"The Land of Chōjū-giga: Fun Japanese Art"

The most significant task for a museum curator is, after all, working on exhibitions. You develop a concept and travel to various places in search of artworks. New dilemmas arise from the pieces you encounter, but you somehow manage to organize your thoughts and go around borrowing the works. In my case, I also design the exhibition layout myself, which is also enjoyable. And when many people visit the venue, joy wells up from the bottom of my heart.

However, there is a fascination in creating art books that cannot be compared to exhibitions. While gathering works while considering the theme and structure is the same, a book allows for configurations that are difficult to realize in an exhibition.

Because "Chōjū-giga" (Scrolls of Frolicking Animals) is such a famous and popular work, I have felt a sense of frustration regarding its historical positioning. The brilliance of the drawings is repeatedly preached, and extensive research has been conducted on the formation of the picture scrolls. Recently, it has even been hailed across eras as the ancestor of manga and anime. However, I wonder how well it is known that animal paintings inheriting the genes of "Chōjū-giga" have been painted in later generations. Although there is a history of animal paintings that would not have been born without "Chōjū-giga," it has been left neglected.

This book was created with the intention of planning an exhibition that looks at such a history—that is, "Chōjū-giga" and its "subsequent history." I gathered the "Chōjū-giga" from Kōzan-ji Temple, several copies, and various works in which the genes of "Chōjū-giga" blossomed. Some say that "Chōjū-giga" only became widely known after the Meiji era, but already in the Edo period, many painters such as Itō Jakuchū, Soga Shōhaku, and Utagawa Kuniyoshi were depicting scenes of animals wrestling just like in "Chōjū-giga." If such an exhibition were held, it would become clear that "Chōjū-giga" actually became a major headwater for Japan's playful paintings. In addition, one would surely be able to feel deeply, in front of the works, the history of the hearts of the Japanese people who have turned a warm eye toward the hearts of animals and cherished paintings that allow them to savor that connection.

This book is one volume in the "Fun Japanese Art" series. "A History of Quirky Japanese Painting" from the same series was turned into an exhibition three years after its publication under the title "Awkward Japanese Art." Similarly, I cannot give up the dream that "The Land of Chōjū-giga" will also become an exhibition someday...

"The Land of Chōjū-giga: Fun Japanese Art"

Nobuhisa Kaneko

Kodansha

136 pages, 2,400 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.