Next days in Tokyo

 My third day in Tokyo, April 8th, was the day of the 2 and 1/2 hour sumi-e, or ink painting, class that I booked through Wabunka. The actual class was at the Rimpa Sumie Heritage Club, which turned out to be one person who teaches out of her apartment. 

The class started at 10am, and I allowed myself lots of time to get there. Japanese addresses are difficult to follow at the best of times, and since was just an apartment, there no signs or indication of a business or something on Google Maps. Fortunately the address was enough for Google Maps to lead me right to the door, where the teacher had a hand-painted sign hanging outside.

I arrived quite early and so I went to a nearby cafe for a while. It was Cafe Kitsune, the same chain of cafe I go to a lot in Vancouver.

The class was a one-on-one session with the teacher, and it was really good. She explained the make-up of brush and ink, which is different from calligraphy. Even though I had studied a little bit of sumie before, her explanation of the techniques for loading the brush with water and ink and how to make the brush stokes helped a lot. And all with a kind of spiritual feeling about painting. 

When the class was finished I had lunch and relaxed at the hotel for the rest of the day  then went to the craft beer place.

The next day had beautiful, sunny weather and in the morning I went to the large Shinjuku National Garden. I walked around for a couple of hours, taking in more cherry blossoms, the Japanese garden, and I had a matcha tea at a teahouse.

From there I went to the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. The main collection consists of paintings from the early 1900s to the present. 

The floor for the period 1900 - 1940 had large Nihon-ga works of colour on silk, depicting natural scenes in a traditional style. 

It also had some of the first oil paintings by Japanese artists as that medium became adopted from the West. There were also several Surealist works.

The floor for 1940 - 1970 had several large oil paintings that were done to support the Japanese war effort, depicting things like victorious Japanese generals after successful battles in the first part of the war. 

There was also a post-war section on watercolour paintings. Although water-based media like ink had been used for a long time in Japan, at this time artists started experimenting with watercolour in a more Western style.

The floor for 1970 - present period was more abstract. There was a section on paintings that consisted of detailed, repetitive patterns. In one section, the mood of the paintings was quite dark, in the context of the cold war and the legacy of the atomic bomb.

I really enjoyed the museum. Afterwards I was quite tired. The museum is located just north of the Imperial Palace Gardens, so I slowly walked threw them on my way to Tokyo Station.

At the station I bought a reserved ticket to go to Kyoto on the 14th. In reserving a seat they make an effort to sit you on the side with a view of Mt. Fuji.

I wandered around the station for a bit. In the basement level there is a 'Character Street' full of shops with cute anime trinkets, and a 'Ramen Street'. 

Afterwards I stopped for a beer at the usual place on the way to the hotel.