Japanese Art 17


Staircase at Villa Farnese II, Caprarola (2016) by Hiroshi Sugimoto, gelatin silver print © Hiroshi Sugimoto, courtesy of the Polo Museale del Lazio, Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Italian Tourism.


perspective with architectural of natural backgrounds. Tese must have been staggering to the converts, as were all of their sites and audiences because of their completely non- Japanese palette. Tere are superb Japanese Namban


works of art in the exhibition, including works of art in wood, coated with lacquer, often gilded lacquer (fundame) and with mother-of-pearl inlay, ofttimes carpeting the surface. Tis was a speciality of the Japanese artisans, usually recent converts who created these for ecclesiastical use as well as large coffers destined for export to Europe. Some of the most glorious works on exhibit are the screens, including one depicting a European king and members of his court. Tese were creations often based on European engravings, but there is a pair of fantastic pair of 17th- century gold, ink and colour, paper screens entitled Te Arrival of Westerners in Japan. Tere are several examples known of a ‘Black Ship’ arriving in a Japanese port with numerous Japanese at various pursuits on the shore. Tey were a speciality of the Kano School, and in all probability made on commission for Christian daimyo, known for its gold grounds and rich, mineral colours. Sometimes the artists mistook sailors at work in the riggings for acrobats and so depicted them frolicking amidst the lines,


an unsuspected source of


humour today. Namban art did not really cease


after the departure of the Iberians. Te Shogun and the Emperor had been deeply concerned by the intense proselytising of the Jesuits who refused to desist after having been ordered to do so, the result being an intense programme to wipe out Christianity as a dangerous religion because it believes that there was a Power much more exalted than the Shogun and the Emperor. Over 10,000 converts were killed and others fled persecution on Spanish or Portuguese ships when both countries were expelled. It is known that there were two Japanese convert brothers who took the names Juan and Miguel Gonzales; they were Namban artists and left with the Spanish for Mexico to continue their trade. Tis is generally known in Mexico, but rarely outside.


Tis exhibition may create an


important by-product by stirring further interest and research in the field of Japanese art outside Japan during its early period of Western contact.


Tere are two books


published that include lengthy discussions and illustrations of Namban art created in Mexico during the 17th century. One is a 1999 book by Rodrigo Rivera Lake, La Vision de un Anticuario, and the other is the hardbound catalogue of a 1999 exhibition at the Museo Nacional de Arte in Mexico City, El Origen del Reino de la Nueva Espana. In the Lake book is a chapter (pp 342-349) entitled El Arte Namban-jin y los Enconchados. Both scholarly works illustrate screens made by the two brothers, all with mother-of-pearl appliqué borders in Namban style surrounding the overall image, usually battle and other scenes derived from European prints, executed on canvas for durability. Other screens credited to these two Japanese-born artisans are also in the collections of the Moctezuma- Tellengo, an ancient Aztec family in Mexico; the Banco Nacional de Mexico; the Palacio Real de Mexico; the Mauricio Arena Collection in Madrid and collection of Eugenio Garza Languere in San Antonio, Texas. To coincide with the exhibition, Japan Society’s Performing Arts Programme is presenting a newly conceived noh play, Rikyu-Enoura, by Hiroshi Sugimoto from 3 to 5 November. It is about the forced suicide of the great tea master Sen no Rikyu, who introduced Chado, the Way of Tea in the late 16th century, contemporary with the short-lived flourishing of Christianity in Japan.


From 20 October to 7 January 2018, Japan Society, New York, japansociety.org. Tree lectures have been organised to accompany the exhibition: 21 October, Two Visions of Paradise by Monsignor Timothy Verdon; 1 December, Te Southern Barbarians Arrive: Navigating the Nanban Screens; and Architecture of Time: Enoura Observatory; 15 December, Architecure of Time: Enoura Observatory, Where Consciousness & Memory Originate.


OCTOBER 2017 ASIAN ART


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