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BEAUTIFUL WOMEN AND SAMURAI IN NARA PREFECTURAL MUSEUM OF ART

José Carlos Gómez Delgado
Jan 29, 2016
2 min read

SHOHAKU, SHOEN...THE BRIGHTNESS OF JAPANESE ART. PICTURES OF BEAUTIFUL WOMEN, PICTURES OF WARRIORS, SWORDS AND MASTERPIECES OF MODERN JAPANESE ART.

Under this long title is held an exhibition divided into four different but related parts. In general, it is ukiyoe works, eminently Japanese pictorial style I have already spoken about concerning to a previous exhibition.

The first rooms presents a series of masterpieces of "bijinga" or paintings of women, who became popular as a subgenre of ukiyoe and has examples of the most important authors such as Utamaro and Eisen. Notably also, the presence of paintings by women, distinct from those of men in the most mundane and natural poses; whereas those made by men convey in their shyer and elegant poses a mysterious feeling that shows the woman as an enigmatic object of desire for men.

In an intermediate room, there is a magnificent collection of katanas, whose realization is clearly explained in a documentary shown in the break room of the museum.

These weapons were precisely those used by the protagonists of ukiyoe paintings of the following rooms: the warriors. In these paintings are shown warriors in combat, but also in other attitudes, interacting with gods or demons, and there are also great battles tables painted with impressive detail.

Finally, the exhibition ends with the works of ukiyo e-art, showing examples of stylization and abstraction that has not seen in the classical stage of this painting style.