an art gallery selling quite expensive Japanese ceramics and paintings - a small pot would often be £4,000, not sure if these are old as a lot of the tradition in ceramics has continued unchanged. On the 7th floor we see a paying exhibition of the work of the Belgian Surrealist Paul Delvaux. Interestingly many of the works have come from the Paul Delvaux Foundation, St Idesbald, Belgium, that we visited a few years ago. It includes some works particularly portraits and drawings we haven't seen before they are from private collections. A particularly nice portrait of scientist Jules Bordet in hs laboratory. It seems rather wonderful to be able to incorporate galleries into large department stores, combining culture with consumerism. These stores are housed in vast multi storied buildings.
Decide to visit the Noritake ceramics factory and museum. there are some huge red brick kilns outside which turned out fired red bricks for the construction of factories in the area at the end of the nineteenth century. The beginning of the industrialisation of Japan red bricks were the sign of modernisation; they hadn't made them before but as with the motor car, they adopted the idea and made it their own. They turned ceramics from a craft into mass production for the export market. Interesting that the Americans sent over Art Deco designs (1920s) which were produced here and then travelled back to the USA. Ceramics for urinals and spark plugs were also manufactured here but for me it's the wonderful more usual Japanese large scale urn-like pots that are most fascinating. Sometimes painted with scenarios of Japanese life or theatre or beautiful chrysanthemum designs with borders of blue line work patterns. We observe Some beautiful figurines in various stages of progress and a young man painting an artichoke flower head with great sensitivity and accuracy which makes us wonder if in another world he'd be an artist proper. Sometimes glazes are applied by airbrush, then the user wears a mask. There are a huge range of pipes and stopcocks controlling slips, glazes, clay and large kilns packed with ranges of both flat and three dimensional objects. Photography wasn't allowed so it was out with the sketch books, drawing and taking notes.
Back over to the Noh Theatre where again musicians, singers and dancers are performing long rhythmic passages. The chanting isn't dissimilar to Gregorian and probably originated in the Shinto shrines. Again, some of the performers are really quite old and occasionally have to be helped up from kneeling or sitting in very low positions. Three women sound as if theirs song is a lament. Again everything done with huge precision. It's still light enough to see Nagoya Castle and gardens when we come out. Sadly the original castle was destroyed during the last War but the reconstruction is hugely impressive. The castle sweeps up out of the inner moat on a slightly curving square base of rocks which would have been very difficult for any intruder to scale, and the open passageway over the moat from the gatehouse was lines with protruding swords. Here Tokugawa lived and entertained his company. This at the time when he was unifying Japan. His descendants ruled as shoguns until the restoration of the Emperor in the 1860s.