I went to see the Byzantium exhibition at the Royal Academy a couple of weeks ago. It was full of quite lovely things, but to be honest I wouldn't worry that the show's finished now, as it wasn't displayed very well. You'll have a much more pleasant time seeing similar stuff on display in the V&A and the British Museum, without having to deal with hordes of people crowded 'round one small cabinet all the time. It was a pity about the way it was displayed, as it had really awkward flow-through, which led to quite a lot of tetchiness amongst some people. One woman very rudely snapped at me for "bouncing up and down" when I was trying to point out some carving detail on a box to my mum, silly old bat. The woman, that is, not my mum, although I suppose she has her moments, too.
What's that got to do with Japanese monsters, I hear you ask. Well, the day we were there it was also the press day for the Utagawa Kuniyoshi exhibition which opened this month. I'd read something about this last year, thought to myself it looked great, and forgot all about it, but browsing through the postcards that were on sale, I can't wait to see it. No doubt fans of Rumiko Takahashi's Inu-Yasha and Hiyao Miyazaki's Spirited Away will appreciate them especially!
About ten years ago I went to a great exhibition of beautiful Hiroshige prints in San Francisco, but this one looks to be even better, because it's full of even more fantastical creatures. There was a postcard of Octopus men wearing suits that caught my eye immediately, because it was so odd for the time period, pre-empting surrealism by a good 100 years or thereabouts. I can't wait to see the original. I'm just hoping that this time the exhibition is better displayed.
In the meantime, you should definitely take a look at the Kuniyoshi Project, which is a great collection of images, although I do wish it was easier to find things on it. I couldn't find the Octopusman I mentioned above, but I did find some astounding images of Tanuki and his enormous balls here and here. I think my favourite is the one where tanuki's knocked out a giant catfish with his balls.
See also: Will's post on Kuniyoshi at a Journey 'Round My Skull and a post from Paul K on monsters of the Edo period. (Incidentally, if you're not regularly reading both these blogs, you really ought to be. There's been some especially astounding imagery posted on A Journey 'Round My Skull in the last month. So much, in fact, that I intended to do a proper blog post about it to make sure no one missed it, but for now I'll make do with mentioning it here. Just go and see for yourselves!)
on Mar 27th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Thanks for the kind words.
I had missed the giant balls vs. catfish images, so needless to say I am eternally grateful.
on Mar 30th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
There's so much stuff on there, it's easy to miss. But it's all great, so that's okay.
on May 15th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
[...] Monday I finally got around to going to the Kuniyoshi exhibition that I mentioned here. I'd planned to go on Monday anyway, but then Sarah posted on Twitter that she was planning to go [...]