Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture
Kanpai: The Art of Drinking in Japan
Feb. 11 – June 28, 2014
Sunday, Feb. 9, 2 pm / Opening Lecture by Dr. Andreas Marks
Since the Heian period (794-1185), toso, spiced medicinal rice wine is drunk on New Year’s to chase off impurities and aspire long life.
For many centuries of Japan’s history, cultural emanations swept over from China, which was highly respected. Confucianism, which provided an important ethical framework in Japan, endorsed the pleasures of the flesh in the precept, “eat and drink, man and woman - the greatest human desires reside in them,” as it is stated in the Chinese Book of Rites (Liji in Chinese).
When speaking of drinking alcohol in a historical sense, once speaks of rice wine or sake. For over 2,000 years sake has been drunk in Japan and is considered to be its national drink. It is consumed ritually in religious ceremonies and festivals as well as social events.
Sake breweries were established at the Imperial Court in Kyoto towards the end of the first millennium.
The use of sake supported the rise of a diversity of different kinds of vessels for drinking and serving such as cups, flasks, and ewers. A large section of Kanpai: The Art of Drinking in Japan showcases such objects created by living ceramic artists, representing many of the important traditional ceramic areas and styles like Shino, Oribe, and Karatsu klins.
The role of drink is also reflected in Japanese painting. Famous drinking parties like the gathering at the Orchid Pavilion (Lanting in Chinese) in Zhejiang Province, China, of 353, were immortalized in East Asian imagery. Ike Taiga (1723-1776), the celebrated literati painter, painted a hanging scroll of this subject that celebrates the sophistication and gregariousness of literati culture.
Kanpai: The Art of Drinking in Japan features works from the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts as well as from Gordon Brodfuehrer, Board Member of the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture.
The exhibition is organized under the auspices of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and curated by Dr. Andreas Marks, Head of the Japanese and Korean Art Department at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
Dr. Marks will lecture on Sunday, Feb. 9 at 2 pm. Reservations are required. Tickets for non-members are $10. RSVP required at www.ccjac.org
Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 1 – 5 pm. Closed on national holidays.
Regular admission: $5 for adults, $3 for students and active military service with valid ID. Children 12 and under free.
Weekly docent tours are held Saturdays at 1 pm and guided group tours can be arranged by calling the Clark Center in advance.
The Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture is located at 15770 Tenth Ave,
Hanford, CA 93230. (559) 582-4915. www.ccjac.org
