Hokusai and the Art of General Services

Utanosuke of Matsubaya, Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川歌麿 (late 18th-early 19th century)

I'm 18 days into my online General Services training and to say there have been a lot of topics covered in those two weeks-plus would be the very embodiment of "understatement". So far we've covered customs and shipping, travel, motor pool and property, with housing and real estate starting from today. Acquisitions will follow after that, with the course ending at the beginning of September. It's been a lot to take in, especially for someone like myself with no background in any of these areas. Somehow I managed to pass the first exam (thanks to it being the Internet equivalent of an open book test), but the biggest challenge will be retaining any of this information once the training is finished. Because at the end of the nine-week GSO course, I will commence two years (!) of Mandarin study, meaning I won't be putting into practice in a real-world setting any of this so-called knowledge currently being thrown at me until the fall of 2023 at the earliest. State Department logic at its finest!

We've been back in the States for almost three weeks, and the readjustment process has been relatively smooth this time around, a reflection felt by all three of us at having completed a hardship assignment in the Horn of Africa. Not having a private means of transportation for the time being has limited what we can do and where we can go, but I've been making attempts at exercising by going on daily walks through the nearby cemetery, often several times a day. It's an oasis of green and solitude in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, and an avid bird-watcher would have a field day trying to identify the various types of fowl that make the cemetery their home. I've been entertained by other critters seen on my strolls, such as fireflies...:

...rabbits...:

...deer...:

...and this large fox, which I initially took for a dog that wasn't on a leash:

I'm also fascinated by the tombstones, some of which date back to the mid-19th century, though burials are still taking place up to the present day. There's a depressing number of infants and young children buried here, the gravestones of which I won't photograph. Others, however, drew the attention of my camera phone for various reasons, like this one which seemingly contradicts what Neil Young once sang about:

The Wrenns had a pair of creepy-looking dolls placed on the top of their headstone:

Mr. Thompson nicely summed up the meaningless of existence:

A lot of the graves have stories to tell (some of which I've been able to decipher via Google). Mr. and Ms. Harrison departed their earthly confines on the same day in 1963, he at the age of 78 and she at 71, which makes one wonder if they were involved in an accident, or if it were an eerie and sad coincidence:

This marker was adorned with a Robert Browning quote, but lacked any other context that I could find:

Being back in the predominantly-white burbs means farmers markets - my daughter and I have already visited the Falls Church edition:

The heat and humidity of this summer has already resulted in several visits to the apartment complex's swimming pool, with more to come before the end of the season:

My wife's favorite spot in the NOVA area, Eden Center, has seen the opening of several bubble tea shops since the last time we stayed in Falls Church, including this branch of a Taiwanese chain. It's going to take more walks in the cemetery and laps in the pool, as well as possibly taking up cycling, to counter the effects of all the milk teas I've had so far, not to mention the many 奶茶's to come in the following weeks and months:

This past weekend I ventured out into the District of Columbia for the first time in two years. With Amber and Shu-E spending the weekend with a friend in Manassas, I took the Metro to the National Mall...:

...to visit my favorite of all the Smithsonian museums, the Freer Gallery of Art, now reopened in the wake of COVID-19 vaccinations:

As you can see from the photos above and below, the draw for this visit was Hokusai: Mad about Painting, an exhibit on 葛飾北斎, the woodblock print artist best known for The Great Wave off Kanagawa 神奈川沖浪裏, which you probably have at home depicted on a coffee mug or something:

While Great Wave is justifiably famous, few people (including myself) are aware of another Hokusai sea-related masterpiece. Breaking Waves is a hanging scroll completed in 1847 (16 years after Great Wave off Kanagawa) and is the centerpiece of the exhibition at the Freer:

Another highlight of the exhibition are the rare hanshita-e 版下絵 - drawings for woodblock prints that were adhered to the wood, rare because they were usually destroyed in the process of carving a block prior to printing. The drawings on display at the Freer are paired with an example of Japanese classical poetry (Fujiwara no Koremasa 藤原伊尹:

"On this summer night,

when twilight has so quickly

become the dawn,

where is the moon at rest

among the clouds?"

- Kiyohara no Fukayabu 清原深養父:

"The waterfall

dried up

in the distant past

and makes

not a sound,

but its fame

flows on

and on -

and echoes

still

today"

- Fujiwara no Kintō 藤原公任

"As the dawn mist

thins in patches

on the Uji River,

in the shallows appear

glistening stakes of the fishing nets."

- Chunagon Sadayori:

Some other exhibit highlights (for me) include Dragon and Clouds, a hanging scroll from 1844:

Crustaceans, which the curator suggests may have been inspired when Hokusai was hungry after seeing a fishmonger's display at the famous fish market in Tsukiji 築地!:

Shrimp and Fish, another work celebrating the bounty of the sea:

Egret on a Bridge Post (1801-2), with the bird suspiciously glaring at the artist:

Woman Holding a Letter (c. 1814-19), depicting a courtesan having just finished a letter presumably from a lover or an admirer, and crumpling it behind her back:

Seated Courtesan, getting ready for an evening's work:

Also included in the exhibition are some examples of Hokusai Manga 北斎漫画. While not manga as we understand the term today, they were the artist's sketches of daily life, along with flora and fauna, landscapes and representations of the supernatural:

Hokusai: Mad about Painting didn't take long to see as it only comprises three small galleries, but it is still a fascinating collection of some of the great artist's drawings, paintings and sketches, and worth having to overher middle-aged white guys try to explain the significance of Japanese art to their equally white middle-aged female companions. 

While at the Freer I had a look at some of the other galleries, like this one called Body Image, featuring physical forms from South Asia and the Himalayas:

An odd but successful juxtaposition of a Chinese stele and three Japanese Buddhist icons with a bowl from Iran:

The exhibition on Thomas Wilbur Dewing including a Japanese angle as the artist was influenced by Utamaro. One example of the latter's work is featured at the top of this blog post; another is immediately below (Two Women):

Dewing described his Before Sunrise (1894-5) as a dedication to the Japanese artist:

The Freer's famous Peacock Room features beautiful blue-and-white Kangxi porcelain:

Moving on to Chinese art: a sonorous chime created for a Qing dynasty 清朝 emperor:

One section of a large Ming dynasty 明朝 scroll done on a single piece of silk nearly 13 meters (almost 43 feet) in length:

A stone casket from the Korean Goryeo period and dated as being from 1197. Four guardian animals were inscribed on the inner walls:

A burial conch from Henan Province 河南省 in China, going back to the Northern Qi dynasty 北齐 (550-577):

An 8th-century reliquary (a container for holy relics) in the form of a sarcophagus (8th century Tang dynasty 唐朝):

A Tang dynasty limestone guardian:

A bodhisattva:

 

This 6th-century relief is believed to be the earliest surviving Chinese depiction of a Buddhist paradise:

A rendering of the Western Paradise of Amitabha (8th century, Tang dynasty):

Animal figurines used to impress guests at formal dinner parties during the Zhou dynasty 周朝: 

The inner courtyard at the Freer. The adjacent Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is currently closed for exhibition construction, but is rescheduled to reopen in November so in MacArthurian fashion I shall return:

In the meantime, though, it's back to the material world and real property leasing. *Sigh*…