February | 2021 | Addams in Kyoto

Hi all – yes, here I am again sitting at the keyboard, collecting my thoughts about the past month. There have been some very interesting things happening internationally and nationally, but not quite so much in our lives. As a result of not having that much to do, and for such a long time, I have been spending more time focusing outwards, with my attention having been especially drawn to the events occurring in the US.

Before I start on life in Kyoto in winter during a state of emergency due to a pandemic, I will first talk about the weather here. The first word that jumps into my head is bizarre, and then changeable. So far this winter has had some of the coldest days we have experienced here, and also some of the warmest days in winter we have experienced here. Last Sunday the temperature reached 21C (which was glorious, BTW – I opened up all the windows). Since then it has cooled down, with a good rain on Monday (over 30mm) and the expected max. dropping to 5C (or less) on Wednesday and Thursday, with the possibility of snow on Thursday! Hard to keep up with, really, and if it’s confusing for us, imagine how it’s going to affect the sprouting plants and the birds who have been happily doing spring things.

Suffice it to say that the weather combined with the state of emergency have kept us at home a lot over the last month. We also had a slight issue with the actual virus, after a friend we had over for dinner and a movie (Mon Oncle) discovered a text after she left our home informing the staff of the school she teaches at that some students had tested positive to The virus.

As you can imagine, she was horrified and embarrassed that she may have exposed us to infection. Subsequently it was found that one teacher and over 40 students had been infected. Interestingly, while there was some information about it in the Kyoto paper, the name of the school was not included, apparently because the school had insisted that their privacy be protected (and their reputation as a private school, no doubt). So we self isolated for two weeks, with only a very careful trip to the supermarket for food during the period (we had no choice in this, having no back-up options).

Luckily there was plenty happening in the news during this period, and I spent a lot of time reading the ABC US politics blog. Fascinating. I had never had overly much interest in US politics, but that all changed with the election of the now ex-president and watching a tv show called “Designated Survivor”. I learnt a lot about US politics from that show, which made it much easier to understand what was going on over there., and the ABC blog was really absorbing. At times it was like watching a train crash in slow motion – you had a bit of an idea what might happen, but you just couldn’t look away. I was hugely relieved when the inauguration went off without a hitch.

Speaking of US politics and the ex-president (and the damage he wrought), we recently watched a two part series about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, about her life and career. What an amazing woman she was – very intelligent, very stoic and quite reserved and petite, yet a giant in her time. The documentary was called “RBG” – well worth watching.

We have seen a few other interesting documentaries on the BS (I kid you not, and they have the BS News…) station which included one about Drum Tao, a Japanese taiko troupe, who performed at the opening ceremony of the Year of Japan in Russia in 2018, at the Bolshoi Ballet Theatre. They focussed on one part of the performance in particular, where one of the drummers played on an odaiko drum (large and on a stand) while one of the Bolshoi soloists (Georgy Gusev) danced. It showed the development of the piece and it was very interesting that even though they didn’t speak the same language, they had a connection through the music. Two of my loves, taiko and ballet, put together – wonderful.

Rehearsal

Performance

The theatre

Some audience members…

Speaking of ballet, since we haven’t been going out much, I haven’t been going to gym, so I am doing three classes a week with Ernst Meisner and Rex Lobo (on piano). I have mentioned them before, but these classes really are a blessing for me, to maintain both some fitness and flexibility. I just wish I had a proper barre instead of using the back of the couch, which is a bit too low and somewhat soft 😊.

Locked and loaded

Apart from going to supermarkets, we have only been out twice on longer outings during this period, once was into town to buy some new ballet shoes (my old ones have a biggish hole in them) and we recently went to the Momak art gallery to see an exhibition. The shoe buying expedition took us through the Nishiki market. For those of you who have been here, you will know just how crowded the Nishiki market (which is a fairly long undercover mall) usually is. It is very popular for shopping and is also a major tourist destination.

Looking both ways – normally wall to wall people

When we were there the other day it was very quiet, with many shops closed; shutters down. We are not sure how many were just closed because of the state of emergency or permanently shut, though we did see some had small ‘for rent’ signs on them. What was really interesting was that the shutters, which you wouldn’t normally see down, were decorated with amazing copies of famous paintings. Many of them I recognised to be by the artist Itō Jakuchū, one of my favourite Japanese artists. As it turns out, thanks to the electronic oracle, I found out that Jakuchū’s father was a Kyoto grocer whose shop was in the Nishiki district, and Jakuchū ran the shop from the time of his father’s death in 1739 until 1755, when he handed it over to one of his brothers. What a lovely surprise it was.

The exhibition at Momak was entitled “100 Years of Bunriha: Can Architecture Be Art?” As per the title, Bunriha was the first architectural movement in Japan, which came into being in 1920 when six classmates of the Department of Architecture of Tokyo Imperial University formed the group before their graduation. Three other architects later joined the group, which was active in exhibiting and publishing their works until 1928. This year marks 100 years since the group’s formation, hence the touring exhibition.

Bunriha literally means “Secessionist group”, which was inspired in part by the Vienna Secessionists. They were worried about the reliance on historical styles and decoration and instead wanted to encourage artistic expression in Japanese architecture. They drew their influence from European movements like expressionism and the Bauhaus school and helped pave the way towards the introduction of the international style of Modernism into Japan.

It was a very extensive exhibition, with many photos, architectural renderings, floor plans and models, along with a number of video displays and some pieces of furniture. One of the videos showed Tokyo just after the 1923 earthquake (The Great Kanto earthquake), which devastated Tokyo, killing over 100,000 people and flattening vast swathes of buildings, with the subsequent fire causing further damage. Many of the buildings that survived were European style concrete, brick and stone buildings. In fact, Frank Lloyd Wright received credit for designing the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo specifically so that it would withstand an earthquake. The structure withstood the anticipated earthquake stresses (with minimal damage) and the hotel remained in use until 1968. This helped usher in the construction of many more European style buildings.

One other exhibit of note in the gallery was by Kimiyo Mishima, a contemporary Japanese artist, who is known for creating extremely realistic versions of newspapers, comic books and boxes in ceramic. She uses the silk screen technique to print newspaper, poster and label images onto the clay. She actually began her career as a painter in the early 1960s, but then changed to working in ceramics in 1971. Her work is incredible; so realistic that I really wanted to touch some of the pieces to feel they were ceramic, especially the ‘cardboard’ boxes. She apparently designs her peices to look like discarded rubbish, with a focus on ‘information’ contained on and in them.

All individually made

Ending this post on one further bit of design, I thought I’d add some photos of street barricades that I have been collecting for a while, which is rather more kawaii, and very much Japanese. I love them 😊