Yamatane Museum of Art’s new exhibition has just started.
Its full title is ‘Establishing Modern Art in Japan: The Artists of the Nihon Bijutsuin, from Yokoyama Taikan to Hirayama Ikuo’.
The exhibition includes paintings by artists active in the Meiji, Taisho, Showa and Heisei eras.
Hoping that it will be as good as the Yamatane’s previous exhibitions this year, I go along and am not disappointed.
Yokoyama Taikan’s Showa period pieces ‘Mountains in Bright Moonlight’ and ‘Stream and Autumn Colors’ are highly atmospheric, as is Kobayashi Kokei’s ‘Kumano Shrine’.
Many of the other works on display are equally good.
I particularly like Okumura Togyu’s ‘Maelstrom at Naruto’, which is especially good when viewed from a distance; the lush, luxuriant, deeply swept greens of Omoda Seiju’s ‘Hillside Road’; Sakai Sanryo’s wonderful ‘Cormorant Fishing’, showing cormorants and fishing boats in the foreground, the lights of the lamps illuminating the darkness as huge mountains loom in the background; and Goto Sumio’s ‘Waterfall’, in which the flattened perspective of the painting is very effective, particularly on the side of the canvas next to the waterfall, where the forest and rocks spread out tantalizingly.
One of the more modern paintings (from 1981) is Matsuo Toshio’s ‘Cranes Flying over the Northern Vastness’, which is not only a great painting but also a wonderful title.
Another painting with a great poetic title is ‘Sounds of Wind through Pine Leaves’ by Ito Hoji.
This painting is very large, one of the biggest in the exhibition.
It shows a lone figure sitting on the ground amongst pine trees.
That’s it.
Nothing more.
It’s powerful, though. The man sitting there in the pines looks solid, literally and spiritually grounded, in a state of harmony with the world akin to that which reiki practitioners seek to achieve.
Amongst all these superb paintings, one stands out. It is Iwahashi Eien’s ‘Splendor of the Setting Sun’, an absolutely stunning picture that glows so much that you feel warm just looking at it. This is one of those paintings that grabs your attention and won’t let go.
I am not the only person entranced by this magnificent painting. Another visitor can’t drag himself away from it, walking right up to it, then taking a few steps back, examining it from all angles.
The only disappointing aspect of the ‘Establishing Modern Art in Japan’ exhibition is that the museum shop does not have a book to accompany the exhibition. It would have been good to have a permanent reminder of this exceptional exhibition.
Feeling uplifted by the wonderful Yamatane exhibition, I take the train from Ebisu to Shinjuku to go see Machete at Wald 9 cinema.
When I get to Wald 9 I can’t believe it when the person at the box office tells me that the 3.30 p.m. showing of ‘Machete’ is sold out.
Usually, the midweek afternoon showings that I go to have only a handful of people in the audience.
In stunned disbelief at not being able to get a ticket for the film, I wander out of the cinema and consider my options.
I don’t have a Plan B, as I hadn’t even contemplated the possibility of the afternoon showing being sold out.
I check out the nearby Musashino cinema but nothing there appeals: ‘Amelia’ with Richard Gere, ‘Brooklyn’s Finest’, and so on.
Along at Ikebukuro, Shin-Bungeiza is showing the original 1954 version of ‘Godzilla’ as part of an Ishiro Honda retrospective, which is very tempting.
But I probably wouldn’t make it there in time for the start of the film.
So I decide to retrace my steps back to Wald 9, where I buy a ticket for the 7.50 p.m. showing of ‘Machete’.
I still don’t understand why the mid-afternoon showing is sold out whereas the evening showing, which you would expect to be the busier time, still has tickets available.
But never mind, it’s just a minor inconvenience, not the end of the world.
Now I am in Shinjuku with plenty of time on my hands before the evening showing of ‘Machete’.
I walk as far as a point near Shinjuku train station from where in one direction I can see the skyscrapers of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government district oozing political power, whilst if I turn my gaze in the opposite direction the bright brash neon sleaze of Kabukicho assails me.
Irish pub Dubliners beckons.
I drop in for a couple of pints of Kilkenny.
Today the price of all drinks is reduced to 500 yen as it is the bar’s anniversary, so my unplanned visit here on this day is a lucky piece of timing.
After the liquid refreshment it is time for some food.
I head over to Numazukou, a conveyor belt sushi joint in the bowels of Shinjuku Station. It’s a great place.
Normally I’m not a fan of brightly lit restaurants, but Numazukou has a good lively atmosphere despite its bright lighting.
The clientele when I get here consists of a mix of salarymen dropping in for sushi and a beer after their day’s work, a couple of families, and one or two stray foreigners like me.
Shouts constantly ring out from the waiting staff, either shouting orders to the chefs or shouting greetings to newly arrived customers.
The sushi is delicious.
I wash it down with a bottle of dry saké from Shizuoka prefecture.
A conveyor belt is such a great way to present sushi. Tempting dishes continually pass by just inches before your eyes. It is so easy to reach out and grab whatever you like the look of.
The place soon fills up and several people are waiting by the entrance to be seated.
Sushi restaurant etiquette dictates that you don’t hang around once you have finished eating, particularly when others are waiting to be seated.
So, well fed and watered, I set off back to Wald 9.
After two pints of Kilkenny and a bottle of Shizuoka sake, I am in a perfect mood to enjoy ‘Machete’.
The film is showing in Screen 7, a cosy 81-seater.
My seat is D1, a very well placed seat on the left hand side of the auditorium quite near the screen.
The only problem with this seat is that I am trapped next to the wall with no means of escape when the final credits roll.
At the end of a film in most Tokyo cinemas, not a single person gets up to leave until the entire credits have finished.
I don’t fancy clambering clumsily over everyone else in my row to get out, so I will be stuck when today’s film ends.
It doesn’t really matter, though, as I’m in no particular hurry to get anywhere after the film.
‘Machete’ is violent, sexy and funny.
Its star-studded cast and tongue-in-cheek bravado make this film a highly entertaining spectacle.
Although it has a serious subject matter – illegal immigration into the United States from Mexico – the film entertains rather than pontificates, albeit its liberal political stance is never far from the surface.
It is quite an achievement to have assembled a cast that includes Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, Steven Seagal, Don Johnson, Jeff Fahey, and Lindsay Lohan.
But the undoubted star of the show is Danny Trejo, who plays the Machete of the title.
Danny Trejo exudes menace.
His intimidating face and withering glare leave you in no doubt that this is not a man to be messed with.
Even though he is in stellar company in such a cast, he carries off his leading role with great style and charisma.
The Japanese subtitler didn’t bother translating one of the great throwaway lines in this darkly humourous romp of a film. When De Niro’s character, a slimy racist Senator, is about to go into a press conference, his assistant gives him his walking stick and tells him to try and make the assembled journalists feel sorry for him. In that scene, De Niro’s character is trying to win the sympathy vote on the basis of a gunshot wound that he himself orchestrated. It would have been interesting to see the Japanese translation of that line.
But no translation is given in the subtitles and so, being the only non-Japanese person in the audience, I am the only person who laughs.
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