The Year of the Dragons

One of the cool things about working at the Asian Art Museum is that I get to meet artists from all over the world who are creating some fascinating works, big and small.

A few days ago, I received a holiday card from an AsiaAlive alumnus, Japanese bamboo artist Tanaka Kyokusho. He also sent me a photo of his latest work, a fifty-foot-long dragon made entirely from bamboo.

Tanaka's bamboo dragon display in Tokyo.

Another Japanese artist, Paris-based artist Natsusaka Shinichiro, recently sent us the new year’s netsuke he created specially for the museum. This is his third year designing netsukes for our education programs; he previously created netsukes for the year of the tiger and the year of the rabbit.

Natsusaka's dragon netsuke is about an inch tall.

Unlike Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese communities, Japanese people celebrate the new year on January 1. This change from the lunar calendar was made during the Meiji Restoration Period, in 1873. Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese new year starts on January 23, 2012 (it changes every year according to the lunar calendar), so you will have three extra weeks to make new year’s resolutions.

Next Saturday, December 31, museum visitors can ring the new year in with our annual Japanese bell ringing ceremony, make their own netsukes at our family art activity, and welcome the Year of the Dragon in style.

Burmese Puppets

Here is something to get you in the mood for the Burmese puppets that will grace our museum later this week. I found a wonderful video on the creation of these amazing puppets on YouTube by director Khi Phu Shin.
At the museum, there will be demonstrations by the Mandalay Marionette Theater Thursday night at our MATCHA event and also during AsiaAlive October 27th through the 31st. Hope to see you there.

Kendo Crazy

This morning Nick Smith from ABC7′s View from the Bay interviewed Deb Clearwaters, Director of Education about upcoming Samurai-related programs. One of the programs highlighted was the Asia Alive Martial Arts Series which begins August 7. Kendo is the first of the martial arts highlighted in the series and Richard Hill from the Northern California Kendo Association and his associate Atsu were on-hand to demonstrate. My 10-yr old son Patrick who was observing the kendo demonstration loved it. His comment: “Wow! You can scream as loud as you want inside the museum and hit other guys with sticks?! I want to do that!” We will definitely be back for the program. Elvin McDonald is the guy filming the demo. The segment airs on View from the Bay next Tuesday. Footage of the footage courtesy of Nick Smith’s iphone.

600 years of tradition at HustleMania

Kyogen is a form of traditional Japanese theater and performance art. Kyogen can be literally translated as “mad words” or “wild speech”. This art form grew out of folk and Imperial court song and dance. Later the art form gradually divided into two branches. The more serious forms and elements further evolved into the masked no drama, the more comic forms and elements evolving into kyogen. Eventually lineages or schools of kyogen came into prominence and codified many of the traditions. I could go on and on about the history of kyogen and the intricacies of the art form, but that type of discourse is best left to my far more eloquent and expert colleagues.
Read more

our wonderful guests

The scene:

May Target Sunday (our monthly free day) at the museum, around 4pm or so. Our very special guests, Lopen Netem and Lopen Gyem, are monks from Bhutan who have been here since February to protect the sacred artworks in The Dragon’s Gift. Throughout the run of the exhibition, visitors have been privy to their daily purification rituals for the objects, as part of our artists-in-residency program, AsiaAlive.

Here, the charming monks have attracted quite an inquisitive crowd of diverse folks, demonstrating the stirring sounds of an instrument (sorry, I don’t know its name!). The infectious energy, folks’ curiosity, and monks’ sweet smiles of sharing and pride all make for a somewhat poignant moment.

And some photos:

If you’re around, come by and say “Kuzu zampo” (hello!) to our special guests. The show closes on May 10.