Bowers Museum’s Samurai exhibition

Japanese Arts of War and Peace

 

Cultural News, 2009 May Issue        

 

 

Uchigatana sword mounting with hollyhock (Tokugawa family) crests in mother-of-pearl inlay on Ikakeji lacquer ground. Edo period, 19th century. Lacquered wood with copper decoration. Total length 98 cm. (Courtesy of Tokyo National Museum)

  

By Meher McArthur

 

To lovers of Japanese art of all kinds, the newly opened exhibition Art of the Samurai: Selections from the Tokyo National Museum at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana is a treat. The exhibition, which runs through June 14th, presents 81 objects from the Tokyo National Museum relating to Japan's samurai culture - including swords, sword fittings, armor, paintings, kimono, lacquered personal objects, Noh masks and costumes and tea ceremony utensils. 

 

Several works are National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties, so are of a quality and importance rarely seen outside Japan. One such National Treasure, a long sword called a tachi, created by the great swordsmith Sukezane in the 13th century, is a breathtaking example of Japanese sword craftsmanship, from the gentle curvature of its blade to the beautifully shimmering tempering line, or hamon, running along its edge.

   

The sword was passed down in the Kishu Tokugawa Family in the Edo period (1600-1868), and bears the Tokugawa family crest in gold on its hilt and on its exquisitely lacquered 19th-century mount, also in the exhibit.

 

Several suits of armor, or yoroi, provide a glimpse of the evolving styles worn over the centuries by samurai of different ranks. Also notable are two magnificent jinbaori, or sleeveless robes, originally worn by warlords in battle to protect them from harsh weather and make them look more commanding. 

 

Samurai dressed and armed for battle are depicted in a rare and important 13th-century hand scroll that recounts the story of Obusuma Saburo.

 

During the relatively peaceful Edo period, the samurai rarely wielded their weapons and participated instead in more peaceful cultural pursuits, contributing to the development of the Noh theater and the tea ceremony.      

 

Art works from these realms are also highlighted here. Of particular note is the 18th-century kariginu (a robe worn by actors playing noblemen), decorated with bold floral designs woven with gold threads, and the more subtle but 18th-century Noh robe, or atsuita, which features various natural and geometric patterns on a ground dyed in three alternating colors.

 

Such playful use of color also appears on a set of five fan-shaped Oribe-ware dishes used in the kaiseki meal served before the tea ceremony. Their characteristic quirky forms and the copper green glaze and underglaze iron brown painting made Oribe-ware ceramics popular from the late 16th century among samurai practicing the tea ceremony.

 

Practitioners of the austere wabi-style of tea ceremony, however, preferred hand built black raku tea bowls such as the bowl attributed to 16th-century potter Chojiro.

 

If the sword represented an extension of the samurai spirit in times of war, such a tea bowl, with its infinite depth, was its counterpart in

times of peace.

 

The Bowers Museum is located at 2002 North Main Street, Santa Ana, CA 92706. Closed on Monday. (714) 567-3600. www.bowers.org

 

Meher McArthur is a specialist in the art and culture of East Asia.