two exhibitions

An exhibition of a grand collection of Meissen porcelain is taking place from April 7th to July 22nd, at The Museum of oriental ceramics, Osaka(東洋陶磁美術館）.


 
 
 
This cozy museum is located in Nakanoshima which is a long island-like sandbar between  two rivers, Dojima river and Tosabori river.


Near the museum there is a park and there are many kinds of roses blooming .

The roses have past their prime with tiny soft thorns...

and bud stage, too...

finally they started to open up beautifully.



Kakiemon style via Wikipedia

Getting back to the exhibition, the porcelain of Meissen developed by the two great artists, Ehrenfriend Walther von Tochirnhaus and Johann Fiedrich Böttger around 1710, under strong influence mainly of Chinoiserie, a Japanese style of painting represented by Kakiemon, Art Nouveau and other European arts.


 
The title of exhibition is "300 Years of Meissen", and the wide variety of the installations include figures of some animals and birds, figurines of vendors and clowns, various size of vases, and many table wares.


 
 
The original Meissen products were so expensive that only noble people could buy, but eventually some became an affordable luxury for the common people.


 
 
 
 
 
Rose pattern called Meissen Rose is the typical one, and I found it very attractive.
 
 

image via website

The other exhibition which I saw recently was quite small one. It took place in a room rather than a gallery in Osaka.

I introduced my brother's etchings in older post( here), this time he exhibited some works of etching which he created afterwards.

His works in this exhibition were made in colour , although the ones which I saw in his previous one were  all in monocrhrome.

My brother's wife was in the room instead of him because his health condition was getting progressively worse.

His wife told me about his poor health condition, while I looked at his colourful works which showed no sign of any darkness or sadness..

His works have numbers and she explained that he decided to start  numbering  from 001, rather than from 01.
The above one's number is 043.
Thinking of him I  remembered  the following tanka poem.

としどしにわが悲しみは深くしていよよ華やぐ命なりけり　岡本かの子

Year by year

I have greater awareness

of my sorrow

letting burn with a flame

in the depth of my life

by Kanoko Okamoto (1889~ 1939)

taken in a rose garden next to Ryousen-ji temple in Nara



in the afternoon in May

Nowadays we can buy any kind of vegetable at market regardless of season. Among them broad beans are exceptionally seasonable.


My neighbour has a vegetable garden. Today she gave me some broad beans. I'll boil them for our supper. To cook some fresh seasonal food is one of my small pleasure.

そら豆の殻一せいに鳴る夕 母につながるわれのソネット 寺山修司（1935～1982)

husks of broad beans

rustling all together

this evening―

my sonnet

connected to mother

written by Shūji Terayama

translated by Amelia Fielden

I suppose that Terayama's mother grew broad beans in her vegetable garden.

Usually beans grow in abundance in the short term, so many of them are left behind after gathering. Terayama seems to remember the sound of rustling which I do not know.




Yet I know the sound of string beans  rustling which my grand mother grew.
The dry light sound on the wind comes to me from far away and far distant past.

 

 

On the other hand, tiny wild beans are growing before my nose in a small field.

They look like children holding hands with each other.

This field is next to a small pond and a part of the field is covered with clover, and it is near some vegetable gardens.

I take a walk with my dog around here time to time .



Today I did not meet anyone but some little butterflies.

Seeing them in the field I remembered some past scenes which were connected with my dead mother and some old friends.

The memories flash back like the dim light which ripples toward the roots of new leaves of reeds, or shining surface of a river in backlight as it is shown in an old photo which I took with my film camera.

翅を閉じさかしまに蝶眠る野にたまゆらわれは白昼夢見つ　haricot

Hanging upside down

on a little flower

Butterfly is still with its wings shut,

I do have a momentary day dream

in the same field