Kaii Higashiyama, Nature, Me and Others

A feature exhibition at Kyushu National Museum 九州国立博物館; 'Kaii Higashiyama: Nature, Men and Towns 東山魁夷 自然と人、そして町'


Exhibition / Artist

This is a large-scale exhibition and, consequently, divided into two periods. The former exhibition; 16 July - 7 August / the latter exhibition; 9 August - 28 August. I am interested in the both of exhibitions and have purchased a two-times ticket, intend to visit twice after I finished this blogging journey and had a cup of tea. It's already 6th August, wow, it appears this weekend is the last chance.

Kaii Higashiyama(1908 - 1999), a prominent Japanese artist, lived through Meiji, Taishō, Shōwa, Heisei periods, and his last work was finished in 1999, the year the 90-year-old artist died. His view of nature and painting skills are outstanding. His works feel poetic, that's why I like them.


The National Museum is adjacent to Dazaifu Tenman-gū 太宰府天満宮 located in northern Kyushu island, surrounded by beautiful greenery, I greatly recommend the exhibition and also the museum.


Other Artists / My Current Tendency

I used to be indifferent to poetry, but now I have a poetic tendency. I used to be very logical and too theoretical and my brain was, as it were, separated from physicality and nature, but now I'm fascinated by the beauty of nature. To me, poetic means "We can choose what to wear" or "We can paint beyond the canvas". A passion for nature made me realise how ingenious the design of Na'vi and its creator James Cameron are.

High/low is not my concern because it depends on perspective and does not stimulate me, the world doesn't look so simple to me. However, when I was organising my thoughts so as to cope with my own drastic change and find out what I really want, eventually I had rated arts and classified artists as follows;

Class B:
Jakuchū Itō 伊藤若冲(especially black ink 水墨画), Keigetsu Matsubayashi 松林桂月, Matazō Kayama 加山又造, Kawabata Ryūshi 川端龍子, Gustav Klimt, Alfons Mucha

Class C:
Hōchū Nakamura 中村芳中, Yoshio Makino 牧野義雄, Marc Chagall, Sōsuke Kusamoto 森本草介

Class A is the most significant. Kaii was the top of Class B, but now I'm wondering if he is Class A or B.

Jakuchū Itō has extremely high accuracy in mass comprehension and painting technique, and also a sense of humour. His painting has cuteness and fun. "Sujime-kaki technique 筋目描き", "painting without outlines 物には輪郭線というものはない"--he was a heretic in the time of Kanō-ha 狩野派, and he created great works that they couldn't produce. He rocks. His coloured paintings deserve permanent preservation. He is Class B, just because his coloured works don't go along with my current poetic tendency unfortunately.

Rinpa 琳派 is gold, Rinpa is wonderful. Kayama and Klimt both developed beauty of Rinpa into their own arts. Mucha, Chagall, Makino are all poetic but in not Japanese way. I love Chagall's blue, Richard Curtis' portrayal of Chagall's painting in 'Notting Hill' was brilliant.

There was an exhibition earlier this year that was titled 'Women in Paintings 描かれた女たち' and it says "Why artists keep on painting women 画家はなぜ女性を描き続けるのか", this is a ridiculous question but it worked, because I visited the exhibition. Then I saw his painting for the first time. Enchanted, I was. 'Time of Dozing 微睡の時' was stunning. I had never been interested in drawing or painting women, but now I want to do that. Because it's beautiful and precious. And his realistic depiction shakes my poetic tendency. Perhaps, realistic approach is not against poetic tendencies. Perhaps, I might want to try realistic approach if I met something painfully mercilessly beautiful. I'd like to visit Hoki Museum ホキ美術館 that collects and exhibits many of his art works. My mochi brother and mochi mentor, Sōsuke Morimoto, R.I.P

This classification is provisional. I keep on studying arts and artists and searching my personal beauty. I think, composition, technique, these kind of elements can make universal beauty and they can be explained logically quantitatively mathematically, but personal beauty is something qualitative, something more intuitive and it's hard to explain logically quantitatively mathematically; perhaps colours, textures, motifs. There are a lot of universal beauty--things people should love, but the number of personal beauty--things I need to love--is limited. By the way, I won't reveal who Class A artists are, because it's fun. And because it's going to take so long if I explain those artists. Maybe next time. Can you guess who they are already? Based on Class B and C artists?

Now I feel like I can do even something not typical of myself for beauty. Maybe I am doing already.

His music was a wind, James Horner, R.I.P.



The wind shines, toward beauty.





P.S. I found songs for Kaii.