Adriano Màdaro, Francesco Morena (Editors)
Giappone dai samurai a mazinga.
Treviso, Italy: Sigillum, 2014. First edition. 287 pages.
Large-format volume, measuring approximately 10" x 13.25", and dust jacket are new, still in shrinkwrap.
Catalogue of an exhibition held at Casa dei Carraresi, Treviso. October 11, 2014 to February 22, 2015. This lavishly illustrated book offers an exploration of Japanese culture after the Meiji Restoration. Text is in Italian.
"From 11 October 2014 to 22 February 2015, after the four major exhibitions dedicated to China, the extraordinary success of the exhibition dedicated to Tibet and the review dedicated to the Magic of India, Casa dei Carraresi in Treviso will be the setting for the masterpieces of art from Japan.
1868. This is the magic number from which the story of the charm, culture and mysteries of Japan begins, narrated by Casa dei Carraresi from next 11 October.
In fact, in 1868 Japan deposed the last shogun Tokugawa, returned power to the young emperor Meiji (1852-1912) and opened its doors to the West revealing its millenary culture, the result of a very particular evolution, completely unusual for the West , thanks to the closure that this archipelago was able to jealously guard for centuries.
From that 1868, Japan developed a completely original culture, due to the contaminations with the outside that were able to merge with the most mysterious spirit of this people, in a combination of rare elegance and extraordinary refinement. In this harmonious contrast - almost a paradox - lies the most interesting aspect of Japanese culture, created by a people who gave birth to the fiercest warriors - the Samurai - and to the most delicate and refined female figures - the Geishas -, who he knew how to aspire to perfection in ritually carrying out a single immutable gesture from century to century - the Culture of Tea -, and perfecting his own technology by elevating himself to an unsurpassed example for the whole world - the Robots -.
Playing on this contrast, the very rich exhibition proposed by Sigillum - curated by ADRIANO MÀDARO and FRANCESCO MORENA, set up by architects Marco Sala and Giovanna Colombo - exhibits over 500 finds, including art objects dating from between the 17th and 20th centuries, loans from private and museum collections, weapons, armor, ceramics and porcelain, painted scrolls, screens, extraordinary lacquers, Ukiyo-e prints (literally "Images of the Floating World", works by the great masters Hokusai, Utamaro, Hiroshige), the Shunga ( erotic images), Netsuke, masks, fabrics and precious Kimono, sculptures in wood and other precious materials. In the itinerary there is also ample space for didactic tools that illustrate ancient art and the most recent trends in culture and art, documentation taken from comics, photographs, excerpts from films by the great Akira Kurosawa.
In short, all of Japan in the collective imagination, which ranges from Samurai to Geishas, to the Tea Ceremony, to the patient culture of Bonsai, to the Cherry Blossom Festival, to Ikebana, to the hypnotic charm of Kabuki theatre, Noh theater , up to the fascination exercised by Japanese painting on the great European pictorial movements, Impressionism and Expressionism, suffice it to mention Van Gogh and Monet among all. Also on display are the two Hiroshige prints that were models for Van Gogh, who copied them as evidence of his appreciation for Japanese art. Alongside these works there will also be reproductions of the originals kept at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
At the end of this travel story, the curators could not leave out today's Japan and its art expressed in the famous Manga. Scattered along the entire exhibition itinerary, the Robots that arrived in Italy in the 1970s thanks to the first comics and animated videos, such as Mazinga Z, Grendizer, Jeeg Robot d'Acciaio, will watch over visitors, almost like Samurai of a future that for many today is nostalgic and passionate memory of youth."