Spirit of Japan

Ukiyo-e Theater Installations from Paris

Jessica Craven (Saitama)

Most everyone who has lived in Japan for at least a year or two has probably seen a ukiyo-e exhibit ー these woodblock prints are pretty uncontested as Japan’s most iconic art form. While the ukiyo-e (literally, “images of the floating world”) already display a high level of craftsmanship and capture dream-like images of the Edo period, “Spirit of Japan” exhibition by Danny Rose Studio makes the world and stories behind the prints more tangible than ever before.

The exhibition features twelve different video projections inspired by famous ukiyo-e prints, which are digitally projected and create the illusion of being inside the world of the prints themselves. The twelve short stories are complete with music and voice-over narration, allowing the audience to steep all of their senses in the world of ukiyo-e. The overall experience is much like watching animations come to life in a 3D space before your eyes ー individual characters move in a stylized manner to depict the narrative, resulting in a kind of highly-elevated digital puppet theater.

A viewer can walk into the exhibition at any time, and the free audio guide will sync up with whichever projected video is currently playing. However, the stories are divided into twelve separate “acts,” a few of which I will cover in more detail.

Ukiyo-e landscape projections including Katsushika Hokusai’s The Falling Mist Waterfall at Mount Kurokami in Shimotsuke Province

ACT 1: LANDSCAPES

“Landscapes” brings many of the most famous prints of ukiyo-e masters to life, especially those of Hiroshige and Hokusai. Numerous prints are displayed simultaneously, filling the gallery’s entire walls and floor. As a result, the viewer is surrounded by the natural landscapes of Japan as they are depicted in ukiyo-e. Some of the most famous ones that I recognized as they came to life before me included Katsushika Hokusai’s “The Falling Mist Waterfall at Mount Kurokami in Shimotsuke Province” and Hiroshige’s “Yahagi Bridge at Okazaki.” This first act serves to steep the viewer into the idealized “floating world” as depicted in the stylized renderings of the ukiyo-e. The images unravel before you like traditional Japanese folding screens, which were how the prints were often traditionally viewed. However, the exhibition also contemporizes them through multimedia to create an entirely new viewing experience.

ACT 4: THE SEA & ACT 5: FISHES

“The Sea” pays homage to the most iconic ukiyo-e print, recognized across the world ー The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai. The sound of ocean waves is quite a subtle touch, but along with the powerful instrumental music highlighting the majesty of the wave, gives an additional dimension to the work. “The Sea” transitions quite naturally into “Fishes,” whereas all of the other acts are largely unrelated to one another. Fish ー a common subject of ukiyo-e ー start to appear within the sea as the waves of Hokusai ebb and flow, and then various kinds of fish swim across the museum walls. The audience is transported from watching the waves of Hokusai crash above the sea surface to being submerged completely underwater and experiencing the oceanic world below.

ACT 7: WOMEN

Although the women depicted in ukiyo-e are traditionally something beautiful to be passively gazed upon, the added dimensions of the video projections invite the viewer into the women’s daily lives, which are merely a part of the background in the original prints. Although the audio narrative was only available in Japanese and my understanding of the story was limited, the figures of the women are enlarged and projected into the foreground of the digital images, clearly making them the active protagonists of their own story. While the empowerment of women during the Edo period, when the ukiyo-e prints flourished, was quite limited compared to contemporary times, the artists behind the video projections made a clear decision to go beyond the traditional objectification of women in artwork and empower them further. This was the right decision for our times, and why this act was my favorite of them all.

A trip to the Kadokawa Culture Museum never disappoints ー for both art lovers and manga fans alike. I especially enjoyed “Spirit of Japan" because it provided a new way to experience the quintessential Japanese art for woodblock prints. The exhibition also pointed to the future of Japanese art and animation as it continues to evolve.

ACT 11: KABUKI AND SAMURAI

What do kabuki theater and samurai even have in common? My general understanding is that kabuki was one of the first accessible forms of theater for the “common people,” and many samurai also came from a “commoner” background. As such, kabuki was a form of theater that was especially popular with the samurai. This act is complete with the sounds of swords clashing and quickly moving imagery that suggests a battle unfolding before you in real-time. The samurai quickly rise and fall in a stylistic way similar to the suggestive style of a kabuki performance. The visual scenes were broken up into panels similar to the way they are in contemporary manga, paying homage to the ukiyo-e’s influence on kabuki theater and the evolution of Japanese art forms as they exist today.

Jessica Craven is a fifth-year American JET living in Saitama. On weekends, she enjoys hiking in remote areas of Saitama or taking day trips to Tokyo. When not adventuring, she can be found reading or creating her own artwork, which can be seen on her Instagram.