Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1433 Visit

Jingjiatang Library is a small and quiet place. It consists of an old building with an old Western style and brown bricks and a new building with a modern style and glass curtain wall, surrounding a small square with a garden. .

There are lush trees in front of and behind the building. In addition to the large green plants built in the shape of balls according to the Western style, there are also several large pine trees built in the style of bonsai, which are very beautiful.

In many historical places in the island country, there are such big trees around the houses. The construction method of the big trees is designed according to the bonsai format of Fujian, China. It is like enlarging the domestic bonsai flower pots countless times to stand here. Every time Zhou Zhi saw such a big tree, he couldn't help but wonder if he could have a few in De Mian Tang or Sui Hua Xuan.

The plaque with the three characters "Jingjiatang" was probably a few years old. Zhou Zhi admired the words and said, "This should be written by a calligrapher from our country."

"Oh? Why?" Matsui Zuo, who had already arrived from Tokyo, asked.

"This is the writing method of Shigu seal script," Zhou Zhi said: "The writing method is very sophisticated, and it is different from the pursuit direction of calligraphers in the island country."

"I didn't expect that Zhou Sang also studied Chinese calligraphers?" Sakamoto Goro asked.

"I'm not particularly well-researched, but I know that since the Tang Dynasty, the hobby of calligraphers in the island country has been to admire the two Jin Dynasties and Tangcao."

"Shigu Dazhuan was only written in the Song and Ming Dynasties. However, during this period, the island country had developed its own calligraphy style, which was divorced from the traditional Chinese laws, and there was no way to trace the writing of the pre-Qin Dynasty."

"Where does the word Jingjia come from?" Sakamoto Goro felt that these three words were full of ancient meaning and looked quite eye-catching, but he couldn't tell what was good about them.

However, judging from my own understanding of the calligraphy of the island country, what Zhou Zhi said is quite different from the development of monk Kukai to the present.

"The term Jingjia comes from the word '笾豆 Jingjia' in "The Book of Songs·Daya·Jizui", which means Jingtong Jing. Jingjia means clean and beautiful."

"The beans are a ritual vessel used to worship the ancestors. This poem describes the clean and neat display of the offerings prepared for the ancestors."

"Therefore, in later writings, in addition to the original text, they were often used in the collocation format of 'Di Zhuo Jing Jia' or 'Jing Jia Zhi Jian'."

"Zhou Sang's Chinese studies are admirable." A kind-hearted old man from the island nation, wearing a white shirt and a thin black suit, led his assistant out of the museum: "He is the most welcome guest in our Jingjia Hall."

"The meaning of Jingjiatang does come from the Book of Songs Taiga, as Zhou Sang said. It was originally the name of the founder of our library, the modern industrialist Yanosuke Iwasaki."

Many art collections in the island country are closely related to big chaebols, big entrepreneurs, and established aristocrats. Yanosuke Iwasaki is the second generation president of the Mitsubishi Zaibatsu.

"Hello, Mr. Ono," Zhou Zhi said with a smile, "If there is any place in the island country that I most want to visit, it has to be Jingjiatang."

"I have a good news to tell Zhou Sang." The little old man is Tetsuo Ono, the manager of this generation of Jingjiatang. He said happily: "The obsidian lamp hidden by the Tokugawa family has been reidentified based on Zhou Sang's discovery. It’s now called ‘Northern Eyes Daimyo’.”

Although no matter how the name is changed, it will not actually threaten Jingjiatang’s status as the “No. 1 Zhaobian Tianmu Zhan” collection in the world. However, this incident is definitely a sensational event for collectors who build kilns.

"So there are a total of six celestial eye lamps in the island country. Now there will be one less celestial eye lamp and one northern celestial eye lamp will be added?" Zhou Zhi said with a smile. "Yes," Ono Tetsuo said with a smile: "It is said that the Beitianmu lamp comes from Cizhou kiln? We also have a lot of Cizhou kiln porcelain in the museum. After Zhou Sang and Ma Sang finished visiting the collection, they also wanted to go to the old museum and take a look at it. They would not hesitate to give you some advice. ”

"Mr. Ono is so polite." Zhou Zhi said modestly, "It is a great blessing to be able to appreciate our country's Song and Yuan treasures."

Ono waved his hand, and the assistant came up, invited everyone into the hall, and began to explain.

There are two pavilions in Jingjiatang. After the introduction of his assistant, Zhou Zhi learned that the old pavilion was built in 1924 and was designed and built by Kotaro Sakurai, the first architect in the island country to receive the Royal British Architectural Qualification Certification. No wonder Zhou Zhi felt a strong "foreign flavor" when he looked at it. It turned out to be the style of British suburban houses at that time.

Now the old building has become a warehouse for ancient books, a private meeting room and a management office. The exhibition hall is replaced by a new building that was just completed the year before last.

Even though it is not a large place, it contains seven national treasures and 84 important cultural properties. In terms of collection level, it is the largest private collection in the island country. In terms of ancient Chinese art collections, it is the largest in the world. , are all very important places.

In addition to those mentioned before, Zhou Zhi also saw through the display window the "Wind and Rain Landscape" by a Chinese painter from the Southern Song Dynasty, the "Hand-tickled Baonaga Taito" from the Kamakura period of the island country, and the "Dragon and Tiger Picture Screen" by the painter Masahiro Hashimoto. Tawaraya Sotatsu's "Genji Monogatari Sekiyū Picture Screen" and "Genji Monogatari Mio Hiroshima Picture Screen", as well as porcelain from the same period as the screens, a teapot with a color painting of the Yoshino Mountains made by Nonomura Nisei.

In fact, if this teapot were made in China, it should be called a jug. Apart from being not very practical, it is entirely based on thoughtful aesthetics.

It has a small mouth and a big belly, and is very round. There are four small ears with strings on the shoulders. It is unglazed on the top and bottom. If it were not for the very beautiful glaze painting in the middle, it would be an ordinary small jar.

However, the black glaze on the belly of the jar is painted as a sky, and the bottom is piled with blue glaze and brown glaze to form a hillside. The hillside is covered with five-petaled flowers in red, white, and gray that have been slightly abstracted. Each small flower There is a yellow or gray edge that separates them from the background. This unique design style that is overall simple but full of details reflects the ultimate pursuit of the philosophy of "shape" in island art and is always applicable to Chinese porcelain. The path of sex is completely unacceptable. For the sake of beauty, the principle of "use" has been completely abandoned.

But it is indeed very beautiful, and unlike Goryeo porcelain, which has always been under the strong influence of Chinese porcelain, this jar has escaped the influence of China and has its own completely independent style.

In later generations, the so-called "island craftsman spirit" has basically become a joke, but the "pre-Meiji craftsman spirit" reflected in these artifacts does have its merits.

Listening to the explanation and viewing along the way, Zhou Zhi discovered that the Chinese porcelain here was not collected by the second generation Iwasaki Yanosuke, but by another person named Iwasaki Koyata.

Just as I was about to ask, my assistant introduced that Iwasaki Yanosuke's collection was mainly to rescue the traditional cultural relics of the island country that were destroyed during the fall of the curtain. It covered a wide range of areas, including painting, sculpture, calligraphy, lacquer art, tea utensils, swords, etc. category.

It was only after the third generation of Iwasaki Koyata, who inherited his father's business, that he began to reach out to China, focusing on ceramics and rare ancient books.

In 1940, Jingjiatang was officially established as an independent legal entity. Koyata Iwasaki donated his and his father's two-generation collection, library building and land.

During World War II, the Allied forces deliberately avoided Kyoto during bombings, allowing many cultural relics here to be preserved.

In 1977, Jingjiatang began to display its collections to the public. It was not until 1992 that the new museum, the Jingjiatang Library Art Museum, was officially opened. The first floor above ground was the exhibition hall, and the ground floor was the academic hall, responsible for external display and academic discussions.

(End of this chapter)