Lords of the Samurai at the the San Francisco Asian Art Museum

[GeneChing]

Lords of the Samurai is coming to the San Francisco Asian Art Museum June 12 to Sept 20, 2009.

Included in the collection is Terao Katsunobu's edition of the Book of Five Rings (19 of 19). Musashi's original was lost. Katsunobu was his disciple and had a copy. If you're coming from out of town to our Tiger Claw’s KungFuMagazine.com Championship, I would definitely schedule the Friday before or the Sunday after to see this exhibit.

Brilliant Warriors. Artistic Masters.

The samurai culture and code of conduct, bushido, have long captivated the imaginations and aspirations of young and old in the Western world. More than just fierce warriors, Japanese samurai of the highest rank were also visionaries who strove to master artistic, cultural, and spiritual pursuits.

Lords of the Samurai takes an intimate look at the daimyo, or provincial lords of the warrior class in feudal Japan. The Hosokawa clan, powerful military nobles with a 600-year-old lineage, embodied this duality of fierce warrior and refined gentleman.

The exhibition features more than 160 works from the Hosokawa family collection housed in the Eisei-Bunko Museum in Tokyo, the Kumamoto Castle, and the Kumamoto Municipal Museum in Kyushu. Objects on view will include suits of armor, armaments (including swords and guns), formal attire, calligraphy, paintings, teaware, lacquerware, masks, and musical instruments.

The Asian Art Museum is the exclusive U.S. venue for this exhibition.

[GeneChing]

I can hardly wait.

[GeneChing]

I renewed my membership just for this exhibit. Members get entrance to an exclusive preview, which I saw on Thursday.

The exhibit showcases the collection of the Hosokawa clan (misspelled Hokosawa in Treasures, and any publisher loves finding a misspelling in someone else's pub). The Hosokawa clan is still powerful in modern Japan. Their mon is a circle surrounded by eight smaller circles, symbolic of nine planets. Most notably, they retained Miyamoto Musashi.

Room #1 contains some armor, some swords, a helmet, some painting scrolls and a banner. There's really only about half a dozen suits of armor and swords showcased in this exhibit. The rest is padded with paintings, tea sets, masks, and paintings. It's all magnificent, prime examples of each art form in it's highest splendor, but I was hoping for more actual samurai pieces given the title. Many years ago, Asian Art did a spectacular exhibit of samurai helmets and that pretty much all it was - dozens of amazing helmets. Nevertheless, Lords of the Samurai isn't in the least bit disappointing. It's an absolute must-see. The armor and swords that are displayed are utterly stunning. It's top-of-the-line ceremonial stuff and the detailing is staggeringly beautiful, an awesome display of the majesty of samurai gear. The two swords displayed in room #1 are the only complete ones currently on display. They have very ornate and unusual tsuba that seem unwieldy. These are dress swords and the sword furniture is past the point of practicality, but fascinating none the less. The armor, like each of the suits on display, has astounding details which only emerge if you stare at it for quite a spell such as miniature crosses, heart motifs, mon, butterflies, and Buddhist guardian images.

Room #2 has several suits of armor and naked blades. The armor is simply stunning in details. The longer I looked, the more patterns emerged, subtle, elegant, each worked into the design with that divine aesthetic structure so characteristic of fine Japanese art. There's a nice tsuba display, hung so you can see both sides. The sword blades were totally amazing. Spend some time with the first one. It has a double hamon. As your eyes caress the edge, you'll notice a supple wave pattern so evenly spaced that its seductively voluptuous. But if you stare even longer, more will emerge. This blade is a stripper, doing it just for you. A second line appears when the light angles is just so, revealing delicate fingers with long stroking nails - just a teasing flash - then its gone, replaced with those Rubenesque curves of the initial line. The middle blades are tachi, which are displayed traditionally, blade to earth (katana and wakazashi are blade to sky in a house fo war). Sadly, this deprives us of proper lighting of these blades because they are resting on a pillow of fabric. Asian Art should have figured a way to light that display from the bottom up. The last blade has a spectacular blade with a serpentine cut out. After seeing so many stupid modern fantasy swords with dragons molded into the pot metal blades, it's staggeringly reaffirming to see the real thing. The janitor is probably still mopping up the pool of drool I left in front of that display case.

It was room #3 that got me. Room #3 opens Tereo's original handwritten copy of his master's work, Go rin no sho, the Book of Five Rings. Musashi's original is lost. This was the one that survived. I wrote my provost thesis on Five Rings and it's been forever since I thought about that seriously. As I read the captions, extracts from translations I had poured over in the past, I realized it was stupid. I know those captions. I used to have a lot of that memorized. I can read that in my library at home. I should just look at the scrolls, look at the calligraphy. Recently, I've have some appreciation of calligraphy despite being illiterate to it for the most part, which is doubly so in Japanese. But you can see the excitement in Tereo's hand, how he sometimes runs out of space with his characters. The collection also contains two of Musashi's paintings: Horse and Wild Swans. Beyond being the kensei (sword saint) Musashi was also an expert painter and carpenter (in fact, Five Rings uses carpentry as a metaphor throughout). I had studied Musashi's art in books - traditional brush painting, like swordsmanship, is all about the stroke. It was one of those ecstatic museum moments, to see these paintings in person. But the pieces that totally overwhelmed me was Musashi's bokken set. They have his swords. As a carpenter, he hand-carved both weapons and anyone who knows anything about Musashi, knows it was all about the nito-ryu, the two sword method, and he fought his most famous duels with wood against steel. I've seen a lot of bokken, even the high-end artisan stuff - hell I sell the things. I still train with them. I keep one as a pillow sword. But these, these were handmade by THE MAN. My lord. It was such an epiphany to stand before them, I felt like kneeling like Wayne and Garth. I was absolutely shivering in the presence. Musashi's swords.

There's some more armor and art in Room #3 but I was still reeling from the Musashi exhibit. At the end, there are two paintings by one of Japan's most famous artists Hakuin: an Enso and a Bodhidharma. The Buddhist symbols, so prominent in my own personal practice, guided me gently back to earth.

Lords of the Samurai runs until Sep 20. They are going to switch out the exhibit halfway through; some 50 pieces will change. They didn't want to expose these pieces for too long because many of them have never been shown to the public ever before. See it now. Then see it again later.

[GeneChing]

I should check SF Gate - I must have missed the Chron review...

Samurai in San Francisco
At the Asian Art Museum, 'Lords of the Samurai' glimpses the warrior-aesthetes who combined martial prowess with cultural attainment.
By Charles Burress
July 19, 2009
Reporting from San Francisco -- The year is 1600. The only slings and arrows assailing Shakespeare are of the metaphorical kind. But on the other side of the globe, an unsurpassed literary master of a different stripe is strapped in samurai armor and preparing for death as his tiny band of 500 warriors faces an enemy army of 15,000.

Suddenly, the looming defeat is blocked. The Japanese emperor has issued an edict stopping the battle. The reason: The besieged samurai leader, Yusai Hosokawa, a skilled fighter who grew up in the era depicted in the famous Kurosawa film "Seven Samurai," was also a celebrated poet, esteemed scholar and, most important, the only living possessor of a secret, orally transmitted body of knowledge about the imperial poetry classic, the Kokin Wakashu.

This deus ex machina rescue not only lends support to those who believe the pen is mightier than the sword. It also helps explain why the "Lords of the Samurai" exhibit at the Asian Art Museum opened with a solemn ceremony that was highly unusual for American museums and that featured a meticulously prepared cup of Japanese tea placed in offering to a painting of the long-ago rescued warrior.

Prominent in the hushed group of ceremony observers was Morihiro Hosokawa, a former prime minister of Japan and the 18th head of the Hosokawa line of former samurai lords that includes the one honored with the tea. Perhaps by coincidence, the current Hosokawa sat facing a brightly colored, intricately detailed suit of samurai armor, as if he were looking into an ancestor-revealing mirror. The armor, also in a seated posture, was a faithful replica made in 1829 of the 14th century battle dress worn by the founder of the Hosokawa clan.

It was a fitting launch for an exhibition extraordinary in several ways. Nearly all of the 166 objects come from the collection gathered over nearly seven centuries by the Hosokawa family, one of Japan's most distinguished and long-standing samurai clans. Several of the items are classified as cultural treasures by the Japanese government. The exhibit, exclusive to San Francisco, represents the first comprehensive display of the Hosokawa collection in the United States. And it's an assortment that even the Japanese could not see in one place. Though the objects are taken largely from the Hosokawas' Eisei-Bunko Museum in Tokyo, a few are drawn also from other sources, including the Asian Art Museum's holdings.

The items offer an intriguing glimpse of the elite class of the samurai, those extinct warrior-aesthetes who combined highly disciplined martial prowess with refined cultural attainment and who continue to shimmer with a captivating glow on the stage of history. The exhibition title, "Lords of the Samurai," refers to the samurai rulers known as daimyo, who governed the regional domains for the top military ruler, the shogun. Luckily, the Hosokawa daimyo, known for their extra emphasis on erudition and culture, preserved not only military hardware but also fragile works of art and craft.

Along with sword blades of unmatched craftsmanship are delicately rendered paintings, large decorative screens and brilliantly illuminated hand scrolls. The martial and artistic often merged, as shown in the intricate designs and decorations of sword scabbards and other accessories.

Among the highlights is the masterful painting of a wild horse by swordsman Musashi Miyamoto, who served the Hosokawas in the 17th century. The section devoted to him features also the training swords he carved from oak and a disciple's copy of his "Book of Five Rings," a work still read today for its lessons not only in martial arts but also in strategy and philosophy.

Eliciting smiles from visitors is a small, 17th century picnic set made of lacquered wood and attributed to Sansai Hosokawa, known for his understated sense of beauty. The top consists of a sake flask in the guise of an eggplant that looks ready to eat, while an equally convincing eggplant leaf serves as the sake cup. Even among men expected to be highly cultured, "the ability to create such a complex and charmingly proportioned piece as this was very unusual," exhibition curator Yoko Woodson writes in the show's catalog. Though the age of the samurai ended with the fall of Japan's last shogunate in the Meiji Restoration of the 1860s, the exhibition incorporates objects from post-daimyo Hosokawas as well, including tea bowls by the current Hosokawa family head, 71-year-old Morihiro. Unlike most former prime ministers, he retreated from the political world into that of a reclusive artist whose ceramic pieces have won critical praise.

A former governor of Kumamoto prefecture on Kyushu island, where the clan had its domain, he emerged as a shining champion of reform in 1993 when he became prime minister, leading a political revolution that broke the 38-year-old monopoly on power held by Japan's conservative elite. However, he stepped down after eight months amid questions over finances and took up a path in harmony with his family's legacy and his personal inclination -- a retreat into a simpler life of contemplation, reading, hosting tea ceremonies for guests and art.

"Within the Hosokawa family what is quite distinctive is that they put a great emphasis on the cultural arts, maybe more than the military arts," he said in an interview.

Alluding to the edict of 1600 that saved Yusai's life, and possibly the family's future, the soft-spoken Hosokawa said, "Never before or after in Japanese history had a military battle been stopped by an imperial edict for the purpose of literature. . . . There's a saying, 'Save yourself through literature.' This is really true for the Hosokawa family."

calendar@latimes.com

"Lords of the Samurai" runs through Sept. 20 at the Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin St., San Francisco. Because of potential damage from excessive exposure to light, several objects will be replaced by similar ones on Aug. 3. For more information: (415) 581-3500 or www.asianart.org.

[Lucas]

It was room #3 that got me. Room #3 opens Tereo's original handwritten copy of his master's work, Go rin no sho, the Book of Five Rings. Musashi's original is lost. This was the one that survived. I wrote my provost thesis on Five Rings and it's been forever since I thought about that seriously. As I read the captions, extracts from translations I had poured over in the past, I realized it was stupid. I know those captions. I used to have a lot of that memorized. I can read that in my library at home. I should just look at the scrolls, look at the calligraphy. Recently, I've have some appreciation of calligraphy despite being illiterate to it for the most part, which is doubly so in Japanese. But you can see the excitement in Tereo's hand, how he sometimes runs out of space with his characters. The collection also contains two of Musashi's paintings: Horse and Wild Swans. Beyond being the kensei (sword saint) Musashi was also an expert painter and carpenter (in fact, Five Rings uses carpentry as a metaphor throughout). I had studied Musashi's art in books - traditional brush painting, like swordsmanship, is all about the stroke. It was one of those ecstatic museum moments, to see these paintings in person. But the pieces that totally overwhelmed me was Musashi's bokken set. They have his swords. As a carpenter, he hand-carved both weapons and anyone who knows anything about Musashi, knows it was all about the nito-ryu, the two sword method, and he fought his most famous duels with wood against steel. I've seen a lot of bokken, even the high-end artisan stuff - hell I sell the things. I still train with them. I keep one as a pillow sword. But these, these were handmade by THE MAN. My lord. It was such an epiphany to stand before them, I felt like kneeling like Wayne and Garth. I was absolutely shivering in the presence. Musashi's swords.

wow....just...wow. im truly jealous. someday i hope i'll be able to see that.

you know, ive always wanted to see someone combine japanese long sword and chinese straight sword, into a two sword performance style. just for fun you know...or even katana/dao.

[Lucas]

oh have you read thomas cleary's newest bushido book? i was looking at ordering it then i noticed he has a book: Lords of the Samurai, im assuming there's a direct connection to that showing.

[GeneChing]

...here's your reply, Lucas.

Samurai hold lessons for modern warfare
Julian Guthrie, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 4, 2009

At first glance, Thomas Cleary is an unlikely expert on war, weaponry and man's ability to destroy.

The Oakland author and translator of some 80 spiritual texts is gentle and soft-spoken, perfectly suited for poring over ancient works in hushed libraries. Cleary reads in nine languages, and his career has focused on Buddhist, Taoist, Muslim and Confucian classics. Through his studies, though, Cleary's understanding of war spans the ages, from Japan's warrior class to the world wars and the military assaults of today.

"All campaigns for war focus on creating fear," said Cleary, known by many for his translation of Sun Tzu's Chinese classic "The Art of War." When Cleary watched the buildup to the Bush administration's invasion in Iraq and its assertion of imminent threat from weapons of mass destruction, Cleary thought "it was all too predictable."

In his writings and translations, Cleary hopes to increase "intelligence and thoughtfulness," and bring added awareness to the human condition. Much is to be learned, Cleary says, from studying the warriors of Japan - the samurai, who strove to balance truculence with culture.

"When your mind is full of death all the time, beauty is like an intense experience of life," said Cleary, sitting on a sofa in an apartment in Oakland where he sometimes goes to work. "The samurai tried to find balance."

That fragile, meticulously constructed pursuit of balance is on display at the "Lords of the Samurai" exhibition at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Cleary, who has written six books on the samurai, wrote the introduction in the show's catalog. The warriors' suits of armor in the show are made like haute couture, with colorful silk lacing and exquisite detail and ornamentation. Lethal swords of forged steel are displayed near beautiful scrolls and screens with pale pink tree peonies.

"All of this is a reminder of the idea that when you bear a deadly weapon, you ought to be careful about using it," said Cleary, speaking to the juxtaposition of beauty and lethality in the museum show. "Beauty is a reminder of the preciousness of life."

For more than 600 years, Japan's government relied on this warrior class. Samurai culture taught that "as soon as the sword is gone from the scabbard, you are defeated," Cleary said. "As soon as you draw your sword, it is already too late. The more highly developed the warrior, the greater the caution in using that power."

In the catalog introduction, Cleary writes of the samurai: "The ability to be warm and humane in social life, cold and fierce in combat, was particularly prized. Each aspect of the personality was thought to have its proper place, the cultural capacity balancing the martial and the martial protecting the cultural."

Cleary says the samurai's noble goals can be adopted today, but cautions there were also pitfalls to the warrior culture.

"Their fundamental principles were of honor, justice and courage," Cleary said. "We all need a degree of strength, and we all need a degree of flexibility. But because of their constant consciousness of warfare, relationships between husbands and wives were social and political. Love marriage was antisocial. And there was great subordination of women in samurai culture."

Cleary is now working on a project about the militarization of modern Japan, from the late 19th century to 1930.

"What I see is that we keep doing the same things as a world," Cleary said.

Cleary grew up in New Jersey in a family of three boys. His mother was German and his father Irish. Both were chemists, and both hid their ethnicities when they immigrated, telling their sons to always report they were "American" on ethnicity questionnaires.

"There has always been fear of what is different," Cleary said, noting the many wars that have been launched based on intense nationalistic paranoia.

As to the question of whether society has gotten more violent over the millennia, Cleary says, "It depends on where you are. The weaponry has gotten more lethal. Moods are raw. The fundamental principle of society is competitive. Violence is glorified an awful lot."

He added, "There's the saying, 'Those who don't learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.' The whole process of struggling for supremacy goes on. In my mind, the lessons are not being learned."

Lords of the Samurai: Through Sept. 20. The Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin St., San Francisco. (415) 581-3500. www.asianart.org.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...#ixzz0NFkys6LX

[GeneChing]

I remember seeing Hosokawa's work in the exhibit and thinking it was odd. But it makes sense now.

Political reformer, master artist
Kenneth Baker, Chronicle Art Critic
Sunday, August 16, 2009

Former Prime Minister of Japan Morihiro Hosokawa has a life story with no parallel in American - or Japanese - politics.

Descendant of a once-powerful clan of feudal warlords, he rose in the early 1990s from the relative obscurity of a rural prefectural governorship to form a political coalition that propelled him into the prime minister's post.

After a brief, dazzling tenure, marked by reforms of lasting influence, he found himself marginalized again, happily.

Today, Hosokawa lives secluded in Yugawara, an hour by train from Tokyo, possibly less famous as a political figure than as a ceramic artist and overseer of the Eisei Bunko, the Tokyo museum devoted to his family's collection of Japanese art.

The Asian Art Museum has drawn its current exhibition, "Lords of the Samurai" (through Sept. 20), from the Hosokawa family collection. (The show's second rotation of light-sensitive objects went on view this week.)

The show includes ceramics made by the former prime minister. Assisted by curator and fluent Japanese speaker Melissa Rinne, I spoke with Hosokawa when he visited San Francisco earlier this summer.

Q: How do you feel about the inclusion of your own work in the show?

A: Originally I had planned only to bring historical works from the collection, but the (Asian Art Museum) director was adamant that the exhibition show the continuity through every generation of the family. So I agreed to put my work in the show.

Q: Have there been practicing artists in every generation?

A: No, but every generation did have a very high regard for and reverence for the arts, including the tea ceremony.

Q: Was there anything in your personal background that foreshadowed your turn to ceramics?

A: No, not a thing. I had no interest in ceramics, or in art really, until 10 years ago.

My grandfather and father were both very well-known collectors. But even today I'm not interested in collecting per se. I myself don't collect.

Q: Was there a point at which you became responsible for the family collection?

A: A few years ago my father passed away and at that point I became chairman of the family collection. ... Only then did I begin to think seriously about preserving it.

Q: Are you still involved in politics in Japan?

A: No.

Q: What motivated the radical change you made?

A: At 53, I had the intention of retiring as governor of Kumamoto prefecture to a hermetic life, 'to till the fields when the sun shines and engage in reading when it rains,' as an old Japanese phrase says. But I went ahead to establish a new political party, leading to my becoming prime minister.

Q: Was it difficult for a man so prominent in Japan to become artistic apprentice to someone else?

A: In fact my family, my friends, everybody was quite shocked at my decision to study under a teacher. And my teacher is known as something of a wild man. For a year and a half, I had very intensive training from 6 in the morning to 7 at night, working at the wheel all day.

In Japan, there's a traditional apprenticeship of not being taught, but of just sitting next to the master at the wheel. You learn by observing, by feeling. My teacher would say only two things to me during that time, either 'you fool' or 'throw that one away.'

My teacher was, in fact, 10 years younger than I. There are few teachers that much younger who would be able to look upon a man of my prominence and say things like that, for which I'm very grateful. If I had gone to most teachers, I would have been praised and coddled, and wouldn't have reached the level of artistry that I have.

Q: Are you concerned now about flattery of your work?

A: Actually, no. I simply try to make better tea bowls and don't take much account of what people say. I do have the confidence now to say that I'm the best raku potter in Japan.

Q: Are there any other political figures or former ones in Japan who have turned to the artistic life?

A: No.

Q: Can you describe your working day?

A: I wake up about 5:30. I have a small vegetable patch and taking care of that helps maintain my health.

We've been talking only about ceramics, but for the last six months, after many years of ink painting, I've been doing a lot of oil painting, both realistic and abstract. Most of my friends in Japan don't know this, but I hope to have an exhibition next year if I have enough work ready.

Q: Are you under pressure to return to politics in Japan?

A: A lot of people make requests, but I try to stay out of those circles.

Q: If you thought it necessary to learn oil painting better by living outside Japan, would you do that?

A: I'm not interested in going to study elsewhere, but I do go other places to sketch. I've been to China several times to sketch and hope to go to Europe also.

I was invited by the French government to go to Provence to work for a year, but because I do not speak French and the glazes and clays are all different there, I declined.

Q: If others approached you to learn ceramics, what would your answer be?

A: I would be very receptive. Many of the senior ceramic artists in Japan do not allow people to observe their whole process, but I do my work in a very intuitive way. I don't use thermometers in the kiln, for instance, but judge heat by the color of the flame. So it's not easy for people to steal from me.

E-mail Kenneth Baker at kennethbaker@sfchronicle.com.

[GeneChing]

I'm busy this Thursday
but I might try to sneak out anyway...

Way of the Sword

Aug MATCHA
Hailing from samurai sword techniques, iaido (ee-ay-doe) is a martial art from battle and warfare, preserved for 450 years. The iaidoka (practitioner) wields a sword not to control the opponent, but himself. His mind is peaceful, harmonious, and active, ready to react. We are honored to present a very special rare appearance by Esaka Sensei, one of Japan's finest, esteemed iaidoka. Holding many prestigious posts, including instructor for Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan’s Self Defense Forces, and Iaido Renmei Defense Academy, Esaka Sensei teaches iaido throughout Japan, North America, and Europe.

Observe students and him demonstrate riveting techniques of iaido. Get in on a movement workshop and cool down with a docent conversation, create an artwork inspired by tsuba (a sword’s hand guard), catch a screening of Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman, stroll the galleries, savor a sake flight from the cash bar, enjoy music spun by DJ Tau, and much more.

Of course, you can also view LORDS OF THE SAMURAI, the special exhibition of gorgeous artworks that reveals a softer, unknown side to these legendary warriors.