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Wednesday, Mar 05, 2008
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Tamil Nadu
There is a wealth of information for the uninitiated
The Hina Matsuri doll display attracts attention CHENNAI: The Seven Gods of Fortune, Samurai warriors donning the Kabuto headgear and folksy Kokeshi dolls are part of a microcosm on Japan featured at the Lalit Kala Akademi. The exhibition by the ABK-AOTS DOSOKAI marks the beginning of Cultural Week celebrations to showcase Japanese tradition, culture and mores and comes as a finale to the year-long celebration of “Japan-India Friendship Year 2007” in the city. Mutual interest, friendship“The series of cultural exchanges has invigorated mutual interest and friendship between the two countries,” Consul Yoshinori Yakabe told The Hindu. The Consulate General of Japan in Chennai is supporting the event along with the SOGETSU Study Circle. From scale models of great Shinto shrines that are now part of UNESCO’s world heritage, sartorially resplendent paper dolls, or the one deity that the Japanese like to propitiate as often as they can (Ebisu, God of Wealth), there is a wealth of information for the uninitiated. And, even for those fancying themselves to be reasonably familiar with the land of the rising sun, there is the odd nugget or two. PhotographsAlongside the throwback to 8th century Japan is the showcase on the country’s giant strides as an economic and technological powerhouse. About 600 panels of photograph provide imagery culled from modern Japan’s quintessence---whizzing bullet trains, top-of-the-line consumer gadgets and young siblings glued to a play station console. However, holding centrestage at the exhibition is the Hina Matsuri doll display that is so akin to the “Kolu” festival during Navaratri. This ‘festival of girls’ celebrated across Japan on March 3 involves decking dolls in costumed finery and arranging them in a hierarchical pattern on five platforms. At the top of the pyramid is the emperor and empress (darisama), followed by three consorts (sannin kanjo), a set of five musicians (gonin bayashi) and two ministers in court. Girls are said to take great joy in the sartorial detail and style and placing them according to the hierarchy rules. Friends are also invited home for a peek at the works of art. However, superstition dictates that once the festivals ends, the dolls are stashed away in wooden boxes to prevent marriage delays for the girl in the family, said M. R. Ranganathan, chairman, ABK-AOTS DOSOKAI. The boys’ version with martial undertones and featuring Samurai replicas falls in May. The Japanese, Mr. Ranganathan says, are firmly rooted in several such beliefs. It is as common for students preparing for an examination to write down their wishes on wooden tablets (Ema) at a Shinto shrine, as for droves of youth clad in loin cloth to plunge into an icy-cold pool in a physique-building routine during the Hadaka Matsuri festival. The exhibition is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday.
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