Kanazawa is a wonderful town on the western coast of Japan
that blends both traditional and modern better than any place I’ve seen so far. It values and honors its
traditions while being contemporary in outlook, and has a confident energy. I liked this city, even in its 90-plus degree
heat.
One of Kanazawa’s central attractions is its 21st
Century Museum of Contemporary Art. Designed by the Tokyo architecture firm, SANAA, its form is a
traditional Japanese circular tray with shallow sides. Inside are a number of small boxes of
different heights, mostly square but some round. Blown up to roughly 430 feet in diameter, the “tray” is now
a base of concrete with one-story glass sides topped with a white ceiling. The gallery “boxes”, some of which
protrude through the roof, are mostly white, though some are glass with sliding
floor-to-ceiling curtains.  |
| Statuette (from the catalog) |
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| Kutami ware (from the catalog) |
The special exhibit was a stunning display of recent work by
several contemporary ceramic and lacquer artists. The show was powerful for me because the objects were quite
traditional in form, technique, and detail and at the same time very modern in
style and approach. The artists
seemed to combine the two confidently and more effectively than I recall seeing
elsewhere. For example, one artist
made red kutami ware, a traditional Kanazawa form of white porcelain painted
with a red design. Each large
shallow bowl was painted with a very fine, detailed pattern that looked like a
kaleidoscope. My favorite
was an artist who made foot-tall statuettes of Japanese and westerners from the
late 19th century. The
faces were gorgeous, capturing the person’s humanity in the slight tilt of the
head or gaze of the eyes in a way that traditional statues do not. The inlaid lacquer pieces were
jaw-dropping in their intricacy and beauty. One piece, a goblet for use in Jewish ceremonies, looked
like bronze.
Oh yes, there’s an “underground pool” in the center
glass-clad atrium. You can look
down into the water and see people below you looking up, then go downstairs and
look up at the sky. There’s also a
kids’ workshop area, something I often see in Japanese museums. One little girl had made a tower of
paper plates and bowls, bound together with colorful tape. Seeing me behind the glass wall, she
ran over to me and whopped it on the glass. I pretended to collapse and she laughed in delight.
Up the street from the museum was the Noh Theatre, and I was
lucky enough to catch the final performance of its summer run. Noh is a traditional Japanese art form,
known for the painted wooden masks worn by its performers. It is truly a pageant of
ritual. First the chorus of eight
men in grey enter from a little door and sit on the right, fans laid carefully
in front. Next, down a hallway on
the left come three musicians – a flutist, and two drummers – and finally the three
actors for this play, all with slow, stately steps, gliding the heel while
tilting the rest of the foot up, then carefully lowering it. Clad in simple, traditional garb, only
the protagonist wears a mask. Each
has his particular place on the small stage and moves around that spot. The play is “sung”, somewhat atonal,
with intonation that I suspect is hard even for a Japanese to understand. But in its own way it is quite lovely.
Kanazawa is also known for its Kenroku-en garden, one of
the “three great gardens of Japan”.
Its name refers to a Chinese garden that is said to have combined the
six attributes needed for perfection:
seclusion, spaciousness, artificiality, antiquity, abundant water, and
broad views. Like the Japanese
gardens I have enjoyed most, at every turn – and turn around – there is a
different and equally beautiful view.
This garden was full of pine trees, often with branches supported. One particularly old tree had a
concrete “trunk” supporting what trunk it had left, young branches springing
forth above. And there was lots of
water: a couple of little lakes,
some streams, even some rippling brooks, all of which were welcome sights and
sounds on these hot summer days. |
| Samurai House & Museum |
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| Old & new houses together |
Between the museum and the river is Nagamachi, an area known
for its preserved samurai houses, made of wood and surrounded by walls of
stone, mud and topped with tiles. It’s a lovely area. The old houses are well maintained and clearly valued, and
newer houses blend in with the others. It’s also a neighborhood, with people living in both
old and new homes, walking or riding their bikes to work. it’s another indication
of how much Kanazawa values both old and new and has created a successful mix
of the two.
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