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38

Fossils Brought Back to Life and the Dance of Spirits: A Contemporary Art Exhibition in a Museum? Reflections on the From Things to Mono Exhibition at The Kyoto University Museum

Shigemi Inaga

From January 16 to 31, 2009 an exhibition that broke away from conventional norms was held at the Kyoto University Museum. Its title From Things to Mono

The Kyoto University Museum was accompanied by the subtitle Science, Religion and Art. Concerning the conceptual formulation of monogaku, Kamata Toji offers a discussion in his book Monogaku no boken (mono­logical investigations: science of things, Sogensha 2009) and further reading is provided in the four volumes of the annual bulletin (the forth released in 2010) by the Kyoto University Kokoro Research Center made possible with Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research funding of the joint research project Mono-logyISense-Value Study Group, But here I will discuss the thinking behind the decision to bring this art exhibit into the confines of a museum.

Museums and Art Museums (Galleries)

The relationship between the British Museum and the National Gallery in London is not clearly evident, due to the city's history and spontaneous development, but in the cases of Munich, and Vienna, one finds national art museums and museums of natural history arranged in a row of bilaterally symmetrical box shaped buildings. Farther to the east one can discern traces of similar city planning in Budapest, Prague and Saint Petersburg, In North America, the National Museum of Natural History and the National Gallery of Art buildings enclose the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and in New York the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art face each other from the western and eastern flanks of Central Park, The proximity and location of museums of art and natural history in most major cities of America and Europe are recognized as apparatuses serving contrasting purposes. This is further illustrated by the nomenclature "museum" having its etymological origin in the goddesses of knowledge and art.

The museums in Ueno Park in Tokyo were founded with the initiative of Hisanari Machida, born in the Satsuma domain (Kagoshima PreO and who spent a time of study in London, It seems that 19th century western notions of museums were faithfully transplanted in Japan during that phase of history, Over time, however, laws governing museums of natural history and regulations applied for fine arts museums came to vary greatly, and have developed institutional distinctions that make it difficult for mutual integrated usage, Museums of natural history have the purpose of collecting materials and artifacts that as a rule do not adapt well to personal names or authorship. Even when the artifact is the only extant of its kind, the official practice is to label it with its official academic mineral, botanical, or zoological nomenclature, By contrast, art galleries handle

「蘇生する化石・跳梁する魂　大学博物館で現代美術展？京都大学総合博物館での「物からモノへ」展より」38-54頁 『物気色』美学出版　2010年12月1日

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39

The exhibit Space of "From Things to Mono"

creations credited to proper names and the rule there is for a clear designation of authorship. This already leaves museums of natural history and art at odds with each other, because

the differing methods used for naming and indicating information about exhibits are difficult to reconcile.

The situation touched on the humorous as the exhibiting artists and the Kyoto University Museum administration needed to solve the problem of their differing agendas .l

This resulted in attaching labels with classification numbers on the frames of the exhibit cases. Titles of artwork and the names of the artists have never had a place in museums. As

such, to attach an artist's name to the exhibit cases makes

it unclear as to how to focus on the exhibit, causing a sense of discord in the atmosphere of the exhibition space . The

solution was for visitors to check the art titles and artist names listed in the exhibit catalogue made available at the entrance, with the classification numbers on the glass cases.

This proved a cumbersome way to view the art, but as a result the inconvenience led to some discoveries. Let us take three trips through the premises, the first time without

assumptions or explanation we follow the route through what we presume is a normal art gallery. The second time

with catalogue in hand, we should confirm where and what the artists have exhibited. And on the third exploration, we can freely reflect on the explanations provided by the

exhibitors and exhibit planners in the literature laid out for

us at the entrance. It is similar to following the course of worship around a church alter on the pilgrim's path, and

here I wish to express in text what I can finally, although

not fully, understand and accept.

The Museum: Mortuary and Repository of Relics

An average notion is that museums are repositories of things having no utility in today 's world. The assumption is they are nothing more than a mortuary. Kyoto University

Museum's interior consists of three spatial divisions. The featured exhibit in the natural history room is the Palaeoloxodon naumanni , or Naumann elephant. This animal has disappeared from the earth, and only its relics

remain . The mechanical apparatus built with springs, levers, and cogwheels located in the area for the history of technology was procured at a great cost by the university

in the 19th century as an example of fine craftsmanship,

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but from the perspective of an age where electronic machines have developed to the level they are now, the technology comprising it was , long ago , left far behind in the background of advanced industry. And at the entrance to the third area set aside for cultural history, one finds a sarcophagus. One cannot deny that the sarcophagus acts as a trope rendering the museum into a massive coffin. So what meaning is there in holding an art exhibition in a mortuary?

Initial conception for the exhibition was based on an idea for artists to juxtapose their work in free association with the artifacts found in the museum collection. A recent similar example was the hosting of the Senke lisshoku Exhibition at the National Museum of Ethnology in Suita City. Designated artisan families that have transmitted the crafts for producing tea utensils for the Senke tea schools are referred specifically as the Senke jisshoku, and they are considered the masters given charge of transmitting the ten trades necessary for the practice of the tea art that include lacquer ware, pottery, and metal casting. The head artisans of each of these families visited the museum's collection storerooms, where some received creative inspiration , or were strongly attracted to certain artifacts . They then created innovative utensils based on their encounters , and the newly formed pieces were exhibited with the artifacts that inspired them. A new and bold challenge, requiring the breaking of many rules binding the social norms of the participants , raising numerous problems for the professor in charge, who from anxiety, according to hearsay, lost five kilograms by the end of the exhibit.

Similar problems arose in the case of Kyoto University when friction was caused by some of the incompatibilities inherent in the work of artifact preservation and art display. Simply stated, it is not appropriate to allow any handling of artifact materials by anyone unqualified to do so. Taking account of security issues as well, both parties compromised and agreed to allow under anthropological materials one piece of Yayoi pottery owned by Takahiro Kondo, and a few other classified as "academic materials and raw food substances" to be the sole responsibility of Takanori Oishi, and the items under the natural history classification were an ammonite fossil from the Cretaceous period and mineral samples chosen by Ken'ichi Harada (Kyoto Univ. of Art and Design), an earth scientist and member of the research group . These were the only artifacts and items exhibited along side the artwork of the participants. At first there was a plan to use the large ammonite fossil standing at the museum entrance. This had to be abandoned because to move the 200-kilogram specimen was not possible due to the weight limit regulation of the second floor. Oishi exhibited a rusted shovel blade with a plant root growing out of the spade's shaft hole. The union of inorganic material with organic growth brought a strange feeling concerning life itself. Some insiders did not hesitate to observe there a lovely symptom of childish rivalry with the Mono-ha school artists and their reputed pieces of art. It should be noted that a bronze mirror from the Han period and Yayoi pottery with etched line design, were not

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Unfortunately, I have no direct knowledge of the intense debate and process of trial and error that took place behind the scene, but what took place provides an insight of the negotiation "between" a museum and art gallery.

The Approach to the Exhibit Space

Let us first inspect the approach and spatial structure. The event hall, a long rectangular space, is located in the very back of the museum's second floor.

~ -"-'l!; 1iIII. I '~ : ' .... " ~, -.. ~~,

. j!I~~'~~ On both sides , permanent The approach to the Exhibit Space

exhibit cases cover the wall. Roughly, the area was divided in four sections , with image projection at the entrance, three dimensional plastic exhibits on the left, fiat surface exhibits located on the right, and the domain for mono in the back. At the entrance, one is met by a joint production combining a book of astrology and furniture presented by designer S6ichir6 Kanbayashi and astrology scholar Ryuji Kagami. At this onset a type of table turning occurs where "novices" are initiated into the realm of the "other," and the visitors , after their rite of passage, are ushered into the depths of the world lingering behind . The installation includes a

table that alternates as a horoscope, with a stretch textile skin covering its top surface and the weight of the objects placed there causes indentations , and

Skin series horscope table supports from below causing

protrusions to appear. Essentially, a horoscope is a boundary between universal movement and earthly order and its purpose is to read the interaction of forces between these worlds by serving as a horizontal map. By utilizing the soft texture of the cloth to create this map, Kanbayashi succeeds with his table to catch the surface patterns, if not of celestial powers , but at least of the spiritual nature of wine bottles placed on the table.

This is what comprises the antechamber and the approach leading from it in a straight line into the background is comparable to the linear layout of the front and main sanctuaries preceding the most sacred innermost sanctum found at shrines and temples. In a book by the Vienna School art historian Dagobert Frey, one finds a classic study of approaches to inner sanctuaries found in the world's religious architecture.2 His analysis shows that from ancient time people were concerned as to how best to express the sacred in the space at the very back of religious structures. A pertinent example is from ancient Egypt. As one approaches the sacred or world of the dead, the roof of the temple sanctuary gets lower and the corridor as it

Sekimoto+ Nishiyama

Matsuike+Kamata Okada

The initial layout of the exhibition area

41

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42

leads back becomes narrower. The final, most sacred locus ends in a wall on which is carved a fas;ade of a door. Only the soul of the king that has shed all physical substance can enter through this false door and travel on to the world behind it.

The Inner Sanctum or Okutsuki

Takahiro Kondo is given credit for the initial layout of the exhibition area. Visiting the exhibit before opening, the planning director Toji Kamata had a vivid reaction. He noticed that at the very far end of the area a kind of aura emanated, similar to the one he feels at the inner sanctuary of a Shinto shrine . Also, the entrance area of the hall featured a large vermilion poster. Hiroshi Onishi in charge of design claimed he may have been unconsciously influenced by the layout, but as a result the color is similar to torii, or shrine gates. An inner shrine is either referred to as okunomiya, or okutsuki. At Izumo Grand Shrine the karni Onamuchi resides in the large main shrine that gives an impression of being a maus'oleum acting as an immense trap to corner the god. Behind this shrine and between Mt. Yakumo is located the Sogano-yashiro, another small shrine for the worship of the kami Susano-no-mikoto. Here worshippers can hardly ignore the atmosphere that gives the surroundings an awe-inspiring aura. Each year during the month of kami-ari-zuki (October), all the kami from across the land convene here within the shrine's confines. In the old imperial capital of Hue, Vietnam, a similar architectural undertaking by the Nguyen dynasty kings took place in the 19th century when they built their imperial graves. The waters of a lake are crossed by bridge and processions pass through a number of temples before entering the most sacred space.

To affect an ambience comparable to an innermost sacred center in the exhibit at Kyoto University, Tetsuo Sekimoto and Hideyuki Fujii installed a cacophony of unearthly things , a propeller, hands, paper, plants, and mineral samples, staging their transfiguration into daemons. This monstrous appellation of things formed from reinforced fibrous plastic (compound resin material used in the space exploration industry) are possessed and congregate, and like the mannequin fragments still in the process of being removed from their mold they are displayed as if fossils about to be dug out of a sheet of rock. The things are

Mannequin fragments

icred locus door. Only substance

I the world

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43

scattered along the left and right walls and backspace, in an eclectic and rather chaotic state. To see if these things with little to indicate whether they are living or not can be located in a mandala, an attempt was made by Sekimoto and Masaru Nishiyama with the hanging of the Kumano kanjin jik'kai-zu (the Kumano mandala of the ten spiritual realms). The ten spiritual realms of the Buddha, Bodisattva, Realization , Learning , Heaven, Humanity, Arrogance, Animality, Hunger, and Hell, are further divided into the past, present and future. From these realms have fallen the monstrous things, and, although uninvited from the world of hunger and hell they have taken up residence on the exhibit room floor and even sit in the inner chamber space, acting as if they were the masters . One is reminded of the countless stone Buddhas and arhats scattered about in the Adashino-nenbutsuji Temple , on the outskirt of Kyoto, and there is a resemblance to the scene of the sacred space encountered there. As one approaches the 88 Things that Eat Things, suddenly a strange mechanical inorganic sound assaults the ear from an un-locatable source.

Just before the innermost area, a case has been placed as if to lay a line of division. A look inside proves the glass case's interior is empty, but it seems the unidentifiable sound of things comes from somewhere in this area. If one lingers by the chair placed at an angle to the left the strange sound reaches the ear. The entire empty exhibit case is the amplification board for an ultra-directional speaker and serves as a dummy for the sound apparatus. A sound of a conch shell, said to come from Tibet, resonates in answer and the sound of breaking glass echoes about. It's as if we are ordered to break the glass of the case-box. Exhibition as presentation has the effect of exposing the exhibit to the visual sense, but in contrast the reality is that the objects are quarantined in a transparent box out of the hand's reach. Visuality is granted to the exhibit, but simultaneously a shunning of direct contact occurs, and the arising doubt is given voice to the empty exhibit case with the audio message. Junji Watanabe, Masamitsu Araki, Hiroshi Onishi, and Toji Kamata did the installation. According to Kamata, the space in the back of the exhibit represents the esoteric world with its accumulating corpus of knowledge, and here the extreme polarity of the negation of language and the mininIalist sphere of Zen, is entrusted to sound. The aura of the unseen flows from the empty space, intended to give an impression of a hidden Buddha.

Skills of the Matagi

Sacred places are also demonic worlds possessed by spirits. To enter, the world of men must be left with an invitation to enter the "other" dimension. Hunters of northern Honshu called matagi, travel from the habitat of men into the wild sylvan world . They are wazaogi, priests and performers who imitate and appease the gods . Matagi possess the skills and knowledge for crossing the limits of worlds (the root verb 'matagu' means to 'cross'). But their true skill is their ability to cross over at will, not simply to wander without knowledge into another realm. This world of the hunters of Tohoku region is well understood by Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933), the author of children's stories . His story, The Restaurant of Many Orders, depicts the trouble that a group of urban travelers get into when they enter a restaurant deep in the mountains . It is only half way through

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44

the story that these unsuspecting clients realize they are the ingredients for a meal, and in the nick of time escape with their lives. Hayao Kawai analyzed the story as diving down

into the deeper strata of consciousness and the gradual realization of "evil."3 An excellent analysis, but here it is important to note that although the restaurant clients were able to return safely, they never again regained who they had been before their dangerous adventure. In Buddhist terms , it is the difference between entering nirvana and returning from nirvana. With the later, the difficulty is controlling the return from death to life. It is akin to the explanation found in Islamic mysticism that teaches, to know the flame one needs to be burnt by the flame , but if one is burnt by the flame and dies, one cannot tell others of the true essence of the flame . As this aphorism suggests the world of spirits and things are far from occult or black magic; it can be clearly located at the fringe of logical thinking.

According to Kumakusu Minakata (1867-1941), the highly acclaimed folklore scholar and biologist in modem Japan, the phenomenon of koto, an event or happening , occurs when the world of things (mono) finds a nexus and overlaps with the human mind (kokoro) .4 "Events" can be placed into two categories. One is the "order" collected with words or language, and likened to the teachings of the Shingon School of esoteric Buddhism founded by Kukai (774-835), who claimed the ultimate word is embodied in the mantra and there the dharma body of Vairocana can be seen. On the other hand, the human mind can approach the world of things (mono) through the mediation of an "event" (koto). Here the body employs extension with the use of hands and fingers , and the making of things becomes possible. Buyankesig, the Mongolian poet, explores the visionary strength possessed by nomadic people , who are able to find forms with meaning within the boundless natural expanse of the grass plains and give these forms their precise names.s What needs to be practiced, where form is drawn out of things, is the technique (waza). People in possession of the technique are called wazaogi. Waza , or skill , in conjunction with word usage is called koto-waza , formalized proverbs that call people to action. But waza can also mean evil consequence, and when used with wrong intent bring about wazawai , calamity. People have known this for ages.

Vestiges of Waza

Ky6·komon

Waza act as the adhesive interface between the kokoro , minds of people and mono, things. The spatial expanse at the entrance of the exhibition room arranged by Hideyuki Fujii and Hiroshi Onishi is literally an emulation of waza. The stage is set with a documentary film of Yukio Nomura and his crafting of the Kyo-komon stencil paper patterns. Under the master's adroit hand that grips the steel cutting knife, mino-

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45

washi (hand crafted paper of Mino, Gifu Pref.) is rapidly transformed at will . In tum, the LCD monitors, duplicating the forms of the pattern paper, project the ever-changing images as if synchronized with the amazed viewers ' body movement. One wonders to what extent the viewers are aware of the similarities between the stencil patterns and monitor, or that in reality no sensors exist to read their reactions. Rather, Onishi 's purpose was to cause this illusion of interaction between the viewers and images. In what way can contemporary electronic imaging technology outstrip the delicate skill of sculpting stencil pattern paper? For the young, the monitor's projections have great appeal , but the imagery these create seems powerless in the presence of the unmoving objects in the exhibit. Although called animation, it is strange why infusing vitality into the electronic image is so difficult. The strangeness causes Onishi, a multimedia producer, to focus his concern on this problem.

For ages minerals and mineral crystals have continued to spark the imagination of humans. In them, people have found the workings of the ultimate waza of nature. Calcite crystals , no matter how finely crushed, never loose their crystal structure. Within air pockets left by cooling lava, agate deposits to form Thunder Eggs. Unearthed, they look like dirty eggs , but when cut in half the inner hollow reveals the hidden world of lustrous crystalline color. In contrast, Manganese lumps grow around a central core of ferruginous oxide and hydroxides , and the estimated speed of growth is a few ·millimeters over a million years. With only a few examples Ken ' ichi Harada explains these are concentrated phenomena of planet earth's mantle flow and the vestige of the waza that causes the formation of matter.

Matter compressed under immense pressure over an extensive period of time takes on a much different consistency than on the surface environment under one standard atmosphere of pressure. The usual states of matter,

the distinction between gas, liquid and solid , can be easily altered under the ultra-high pressure of the mantle flow , annihilating such a distinction. Modern science searches for similar materials endowed with

specificities whose unexpected behavior surpasses the normal understanding of the states of material consistency. Liquid crystal is one, as it maintains liquidity with the crystalline characteristic of its solid state. The potter, Takahiro Kondo took note of this form of crystal. Kondo 's exhibit mizore (sleet) is hardened liquid crystal, gathered from disposed appliances, packed into a mold and heated to just below melting point. The liquid crystal used in electrical products today is only one third of the amount manufactured, since even a slight amount of adulterants

Mono no aware

leaves the crystal unusable, and is disposed . Here industrial waste has been transmigrated into something else.

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46

seemingly having the property of a mineral , but in reality evaporates directly from the solid state into the atmosphere, changing its shape rapidly. To focus our attention on this phenomenon, Fumiko Tsubo, a jewelry designer, created Mono no aware (pathos arising from the ephemeral , or transitivity of things). The great crucible of nature has nourished precious stones with a capability far beyond that of any human skill , but human desire to experience the process within its limits and possibilities is most likely the source from where ceramics and glasswork have risen. Amorphous, a dreamlike realization of liquid in a solid form came from the kiln of glass artist Tomohiro Kana. The desire of realizing a liquid-crystal is sealed within the solid blue glass. Accompanied to it is Ancient Time by Dai Takayama, who spent time in Tanzania studying its pottery tradition, attempts with his clay work to concentrate the great earth and prehistory. An attempt at appropriating the primitive will of confronting the Self with the work of Nature is experienced by way of intentional simulation.

Stone Changelings

Legacies of life come to us unearthed as fossils. If they are of shellfish, the calcium carbonates in the shells dissolve leaving shell patterns of bivalves impressed in stone, or sediment in conch shells reveals the inner structure. Plants leave their imprints on rock slates when carbon contained in the organic material turns black. The word fossil means the traces left by engraved grooves , but the word for fossil in Japanese, kaseki , seems richer in texture. From the word's characters ( {fj change, 15 stone), it can either deliver the nuance of tracks left by life turned to stone, or stone changed as a result oflife. The Fern by Akira Yamada reveal the imprints of ferns on clay tablets representing the waza of how life's vestige is left on inorganic matter, and the affection of collecting these in human memory.A further development is seen in Michihiro SaitO's kawaranaimono kawariyukumono (things that don't change and things that are changing) as he explores the threshold separating the entity transcribed, and the transcribing agent by reversing the crossover between ground and image. His presentation overlaps with the technique of an optical illusion of trompe I' oei!. It also reveals the fact that the origin of printing finds its genesis in the process of fossile-making.

Human addiction to collection first starts out gathering things for toys , then proceeds to garden landscapes and bonsai connoisseurship, but when this malady progresses, it turns to rock collecting and hopeless infatuation with bon-seki (miniature rock-scaping). The terminal result is a total loss of self in the affection for things. With that, time brings about the metamorphosis of mono-things into monsters. The ancestors of these monsters are mono turned to stone. In other words, the first organisms that fossilized in the earliest stratum of terrestrial life. Fossils are haunted habitations of monster beings that disguised themselves in rock. What seems at first a random arrangement, Kikyo (living together) is indistinguishable as to whether the object(s) is clay or a tool, but its creator Takeshi Yamamoto successfully captures it on the border that distinguishes the two and makes it coexist in the uncommitted form of mono in the process of fossilizing , and materials transfiguring into mono.

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47

If these stone changelings line the left side of the alter, then the work of pulverized stone is found on the right. Let us now move from the portside to the starboard of the nave­like sanctuary.

Ryakotsu, or Dragon Bones , often not realized as being the fossilized bones of ice age mammals , are valued in Chinese medicine. Recovered from the mine , these fossils are powdered in the druggist's mortar. Maybe the same feeling of respect was the reason for Makoto Ofune (Shingen) to choose as his friend the ammonite fossil and show such attachment to natural mineral pigments . Because of his dissatisfaction with commercial paints, he grinds and mortars stones to produce his own pigments. His toil imitates the compression and bending occurring in the earth 's substratum that causes the chemical reactions forming raw materials. Realization that the ammonite that lived a hundred million years ago now appears as life changed to minerals, gives reason for Ofune to use those minerals in covering the work he created.

ammonite fossil VOID ljJ

Rock such as malachite (called "peacock-stone' in Japanese because of its colors), is formed when copper liquates out of copper ore to react with carbon dioxide in the air, or settles in sub-terrain water and becomes a secondary ore deposit containing carbonic acid and hydroxides . Bengala red comes from iron oxides and included in these is bauxite. Bauxite is the eroded residue comprising iron oxide and alumina that is left after liquid solvents drain out of igneous rock as it undergoes erosion in wet conditions, The processes that are needed for minerals to become pigments are so complicated, that their orchestration can only be the result of accident.

Chert, or flint used to spark fires, is the sedimentary rock containing silicic acid formed by the build up of dead Radiolarian remains accumulated at the bottom of water bodies. If so these traces of dead plankton are tropes for the act of igniting the flames of new life. Some may remember when they were children looking through a microscope and seeing the complicated exoskeleton structures of Radiolarians formed by silicic acid. Modem architecture does not come close to their detail. What on first sight seems to be ordinary rock and sand is actually a storyteller narrating the history of earth, and the mono sealed with their prehistoric secrets . The Philosopher's Stone, sought by alchemists, was hidden in common pebbles lying on roadsides. Here is one of the lessons we learn thanks to the experimental crossover of the natural history museum and fine arts museum.

Minerals after they were crushed

Ikeishi (Rock Arranging)

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48

Ikeishi (Rock Arranging)

Let us now take up the approach farther down the corridor

and drop our line of vision on the left facing the central exhibit case.

Stephen Gill is a haiku poet who has proposed ikeishi, rock arranging, infusing his feelings towards stones in his work that resonates in our hearts. Ikebana, flower arranging, simply said is the technique of keeping the beauty of cut flowers alive longer than natural blooms. In the same way, rock arranging is inspired by the desire to breath a soul into non-living objects. An absurd act to be sure, but does find its source in the Celtic endeavor of recovering the original life that possessed stone.

On rock in winter, I write, "the philosopher 's stone"

Kazuhiko Nakajima

The thunder god, rending the sky, falls to Ishigarnine

T6ji Kamata

T6ji Kamata often tells of how he found a stone whistle on a shore in the Aran Islands lying off the western coast of Ireland. Or rather, how a stone with a hole called out to Kamata to pick it up. For Kamata it was a special experience of having nature look at him and voice its will towards him. If the stone were given the proper holes so it could be blown , it would immediately transform itself into a flute. The stone that had become a flute is no longer a thing for Kamata, but a mono . Re-spiration is breath, and expiration means death, and when matter is "in-spired" or filled with pneuma-spiritus, it becomes possessed with mononoke, or a spiritual entity. Borrowing from Christian theology, when matter becomes mono, the mystery of transubstantiation takes place.

This transformation is what invites a person to pass on through the outer shrine into the inner sanctuary. More accurately, when prayer is offered at the outer shrine and the transition of stone matter to a stone whistle takes place, the realization that one is already in the inner sanctuary overcomes the worshiper. The reason is while one prays the object thought to be a base metal has already been changed

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49

into a precious metal. With the discussion thus far, it has probably become

clear the common notion of museums, referred to in the introduction, as being nothing more than mortuaries for dead remains and repositories for objects that have lost their function , is simplistic. Also, why the artists gathered here find an attraction for the specimens of stone, minerals and fossils. Inspiration means the giving of breath and the habitation of spirit. Furthermore, now the purpose of a museum is evidently clearer, to resurrect the soul on the stage of magical regeneration and become the laboratory for rebirth, But before this, the exhibits in the room are filled with the strong desire to transform into art, and they tremble with expectation. Now it is just as important to sever the temptation to become an art piece.

Mirror Images and Mandala

Ni SOlal icizi, Is );Olal ni

After retracing the path along the central show case of the main inner shrine, let us move again to the right side of the exhibit area,

Matsuike Ayumi took as her subject in Ni soku ichi, Is'soku ni (two is one, one is two) the Hokaku kiku-shishin­kyo (mirror with geometric patterns and the four spirits) a bronze mirror from the Chinese Han period in the Kyoto University Museum permanent collection. On the back side of this mirror representing the four directions one finds faithful etchings of the four sacred beasts, Blue Dragon, Red Phoenix, White ~iger and Black Tortoise-Snake with the space between them filled with spiral designs symbolizing qi (energy, or rather pneuma or spiritus), and on the periphery the constellations signifying heavenly movement. The round border designating the dome of Heaven situates at its center the square figure for Earth, completing the "round sky, square earth" principle. The Nihonga (Japanese style) artist explained she was able to capture the subtle detail in her work, because she was allowed to sketch with the mirror in hand. Around the border the very mundane prayers for long life, bountiful harvest, advancement and wealth, are inscribed. But Matsuike's intent was not simply to crystallize the symbolic system in a still image. When light is reflected off the polished mirror surface, the slight undulations resulting from the etchings on the backside project strange luminous patterns, The mirror allows the geometric designs on its backside to penetrate and appear through the reflecting face. An effect prized from the ancient past for being out of the ordinary. These mirrors not only had the power to reflect objects on its surface, but commanded a magic to make the unseen shine and visible. This is what people of ancient ages believed. By painting on weighty linden wood, Matsuike attempts to capture the phantom-like quality of the mirror, and the nebulous

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50

aura ascending into midair promising something unusual to come. The bronze mirror turns out to be an apparatus projecting haunted images of the sur-natural.

A blue dewdrop, one true syllable flowing hither, I eat the higan (equinox) rice cake of my future nirvana Toji Kamata

In contrast to the bronze mirror's embodiment of the Diamond Realm, the opposite polar point lies in the Womb Realm, but both relate to each other, similar to the way positive photographs and their negatives are enjoined. Out of the darkness in the upper left of the Womb mandala rises the dim halo of the circular moon. Waiting in the opaque blackness, the light that will eventually enter the heart quietly is the shadow of sunlight reflected by the mirror­moon, but it does not announce its arrival with raised voice. On the twilight surface of the nether world sea, lines carved by the sculpting knife grace its expanse. Engraved there is the motif of the archaic boat and rowers found on the Yayoi clay vessel, showing the artist's deep feelings on a voyage seeking the source of the soul, the growth of life and the passage for its return.

The madder of the sea at dawn, the voice of the thunder peal of a silver white crossing boat. Toji Kamata

Like sunlight and moonlight, the pair of Buddhist divinities Surya-prabha and Candra-prabha, the two sides of Ni soku ichi , I'soku ni (indicating the principle of advaita, or non­duality) resonate and illuminate their "other." And, needless to say, between their polarities things and mono spirit, commute and interact.

Membrane as Interface In response to Matsuike 's mandala , Okada Shoji

exhibited a group of sketches entitled Bus'shitsu no orime to tamashii no hida (folds in matter and creases in souls) reflecting on the way precious stone becomes liquid flow and then turned into flame, evaporates as gas. And next to the painting on the right wall by Matsuike, he fixed his large oil painting Mizube 51 (water's edge) . At times critics have described Okada's work as Hyperrealism, but contrary to the impression given by his smooth and transparent depictions, under illumination the painting's surface deflects random light off the woven surface of the canvas. It is easy to describe the process of taking a photograph of tree branches and leaves found on the edge of water and transposing it on the large surface, but this does not do justice to the time spent by the artist in waist high water. The several hundred photographic images are condensed on to one frame. Far from being a mechanical reproduction, there is a raw sense of substance and the materiality is concentrated in the fine brushwork. As stated earlier, where mono (matiere) and kokoro (coeur) touch, an event (koto) is generated. Okada's painting captures the very moment of emergence, an indescribable proto-event that appears on the scene, and with careful preparation is performed again as if it were a "retum of the spirit" in a mugen no drama.

No performers, when describing the way they produce the subtle effects of their dance, often explain they are stepping as hard as possible on both the accelerator and brakes. Similarly, the painting conveys extreme concentration with

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51

a layer of pigment so thin and yet intense with a potential to overflow. If out of mere caprice the surface was punctured with a pin, one could expect the canvas to rupture in an instant and the entire mass of the world hidden in darkness beneath erupt in a torrent towards this world. The anxiety felt is justifiable when faced with this massive pressure caused by the conflict taking place on the two-dimensional interface. But the surface, seemingly ready to burst with the magnitude of the swell, does not, and as far as can be seen maintains its appearance. The flood is avoided, because the scene depicted has been expanded to almost ten times greater in proportion than the actual subject. This is not, in the usual sense, a situation where larger proportion is achieved by watering down the content. Because the swell was not allowed to alleviate its pressure into the foreground or retreat to the background, the inner force overflowed across the surface plane, pushing the breakwater out to the limits of the frame. As a result, the inundation spreads to fill fertile land with vigor by a portrayal of a flowing microcosm. Truth finally regains its balance and comes to rest within the unthinkable but necessary proportions. It is also a daring attempt to sound the limits of the power of mono by testing its strength with the ability for materials like canvas and pigment to carry it.

Omou tsubo (connived entrapment), or Mudai (untitled)

It seems, extremely dangerous passages to a world hidden in the background have been opened in the exhibition space, and something is waiting the opportunity to make its appearance. The things spilling from the specimen case onto the floor in the inner sanctuary are intruders forcefully broaching the boundaries. Unless one crosses over to the other side, the world lurking in the background will avalanche to this side. It is a stage of magic filled with ominous tension. Why then is it possible for this space, pushed to the critical limit where one mistake could cause madness, show no sign of losing its mind and continues to maintain its serene appearance . Here the works of the veteran Mono-ha artists enter our vision.

Located on a perpendicular axis binding the astrologist's table at the entrance and the sound apparatus at the inner sanctuary are two exhibits that command our attention. In the back sitting quietly is Kuso omoutsubo (vessel of empty meditation) by Nobuo Sekine. Engraved are the words, If you're wondering what this is, it's my omoutsubo (thinking vessel, or conniving) in which you are already trapped. The title pokes fun at the viewer. In fact, the container is made of solid black granite. Its outer appearance seems like a hallow vessel, but actually is solid andesite. If the viewer

KOso omoutsubo

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mistakenly thinks there is an empty cavity inside, then it truly is the omoutsubo, connived trick of the artist. This piece was made in 1973 , and is the oldest work exhibited. It can never really be decided whether the vessel is meditating on mono, or whether we are seduced to misconceive the dark vessel placed before us . And thus, the reference to "emptiness" in the works title.

Before the exhibits were removed, a black cloth was draped over the tasteless rectangular glass showcase for a while during the photograph session. Seen between the folds of the cloth, the black vessel seemed to gain a presence and aura far more beguiling than when displayed in the open as an object under the unconstrained gaze of the visitors. In Zeami's words, Hidden is the flower.

Placed counter to this jet black vessel that brings to mind the Omphalos, the naval of the world, on the sacred ground of Delphi, the mono chosen by Susumu Koshimizu are laid out casually at the entrance area. The exhibit, with no consideration to assist understanding, is given the title Mudai (untitled), and is an installation of three rust­covered red iron fragments (it was only after the removal and closing of the show that the title came back to the mind of the artist: he had forgotten that the piece had been named "The Iron Scraps in Sakai"). According to the artist, the objects were given to him at a machine workshop in the port city of Sakai . The presentation, like the explanation, is matter-of-fact and the metal refuse rusted beyond reason carries the nuance of things that had failed to become tools. Originally the work was created in 1975, but later the largest metal article had gone missing and only recently had been found in a storage room comer of an art gallery, and so he had decided to exhibit it again.

This long lost article was polished with a file and given a makeover for its appearance in the exhibition, and the worn out harvest hook or plow shear, one cannot tell exactly, has recovered its knife like quality, allowing a glimpse of its past sharpness. As rusty as these may be, if polished, they show they are still of use, and they convey their energetic spirit. Just because they had been found accidentally, does seem like an irresponsible reason for appearing on this stage, but their vigorous attitude simply turns a back in brazen disinterest of the nemesis Omoutsubo sitting in contempt at the opposite side of the room . Without retreating one step from the black granite, the clumps of scrap iron scatter unabashed aspirations for their independent freedom from any restraint.

On reflection, these two exhibits placed along a perpendicular axis, are the anchors that secure the exchange between the things and mono vying for control in the exhibit space, or even act as support stakes driven deep into the ground. Although small in size, the Omoutsubo can be likened to the legendary vessel containing the world, watching vigilantly for the chance to suck into its non­existent stomach the entire exhibit area to prove its true darkness. Its plotting is up to no good and seems secretly to continue its conniving. But, maybe what we believe to be the outer wall of the vessel is really its inner space, and without knowing we have fallen into the trap set by Sekine. Possibly his Omoutsubo has already swallowed us into itself at the outset of the koto . The "container" occupies the place in the exhibition area, likened to a ship; it is the block on which the fictional sail mast is fixed so the sails can fill

inside, then it the artist. This Irk exhibited. It ~l is meditating is conceive the Ie reference to

lack cloth was , showcase for Seen between :med to gain a vhen displayed ned gaze of the 'er. that brings to , on the sacred mu Koshimizu . The exhibit, g, is given the of three rust­

~r the removal .ck to the mind ad been named the artist, the

)rkshop in the e explanation, beyond reason become tools.

. but later the ly recently had lft gallery, and

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prove its true eems secretly we believe to er space, and

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53

with wind. If then the analogy of a (space-)ship and the mast's foundation is extended, then at the prow we have a useless broken handle placed there unplanned, but Mudai proclaims without hesitation that it is now the ship's iron helm.

The truth is that not until just before the exhibition started, no one was sure exactly what mono the two would be contributing, and whether they would be able to submit work that could be considered mono in the sense conceived for the exhibit. But as soon as these pieces were delivered to the venue, the black granite monster polished to a glare and the corroded iron scrap material with no apparent use, went through a metamorphosis becoming the unifier of the exhibition's spatial cosmology, and the tools to govern the navigation of the passage through the cosmogony and constellations. What has actually taken place here is the conversion of mere substantial things into mono by giving them breath, and this transfiguration captured those who lingered among these mono, imprisoning them in the magnetism of an invisible net .

From Possessed Mono to Purification

A museum was chosen, regardless of its unsuitable spatial limitations, and one can only lament the inconvenience and limitations for the reason to set sail without an accurate ocean chart on this desperate experimental voyage. But it resulted in rethinking the material significance of the museum specimens resting there, inquiring into the relationship between things and mono from a perspective encompassing life on earth in its entirety, and bring about a moment causing the awakening of the spirits inhabiting mono. From Things to Mono. This extremely dangerous plan (indeed the title remains untranslatable into English) raised objection to the assumptions of "matter versus spirit" prevalent in modern Europe and North America, and now we can only ask which constellation is to be visited next, or which seaway will be set out on.

On the last day of the exhibition at the end of January, a no play depicting the regeneration of the Lambir Tropical Rain Forest was performed.6 There the stage's passage was likened to the forest corridor, and the audience focused on the rhythm, and a conch shell was blown while Toji Kamata attired as a Shinto priest called in the spirit., With the sound of bells, an image of a rotating earth appeared in the starry universe beyond the forest. All were awestruck by the computer graphics produced by Hiroshi Onishi. (Originally, the projection was to start with the call of the conch, but because of trouble with the limitations of the control room, this was not possible, and the water planet was made to respond to the sound of the bells . But the delay in turn contributed to an exquisite effect). The audience suddenly noticed in total surprise that Hiroshige Kawamura had appeared out of the background wearing the kohime (young girl) mask, and was standing front stage. This unexpected arrival on stage of the spirit was literally the realization of omoshiroya, a delightful exclamation pronounced at the scene of Ama no Iwata narrated in Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters edited in 712). After a period of eclipse, the Sun-Goddess Amaterasu O-mikami was resurrected by making her long awaited reappearance. This brought relief and joy to the people, who could not help shouting

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their eyes , the spectators were transported back to the

mythological era of ancient Japan. Then with the end of the festive rite, the monomitama, the spirit of things, or hundreds of ghost which stayed for a while in the museum space, quietly passed on out of the exhibition hall.

January 26-31, 2010.

Shigemi Inaga Professor, International Research Center for Japanese Studies International Cultural Relations, History of Cultural Exchange

http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/-aurora/

Translated by Timothy D. Kern

Notes for English Translation

lA lively account of the negotiations leading to the realization of the exhibition, see lli:~ il1li5!' Kondo Takahiro and *gg~;t; Onishi Hiroshi, ry_ r ?t;f4~}.j J; u:m!J!:\:~O)ltiWJ li[l~J "Minutes of the Activities of the Art Section and the Exhibition," in Mono-logy, Sense-Value Studies r .:c ) "'f. • ~Jl1iIIi{[![!iJfY'\;J ,No.4, pp.60-79, 2010.

2 Dagobert Frey, Grundlegung zu einer vergleichenden Kunstwissenschaft, 1949.

3 jijJ~iUft Kawai Hayao, r i*~/L' J'!Il.J "Sub-conscious Psychology,"(in Japanese) in the exhibition catalogue, The World of Miyazawa Kenji at the Centenmy of His Birth r ~ ~ B mJ 1F g ~ ~ it 0) t!:t W.! , Asahi Shinbunsha, p .50.

4 r~liS ii 1L Matsui RyfIo, rm:157 :.-' ?l 7 O)MJiltJ "The Genesis of Minakata Mandala," in Matsui et ai, Minakata Kumakusu no Mori rm :15 fffi;jjijO)~J (The Forest of Minakata Kumakusu, in Japanese), Octave, 2010, pp.132-158.

5;j{ '1> :.-' I: 'f/7· Buyankesig, Kaijono Genkei r1WTIlfO) JJj(MJ (Archtypal Form of the Conceived Emotion) (in Japanese), Eiji Shuppan, 2000, pp.69-7L

"For the Treaties of the No Theater by Zeami (1363?-1443), refer to the English translation by Masakazu Yamazaki & J.Thomas Rimer. 011 Th e Art of No Drama: The Major Treatises of Zeami, Princeton University Press, 1984.