{"id":23133,"date":"2024-07-03T08:23:33","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T05:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lndm.devmerit.com\/parodos\/beauties-ghosts-and-samurai-japans-pop-culture-tradition-from-edo-period-ukiyo-e-to-20th-21st-century-manga-anime-and-supa-furatto\/"},"modified":"2024-07-03T08:23:33","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T05:23:33","slug":"beauties-ghosts-and-samurai-japans-pop-culture-tradition-from-edo-period-ukiyo-e-to-20th-21st-century-manga-anime-and-supa-furatto","status":"publish","type":"paroda","link":"https:\/\/lndm.devmerit.com\/en\/national-gallery-of-art\/exhibitions\/beauties-ghosts-and-samurai-japans-pop-culture-tradition-from-edo-period-ukiyo-e-to-20th-21st-century-manga-anime-and-supa-furatto\/","title":{"rendered":"Beauties, Ghosts and Samurai. Japan’s pop culture tradition from Edo period ukiyo-e to 20th-21st-century manga, anime and s\u016bp\u0101 furatto"},"content":{"rendered":"

When does culture become truly popular? When it ceases to be the exclusive domain of the nobility and the wealthy, and spreads among the middle class and other less politically empowered social classes. A prime example of this phenomenon was in 17th century Edo (modern-day Tokyo), where a strictly hierarchical society led to the establishment of a leisure and entertainment space accessible to the townspeople (ch\u014dnin[\u753a\u4eba])-the Yoshiwara district.<\/p>\n

Yoshiwara was the birthplace of Japanese popular culture, which enjoyed enormous success far beyond Japan’s borders. This cultural hub fostered kabuki theatre, the art of ikebana flower arrangement, haikai poetry, and the colorful woodblock prints ofukiyo-e. These prints, once considered lowly, cost as much as a meal at a city eatery and were sometimes used to wrap precious porcelain and ivory. This was the first time in world history that a politically uninfluential group of people, unable to travel abroad, created high-level art for their own needs rather than for the upper classes (rulers, aristocrats, clergy).<\/p>\n

Besides graphic prints, ukiyo-e masters created hikifuda advertising posters and giga cartoons, which crystallized into manga in the late 19th century, and from manga in the 20th century into the world-famous anime of today. While ukiyo-e masterpieces have long since ceased to be considered lowly prints and have made their way into galleries and museums, manga and anime have, until recently, not been considered ‘art’.<\/p>\n

This historical-panoramic exhibition is one of the few attempts (and the first in Lithuania) to bring together and reveal the interconnectedness of what has often been separated, even today: ukiyo-e prints, historical giga cartoons, eroticshungabooklets, commercial hikifuda posters, pre-war and post-war manga comics, children’s gamemenkocards, posters for anime movies and computer games, promotional videos for the famous cosmetics company Shiseido, an animated historical kabuki theatre curtain, excerpts from famous anime films, and works of Japanese contemporary art (including thes\u016bp\u0101furattomovement)-from painting and printmaking to photography, animation, and sculpture-that reflect (and at times ironise and question) all of the above.<\/p>\n

The works of more than seventy artists are grouped into three categories: images of beauties (bijin), frightening or humorous tales of spirits and ghosts (y\u014dkai) and heroic feats of samurai (bushi, samurai). The exhibition’s inventive architecture, along with its sound and lighting design, create an allusion to Japanese urban space. In present-day Tokyo, the world’s largest city, the structure of popular culture remains largely unchanged: the desire to charm and seduce, to frighten and amuse, to inspire awe with bravery and ferocity, persists in modern romantic and erotic dramas, horror films, comedies, thrillers, action films, and games. Not to mention the contemporary art that reflects, ironises, and often questions all of the above.<\/p>\n

Participants:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ukiyo-e: <\/strong>Suzuki Harunobu, Kitagawa Utamaro, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Toyokuni, Utagawa Kunisada (Utagawa Toyokuni III), Utagawa Kunisada II, Utagawa Toyohiro, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Utagawa Yoshitora, Utagawa Yoshimori, Keisai Eisen (Shigeharu Eisen), Hiroshige Utagawa (Hiroshige Ando), Torii Kiyonaga, Kikugawa Eizan, Katsukawa Shunsh\u014d, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, Tsukioka K\u014dgyo, Ogata Gekk\u014d, Toyohara Kunichika, Toyohara Chikanobu, Miyagawa Shuntei, Totoya Hokkei, Kitagawa Tsukimaro, Isoda K\u00f4ry\u00fbsai (Isoda Masakatsu), Eish\u014dsai Ch\u014dki (Momokawa Ch\u014dki), Watanabe Nobukazu (Y\u014dsai Nobukazu), Migita Toshihide, Eishi Hosoda (Chobunsai).<\/p>\n

Giga, manga, posters: <\/strong>Kawanabe Ky\u014dsai, Osamu Tezuka, Kazuo Kamimura, Shigeru Mizuki, Kinkichir\u014d Honda, Tekisui Ishii, Mitsuteru Yokoyama, Hisashi Sekiya, Asakazu Arikawa, S\u014dji Ushio, Kenjir\u014d Ishikawa, Seiichi Hayashi, Suiho Yonai, Hiroshi Hirata, Naotoshi Kago, Tomoyo Jinbo, Hidetsune Kobayashi, Arumi Tokita, Kazuichi Hanawa, Ch\u014dshun Fuse, Arina Tanemura, Katsuyuki Shinohara.<\/p>\n

Anime: <\/strong>Osamu Tezuka, Kenji Nakamura, Katsuhiro Otomo, Shinichir\u014d Watanabe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Contemporary art: <\/strong>Makoto Aida, Nobuyoshi Araki, Mari Katayama, Akino Kondoh, Mr.,Takashi Murakami, Toshio Saeki, Namonaki Sanemasa, Aya Takano, Keiichi Tanaami, Yuichiro Ukai, Kazuki Umezawa.<\/p>\n

Curator:<\/strong>\u00a0Dr. Ar\u016bnas Gel\u016bnas
\nChief Consultant:<\/strong>\u00a0Professor Tetsuya Ozaki
\nArchitects:<\/strong>\u00a0Petras I\u0161ora-Lozuraitis, Ona Lozuraityt\u0117-I\u0161or\u0117
\nSound:<\/strong>\u00a0Arturas Bum\u0161teinas
\nLighting:<\/strong>\u00a0Eugenijus Sabaliauskas
\nDesigner:<\/strong>\u00a0Laura Grigali\u016bnait\u0117
\nCoordinator of the exhibition:<\/strong>\u00a0Egla Mikalaj\u016bn\u0117
\nProducing architect:<\/strong>\u00a0Mindaugas Reklaitis
\nCoordinator of the events programme:<\/strong>\u00a0Goda Aksamitauskait\u0117
\nCoordinator of the educational programme:<\/strong> Egl\u0117 Nedzinskait\u0117
\n<\/span>English translator<\/strong> Emilija Ferdmanait\u0117\u00a0
\nEnglish editor<\/strong> Emma Stirling
\nEditor<\/strong> dr. Ilona \u010ciu\u017eauskait\u0117\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\nProject is funded by<\/strong>\u00a0Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania<\/p>\n

Partners:<\/strong> Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts, CASHI, M. K. \u010ciurlionis National Museum of Art, Galerie Gebr. Lehmann, UAB “Grinda”, Kaunas Photography Gallery, KuroNeko, Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum, Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology, Mizuma Art Gallery, Nanzuka Art Gallery, Perrotin gallery, Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, Waseda University & TOPPAN INC., Yukiko Kode Presents, Caffeine<\/p>\n

Sponsors: <\/strong>AAS “BTA Baltic Insurance Company” Lithuanian branch, Exterus, Fundermax, Narutis, UAB “VMGcorp”<\/p>\n

Media partners:<\/strong>\u00a0JCDecaux, LRT<\/p>\n

Thanks:<\/strong> Cultural Attach\u00e9 Gabija \u010cepulionyt\u0117 and Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to Japan, Antoine Fr\u00e9rot, Carmen and Daniel Klein, Darius Lebedzinskas,\u00a0Vilius Jagminas, Gabrielius Dovyd\u0117nas, Keiko Okamura, Kyoto International Manga Museum, Japan National Diet Library.<\/p>\n

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