OTSU -- Europe's first large-scale exhibition of Japanese Otsu-e folk art will take place in Paris starting in April. The event will showcase about 110 works that mostly date from the Edo period (1603-1867), when the art form exploded in popularity.
"We want the world to learn about a genre that influenced the likes of Picasso," said an event organizer in Otsu.
Otsu-e works were created by artists who would draw them on the spot and sell them as souvenirs to travelers at the Otsu-shuku post town along the Tokaido road.
Popular drawings include "The Prayer-Chanting Demon" -- an oni goblin dressed in a monk's robe -- and "Wisteria Maiden" -- a girl holding a wisteria branch. Otsu-e served a variety of purposes, including satirizing the mood of the times and teaching life lessons. However, they gradually disappeared as Ukiyo-e replaced them in popularity.
According to Christophe Marquet, director of Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient and author of books about Otsu-e, the art form was revived by philosopher Soetsu Yanagi, who promoted the mingei (folk craft) movement during the Taisho era (1912-1926) and early Showa era (1926-1989). Overseas painters also helped resuscitate the genre: Piccaso is said to have owned "A Cat Making a Mouse Drunk," which depicts natural enemies casually drinking together.
Marquet and the Maison de la Culture du Japon a Paris organized the upcoming exhibition to commemorate the 160th anniversary of Franco-Japanese friendship in 2018. They asked the Otsu City Museum of History and the Japan Folk Crafts Museum in Tokyo for permission to exhibit their Otsu-e collections alongside other Otsu-e works at the Maison in Paris from April 24 to June 15. It will be the first time more than 100 Otsu-e items are displayed overseas.
Marquet said Otsu-e's so-called heta-uma quality (poorly drawn but still evocative) contains echoes of yurukyara mascot characters, and remains fresh today.
Kenichiro Yokoya, curator of the Otsu City Museum of History, said, "The goblin character represents Edo-period Japan and is the origin of today's anime."
Otsu-e artist Takahashi Shozan V said: "I see a growing number of French people showing interest in Otsu-e and coming to Otsu. It would be nice if people in Japan also rediscovered the humor in the drawings."
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