August in Japan is a month of searing heat, typhoons, memories of war, fireworks, ghost stories, and returning spirits: in a previous post I referred to it as
the month of death. Regarding the latter, the holiday of Obon (お盆), which ran from August 13th to 16th this year, is a Buddhist festival dedicated to remembering, honouring, and welcoming back the spirits of one's ancestors. One of Japan's few guaranteed vacations, many Japanese return to their hometown (
furusato =古里・故郷) during this period to visit and clean family graves and reunite with family. As described
previously, one interesting custom is that of making vegetable animals with wooden chopsticks for legs and placing them on street corners: the aubergine/eggplant "oxen" (
shōryōushi =精霊牛) pictured is said to (slowly) guide the spirits home.
One favourite summer getaway from Tokyo is
Hakone, a mountainous area around a lake famous for its hot springs and eggs which turn black when boiled in the volcanic waters. BritishProf took the Odakyu Romance Car reserved-seat limited express service which takes around 90 minutes from Shinjuku. However, this time I decided to avoid both the boiling sulphur springs at Owakudani Valley (the old crater of Mt. Kami) - the ropeway can get very crowded - and also Lake Ashi and the tourist-packed walking trials and pirate galleon. Instead, I headed for the beautiful
Hakone Open-Air Museum (箱根彫刻の森美術館) - in Japanese the Hakone Sculpture Forest Art Museum - to escape the crowds. My expectations were not particularly high but I found it quite delightful and thoroughly enjoyed the sprawling grounds which featured a unique blend of world-class art - lots of Henry Moore statues! - coupled with stunning mountain views and impeccably trimmed lawns. There is also an
indoor gallery housing an extensive collection of Pablo Picasso's paintings, ceramics, and sculptures. However, the highlight for me was the temporary Yayoi Kusama exhibition housed on the 2nd floor of the cafeteria - all the more poignant since the world-famous artist had died just a few weeks ago, on August 14th, aged 97.
Kusama is famous as the artist who "filled the world with polka dots", though it was her Instagram friendly infinity mirror installations that saw her named the most popular artist in the world in 2014. She moved to the US in 1957 - she talks about arriving with a suitcase of drawings and some money hidden in her shoe - but moved back to Japan in 1973 and checked herself into a psychiatric ward in Tokyo in 1977 where she lived for the rest of her life. She did, however, continue to produce art, drawing on her hallucinations which had plagued her since she was young. In a country in which talking about mental health is still something of a taboo, she spoke openly about how her condition and neurodivergence informed her creativity. She also spoke eloquently about the importance of peace. For a pictorial overview of her life see the Guardian article
here. For those of you in Tokyo, the five-floor
Yayoi Kusama Museum is highly recommended.
Kusama is well-known for her pumpkin sculptures, apparently because they remind her of her childhood and provide a comforting, stable presence that helped her cope with her mental health struggles. The most famous of these are probably the
yellow and red pumpkins on Naoshima Island in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan but Hakone's Open Air Museum also boasted a couple, a white pumpkin with red polka dots on the 2nd floor of the cafeteria and the famous "I am a Pumpkin" (われは南瓜) granite statue (2013) on permanent display outside. The plaque on the latter describes it as representing the artist's alter ego which continues to send a message of "Love Forever" to the future. One phrase which stuck with me after watching her interviews is when she says if it were not for art, she would have killed myself a long time ago. Having a reason to live (
ikigai) and a personal philosophy to follow - in her case love, peace, and the unity of humanity - made me reflect on how treating others with kindness, having meaningful goals, and enjoying a passion for something can help us overcome suffering and drive us forward. What do you think? Let me know in the
COMMENTS.
