Today we went to a special, temporary exhibit at the 「江戸東京博物館」 (“Edo-Tokyo Museum“) titled 「五百羅漢」 (“Five Hundred Buddhist Saints“).
Originally scheduled to be 2011 Mar 15 - May 29...it was postponed due to the Sendai Earthquake---the exhibit's dates are now 2011 April 29 - July 3.
This exhibit has paintings by the Japanese artist Kano Kazunobu depicting scenes from stories about the “500 Saints of Buddhism”.
I’m not familiar with these stories because I’m not a follower of Buddhism (or any other religion). And I’d say that very few Japanese people know about these stories either.
Buddhism came to Japan from China (which got it from India) and it’s traditions were “Japan-ized” and incorporated with traditions from Japan’s native “religion”, Shinto.
Even though parts of both religions are traditions in Japan (for example, “Shinto” or “Christian”-style weddings, and “Buddhist”-style funerals), almost no Japanese person actually believes in religious doctrine.
Even though I don’t know about the religious stories, like most of the other people at the exhibit, I was interested in the history and artistic value of these paintings that were drawn about 200 years ago (and most were destroyed in the Allied bombings of Japan during World War II).
The "saints" healing animals.
The "saints" saving people from "Hell".
If you want to see these paintings, they’ll be exhibited until 2011 July 3rd.
Tokyo Five 
You know… my mother and aunt would have loved seeing this exhibit.
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They can still come to Japan before July 3rd and see this exhibit. 😉
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I love the art work! The subject is very interesting and the work is beautiful. Do you know the medium they used? oils? they aren’t wood blocks, are they? I know that wood blocks were popular in Japan at one time. I have seen a few, like the one of a big wave. do you know the one I mean? I really do love Japanese art. It is very distinctive. love to all, Mom
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>the medium they used? oils?
Not oil paintings. Oil paint isn’t normally used in Japanese art.
These were ink on paper or silk.
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I saw some interesting paintings in Fukuoka.
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At a museum?
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They were in this really skinny building, there were like 5 floors and about 20 paintings set out each floor. They were mostly of landscapes though, I couldn’t tell if they were oil or whatever, really nice. But there were a few like the above, a lot more red I remember, kind of evil looking honestly, maybe I’m mistaken, but either way very interesting.
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>They were in this really skinny building, there were like 5 floors…in Fukuoka
Sorry, I don’t know Fukuoka well enough to know where that is. 😉
>kind of evil looking
I like artwork of scary looking creatures!
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