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by
Prof. Hajime John Ishida |
A
Long Journey from Greece
On the Exhibition of Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great is
waiting for you to come to Tokyo August to October. This bust from
Le Musee de Louvre (photo 1), is supposed
to be one of the most faithful portrait sculptures.
Tokyo National Museum is located at Ueno, where you are welcome to
some other museums and Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music,
into which the admission is a dream for every young Japanese artist
in the making (photo 2). Ueno is also
a children's favourite place because of the famous zoo.
Some minutes' walk from the Ueno station will bring you to the Museum,
beside which Lefcadio Hearn, the nineteenth century author from Lefcada
known to almost all the Japanese, will give a tacit salute to you after
a long journey to Far East with his engraved profile in the front
yard of International Children's Library (photo
3). |
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One afternoon
in June I visited the Museum because Ms Maki Kobayashi, the manager
of public relations, had arranged an interview with Mr. Takeshi Gotoh,
the main curator in charge of the Exhibition. The poster in this website
is their kindness.
The Museum is a huge building with its labyrinthine structure, so or
more complicated than the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
I asked Ms. Kobayashi jestingly while she was leading me to Mr. Gotoh’s
room: "It will take a full year to get familiar with this maze?".
To my surprise she replied somewhat seriously, "Yes it will".
To my question: "Why now did you plan this exhibition?" "We
would like to trace and show the cultural exchanges and fusion of the
civilizations of East and West which were brought about by the eastward
campaign of Alexander the Great", Mr Gotoh, quietly answered in
his spacious office, "It's true that ancient civilizations sometimes
clashed against and feuded with each other, but at the same time very
important that his campaign gave birth to one global civilization called
Hellenism, approximately two thousand and three hundred years ago".
His words have given me some hope midst undesirable discords sometimes
seen in the world now, for each of us might feel attached to harmony
rather than dissonance within ourselves.
"The campaign by this Macedonian King was accompanied with the
influx and transformation of authentically Hellenic style among the
eastern civilizations including Japan: a very Greek idea of giving
palpable shape to the unseen Gods, which couldn't be detected in the
East".
In example of a vase crater of the 4th century BC, Boreas, God of North
Wind, unfolds his large wings and is about to abduct Oreithyia, Princess
at Athens (photo 4). Around the 3rd century
BC, the Gandharan Buddhist art made a relief of Oado, Wind God, with
his mantle full of wind perhaps with Boreas as its model (photo
5). Finally we could trace this transformation of Greek God
of Wind in the 13th century Japanese God of Wind preserved at Myouhouin
Temple in Kyoto (photo 6). |
photo 4 |
photo 5 |
In other words the
Hellenic style or idea, after such a long journey from Greece (Hellas),
made some influence upon the Japanese Buddhist art through intermediary
of the Gandharan art, the evidences for which can be clearly seen in
such statues as of the 12th century Bishamonten with a phoenix figure
on his diadem at Toji Temple in Kyoto (photo
7); and of the 13th century Shukongoushin, the guardian of Buddha,
with a golden thunderbolt corresponding to that of Zeus in his right
hand at Kongouin Temple in Kyoto (photo 8).
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It is one month later and at the
Hellenic Embassy in Japan that I meet Mr Thanos Kafopoulos, the first
secretary to the Ambassador, His Excellency Mr Kyriakos Rodousakis. He
has kindly given me valuable pieces of information concerning the generous
cooperation on the Greek side.
The Hellenic republic gave hand to realizing the Exhibition: the total
42 works of art of about one hundred fifty works exhibited are from such
museums in Greece as National Archaeological Museum at Athens, Acropolis
Museum at Athens, Archaeological Museum at Samos, Archaeological Museum
at Thessaloniki, Archaeological Museum at Pella, Archaeological Museum
at Argos, Archaeological Museum at Dion, Archaeological Museum at Mytilini,
Archaeological Museum of Veroia, Archaeological Museum at Volos, Archaeological
Museum at Chania, Agora Museum at Athens and Archaeological Museum at
Rhodos etc.
My sincere acknowledgements are for Pf. Hiroshi Matsuo at Tokyo National
University of Fine Arts and Music whose introduction enabled me to have
an interview at Tokyo National Museum; Mr Takeshi Gotoh who allowed me
to interview and Ms Maki Kobayashi who arranged the interview; Mr Thanos
Kafopoulos who spared his time for me and Ms Eleni Nakamura who had arranged
the meeting at the embassy.
Hajime John
Ishida is Professor at Tohoku Gakuin University and Fellow of A.S.Onassis
Foundation and University of Athens
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