Meian [Light and Dark] at Aizu Museum
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Dates
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Place
Aizu Museum
The Aizu Museum will be displaying Meian [Light and Dark] on January 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, and 18, 2020 from 10:00-17:00.
Then-Waseda President Sanae Takada, who was a councilor of the Japan Art Institute, commissioned this large work to artists Taikan Yokoyama (1868-1958) and Kanzan Shimomura (1873-1930) when the university’s Building No. 2 was built as a library. The work was painted on a single, large sheet of handmade paper. The paper made for this purpose was named “Oka Futogami.” It required thirty to forty men and women, recruited by paper-making master Heizaburo Iwano of Fukui Prefecture, to make by hand. Unused portions of the paper are now preserved at the Gutenberg Museum in Germany and the Paper Museum in Japan. Kanzan painted the “Light” portion of the work in gold paint, while Taikan depicted the “Dark” portion in ink. The sun in the work expresses the gaining of knowledge through reading.
The Aizu Museum is free and open to the general public.
Taikan Yokoyama (1868-1958) and Kanzan Shimomura (1873-1930)
Meian [Light and Dark], 1927
Ink and gold and silver paint on paper
445.0 cm diameter