Low Down

The influx of European culture on Japan is immerse, not surprisingly, the modernization of Japan enforced changes, enforced borrowings from other nations. There was not only art, but, these were factors of aesthetic values, as well.  Vincent van Gogh is a painter whose works are worldwide known, the perception of it in Japan has got a slightly different angle than in Europe. His works were not only a manifesto of expressionism and bravery, it became a trade tool, an exchange tool between Japan and the Netherlands. The works are perceived by means of cultural changes, the aesthetic movements and its complexity of notion not everyone understands.  Van Gogh himself acclaimed that Japan is his place to be, he loved this country and wanted to pay back for hospitality by painting, by foreseeing future. He gave Japan what they wanted – masterpieces, an intellectual puzzle. Looking at van Gogh’s paintings one has to uncover the riddle. It is indeed, exceptional, it is what Japanese p...

Kawabata Yasunari is regraded as the finest Japanese novelist and essayist. The  winner of Literary Nobel Prize in 1968. His biography is as much gripping as his books, he was born in Osaka. He was orphaned in a very early age, being only four. His childhood was marked by loss, all his close relatives died, left alone, he moved in with the family from his mother’s side. Loneliness and isolation is vividly marked in his works, his characters are representatives of ‘impenetrable souls’ who build a wall around their vicinity – forbidding anyone to cross the fragile line. The privacy and the personal matter is the most important. He was a versatile student, he learnt fast and passed all his exams with flying colors. His life was very dramatic, the worst had to come with the Second World War. His works are sad, reflect war, the post-war Japan, the destruction and desolation of the generation, the dissociation of sensitivity. His sensitivity was immerse, the genius unbound, the death tr...