As I am a student from Japan this program was a great opportunity to observe and interpret Japanese art from a foreign point of view. Throughout the program I had opportunities to visit museums exhibiting Japanese ceramics and porcelain, and it was intriguing to see how their presentation differed from that of a typical museum in Japan.
The most significant dissimilarity between UK and Japan I noticed was that almost all UK museums display their ceramics collection using tall shelves with 5-6 tiers each, and arrange the objects with minimum extra space so that the shelves are completely filled up. This seemed extremely odd to me because galleries in Japan never do this: They only use single-layered showcases and give each object plenty of space, and if an item is particularly important they even place it in an individual display stand dedicated for that piece. Also, they illuminate each object with individual spotlights, and install soft materials between the ceramics and the shelves so as to prevent damage. This discrepancy can be partially explained by the geological environment of Japan, where the risk of earthquakes must always be taken account of. To be more specific, Japanese museums avoid placing ceramics close together because they are afraid that they might bump into each other during an earthquake.
Another explanation can be given from a historical viewpoint: UK museums inherit the installation method of the Wunderkammer. The Wunderkammer, or cabinet of curiosities, originated in sixteenth-century Europe, and were rooms that amassed and displayed a wide variety of eccentric objects. In such a room not only the shelves were overflowing with items, but also the walls and even the ceiling were occupied by them. Part of the purpose of this overwhelming presentation was to demonstrate the owner’s power and authority to his guests, so the scale as well as the diversity of the exhibition was crucial. This obsessive attitude towards installation can also be seen in certain castles and palaces from the seventeenth and eighteenth century, where the owners had zealously decorated the walls with gorgeous porcelain from Japan/China. Having taken the above into consideration, it can be said that UK museums share the same ideology with the Wunderkammer –––– they employ a holistic approach and treat ceramics as a collective, rather than appreciate the object itself. On the contrary, it seems that Japanese museums regard each piece as a distinctive artwork, which perhaps derives from the tradition that tea ceremony practitioners name and personify ceramics that have unique characteristics.
Another dissimilarity I noticed was that in some UK museums (namely the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum) classical Japanese art were juxtaposed with contemporary ones, and I believe this curation method reminds visitors of the fact that the past and the present are indeed continuous. Conversely, in Japan this is rather uncommon, presumably due to the public inclination to distinguish contemporary art from classical art, and value the latter above the former.
The overall experience was like looking through a kaleidoscope –––– I did not know the image would differ so radically depending on which viewpoint the person chooses, even if it was the same object he was looking at.
Misaki Sanui came to UEA as part of the Ishibashi Summer Fellowship in 2019.
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