An exhibition depicts the Japanese way of teaching children as well as the masses about various aspects of society through water colour. By Team Viva
The boy with the springy head bounces on to the mountain, then on to the sun before finally coming to a rest on tree where he goes off to sleep. Pontaro, The Boy With a Bouncy Head by Shinta Cho is one of the many Japanese stories that is graphic and illustrative.
This artistic way of teaching kids as well as the masses about various aspects of society was presented in an exhibition with the works of Japanese artist Chihiro Iwasaki and other picture book artists from Japan. The exhibition, Chihiro Iwasaki and Picture Books of Japan, is being held at lajpat Nagar and will continue till June 12. Organised by the Japan Foundation and the Chihiro Art Museum, the collection features a series of water-coloured illustrations of flowers and children, for which the artist is famous. They are simplistic, minimalist and use a limited colour palette, keeping the communicative bandwidth easy on children.
Her works like Girl Wearing Brown Hat (1970s), Cat and Children Carrying Satchels, Butterflies Fluttering in Meadow, Green Fantasy, Woodpecker and many more are aimed to stoke the imagination of children and prod their understanding of the world around them through a strong visual appeal. There were also paintings of Gorsh the Cellist by Takeshi Motai, Peek-a-Boo by Yasuo Segwa, Oniroko and Carpenter by Suekichi Akaba and Pontaro, the boy with a Bouncy Head by Shinta Cho.
The gallery also displayed a brief history of the evolution of art and picture books in Japan. The oldest work in the gallery is from 1624 which is Vo no Utaawase by Tanroku-Bon. It further displays the works of 18th and 19th centuries by Gokan, E-Demon, Ebanash Series Nihon and Akahon. Most interesting were the remains of certain picture magazines and scrolls from as old as the eighth century. The ambience and the lighting were white to offset the play of colours. “We organised this exhibition to introduce children to the way life looks beyond the digital images,” said Pradipta Brahma, programme coordinator, Japanese Foundation. It also has a training institute for teaching water painting to trainees. Talking about the way water painting is done in Japan, Zingjar Zimik, the PR coordinator of the Foundation, emphasised, “We basically use normal paper, wet it and then apply dollops of paint on it. After that we allow the paint to take a shape and form a pattern. We do not use brush and let the water do the job.” Certainly a unique experience.