Beauty of war?
More photos from the Kawaguchiko area.
While in Nagoya, Tomoe, her dad, and I went to check out the Tokugawa art museum. The plan was to set up our painting / sketching tools in the garden and get some free water color lessons from her dad. Upon arrival however, we decided that it would be a waste if we didn't at least peak into the museum... then we ran out of time for painting, which I would have much rather been doing.
While at the museum Tomoe's father commented on something that I had never really thought of... the majority of the museum was dedicated to displaying the beauty of war and weapons of death. Swords, armor, guns, war stories painted on scrolls... no matter how intricate the carving on a sword handle is, no matter how colorful the armor is, when you think about it even a little, there is nothing beautiful about it.
Taking that idea a bit further, I began to wonder as well about why farmers' tools, the tools used to create as opposed to destroy life (please temporarily set aside the idea that the advent of agriculture actually allowed societies to focus more energy on making weapons, gave them more reason to use those weapons, and was an important step leading to our current unsustainable lifestyle). Sure, there are plenty of museums showcasing such tools, but they are almost never presented as "art", never referred to as "beautiful".
So, back to the story...
Although I didn't get a chance to paint or learn any techniques or tricks from her dad, the next day we did have some time to rummage through his studio. I tried to paint a bit, but just found it frustrating that I did not have the technical skill to transfer what was in my head to the paper. After a few crap paintings I just gave up and started looking through some of the photography books he uses for reference when making an illustration. While there were books on many different topics, the really fascinating ones were black and white shots of life in Japan during and after the war. Looking at those photos (I can't remember the photographers names) really made me want to pick up my camera and start shooting. I realize that I rarely see a painting that makes me want to pick up a brush and start painting (although it does happen occasionally). I guess this is a sign that I should stop wishing I could paint and focus that energy on learning to photograph.
Comments
I think you should read "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning" by Chris Hedges. I thought it was excellent. Here's the Amazon review:
"The communal march against an enemy generates a warm, unfamiliar bond with our neighbors, our community, our nation, wiping out unsettling undercurrents of alienation and dislocation," writes Chris Hedges, a foreign correspondent for the New York Times. In War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, Hedges draws on his experiences covering conflicts in Bosnia, El Salvador and Israel as well as works of literature from the Iliad to Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism to look at what makes war so intoxicating for soldiers, politicians and ordinary citizens. He discusses outbreaks of nationalism, the wartime silencing of intellectuals and artists, the ways in which even a supposedly skeptical press glorifies the battlefield and other universal features of war, arguing not for pacifism but for responsibility and humility on the part of those who wage war.
Posted by: Jennifer | September 7, 2005 12:23 PM
Regarding farmers' tools: few farmers have the leisure time to decorate their tools (or even learn the requisite skills), being too busy making sure their families can eat. In contrast, the sorts of weapons one sees displayed as art are usually made for the wealthy (who may or may not kill people by way of a trade). Further, something one actually *uses* wears out, so there is less point in decorating it. As I understand it, the majority of "art" weapons are ceremonial props, the actual killing is done with more pedestrian tools, and the owners of the former are rarely the wielders of the latter.
Posted by: sennoma | September 8, 2005 12:20 AM
Sennoma, I understand all that, and I know the weapons in the museum were actually created more as art, but what I don't understand is our perception of it. Just because a shovel is not decorated doesn't mean that we can't percieve it as beautiful, and just because a gun has an carving doesn't force us to percieve it as beautiful. Yet, somehow our perceptions are such that we don't look any further than the outward appearance. We see pretty colors and forget that it is (wether it is for ceremony or actual use) an instrument of death and destruction.
Or, as the book Jennefer recommended seems to suggest, maybe we do look past the pretty colors and fully realize what it is for, and that is exactly why we like it.
Posted by: kevin | September 8, 2005 08:05 AM