Kyōsai: The Israel Goldman Collection Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts
One of the fun things about doing the MA in Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies is going to visit exhibitions, events and other field trips. Even better, because they’re organised by the department, we often get to meet Interesting People™ like curators and experts. Also, so far, these trips have been free* which is utterly fantastic given how poor students typically are.
As this past week has been our first after the end of the term, we spent Tuesday in London at the Royal Academy and Friday visiting Fordham Abbey and Dojima Brewery in gorgeous Cambridgeshire, which I’ll be talking about in another post. Dr. Sadamura Koto had already walked us through the exhibition, even going so far as to show us her flatplan for the layout when she visited SISJAC, but seeing it, that’s always something special so when a field trip was confirmed, we knew it was going to be fun.
We traveled down to London, got to experience (and get lost on) the newly-opened Elizabeth line and congregated in Piccadilly at the Royal Academy. Dr. Matsuba Ryoko joined us, along with Dr. Nicole Rousmaniere, who was in the UK briefly and an utter joy to finally meet. We also spent the entire day being chased by an epic storm and missing it at every opportunity, which was fantastic. Even if the humidity was murder…
This was my first trip to the Royal Academy and Nicole was kind enough to guide me (and Tate) through the building to the gallery. It was a fascinating interior full of statues and casts of columns and other fascinating things. The exhibition space itself was three (large) rooms and covered all kinds of art produced by Kyōsai from religious works, to depictions of Hell and ghosts, to comedic examples featuring frogs. The guy really liked his frogs.
Afterwards we did a Show and Tell, picking our favourite works and I chose ‘Ghost’; (c. 1868-70) which was exhibited as both a sketch (called a preparatory drawing) and the final ink-on-silk hanging. While the others milled, I took a few minutes to read the life of Kyōsai booklet suplied by the RA (including this lovely photo) and he really had a fascinating life.
‘Ghost’ was actually based on a sketch done of the corpse of his wife, Tose, and the dark beauty of the hanging really caught my attention. Especially when Aiden, one of my cohort with better eyesight than me, pointed out the ghost’s eyes are different colours! I especially love how Kyōsai drew both onryō but more sedate ghost-women and this particular image is beautiful because it serves almost as a snapshot in the moment before the ghost fades away.
Seeing this exhibition was perfectly timed as I am currently midway through my Art History (5k word) essay and seeing his depictions helped me reframe my essay idea a little, as well as providing some excellent examples of this particular kind of art.
© 2022 SISJAC
Afterwards we got to visit the Little Shop™ which features a massive tome (both in price AND weight) on Japanese Hell art. I picked up a sake set and was glad I’d already bought several of the books on sale, including the exhibition catalogue authored by Sadamura-sensei.
The fun part was getting to have a one-on-one tutorial with Nicole, who was begin the British Museum’s 2019 Manga exhibition, as we had already bonded over manga (I being one of the oldest in my cohort at 42 and also a part of the industry, both as a journalist but also as an adaptor). Also, Nicole is one of the awesome people who talks to me rather than Tate, which sounds odd but normally I am her +1, as opposed to the correct way round where she is mine.
I explained my MA dissertation, which I plan to refine over the summer, even as it doesn;’t need to be submitted until August 2023, as well as my connected PhD idea looking at Shinto as it’s been exported outside of Japan via manga, anime, film and computer games. After this short meeting I was left buzzing, convinced I had made the right choice and, even as I struggle to fund my way, I wouldn’t do it any other way. I certainly have a lot to do this summer in preparation!
The day ended as it had begun, chasing the rain, with a trip to Shoryu for karaage and ramen before getting the train back to Norwich. The trip back was quite restful, though we managed to walk six miles over the course of the day and I was glad to be home. This was definately a fun day out and, if you can, do go to the exhibition before it closes in June!
*We pay for our train tickets which are then reimbursed by SISJAC. As of yet entry to events and exhibitions have also been organised and the costs covered by the department. This may change in future.
