MOMAT (Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo)
Originally uploaded by Wanchen Tai

We visited MOMAT, Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, the other day. It was right facing the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. I was there visiting the imperial palace when I was fifteen years old, my first visit to this country. At that time, this museum was unknown to my limited view of the world.

It happened to be rather quiet and little visited on that day, perhaps because it was after Christmas and almost the end of the year. We browsed through some of its permanent collections in exhibition, witnessing the interactions between Japanese and western art movements. It was quite interesting to see how the art of a certain culture adopted the style of that of the other, and how it resisted the influences.

To be honest, as I have discussed with K during the exhibition, I found dislikable and rather uninteresting those painters who have simply adopted the techniques and concepts of the modern art movements in the western world, such a cubism, futurism, and impressionism. Their works are still pretty but, unfortunately, lacking perspectives, perspectives that would have reflected artists' own unique visions of the world and that would have determined the successes of artworks.

However, there were still gems in the collections. I really liked two artists in particular. Kawabata Ryushi (川端龍子)'s Scroll of Bullfight is the climax of the visit, as I told K after the museum. The scroll spread across the exhibition room with an exciting narrative animated by vibrant colors and fluent flow of strokes. He has a very childlike viewpoint through which he told his story. Disappointing is that they don't have it available in duplicate prints or postcards.

Another pleasant surprise is Ogura Yuki (小倉遊亀)'s Bathing Women.

I wasn't surprised to come to know that she is a female artist. The almost transparent colours of white tiles and green water seemed to render the canvas only a feather's weight. The snowy bodies of two bathing ladies were almost blended into the white and immaculate background, floating in a watery and steamy space of a public bath.