Exhibitions

Fuji Seen Through the Mannen Bridge at Fukagawa

Hokusai "36 Views of Mt. Fuji"

Wikimedia Commons

As often happens in Spring, there are numerous special exhibitions at various art, science, and history museums, and for my interests this Spring brings a surfeit. Among the many choices, there are three shows closely related to pilgrimage topics. In Washington, DC a 'Japan Spring' is being celebrated, the centenary of the planting of the cherry trees around the Tidal Basin, and there are must see exhibits in two museums on the Mall for anyone who is a lover of things Japanese or with an interest in Japanese pilgrimages. At the Freer-Sackler there is a display of Hokusai's "36 Views of Mt. Fuji", original strikings of the famous colored woodblock pints of Mt. Fuji, itself a pre-eminent pilgrimage destination, and several of the scenes are along the Kansai pilgrimage route, the oldest and most popular in Japan visiting the 33 temples in the region southwest of Tokyo.

Hokusai's images of Mt. Fuji, including the great wave, probably the best known of all Japanese images, are often seen and reproduced. Not so the scrolls containing images of Japanese nature included in the National Gallery of Art's exhibit of bird and flower paintings by Itō Jakuchū.  These images, owned by the Japanese Imperial Household Agency, are rarely seen but are truly stunning. In a normal year they are on public view for a single day, and pilgrimages are organized to view them on that date. The National Gallery exhibit is only a month long and will close 29 April, so they are worth a rush visit.

The exhibit I would most like to see is at the British Museum in London, Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam. Alas, it is unlikely I will be in London between now and Sunday, and in any case all advance tickets are sold out. After reading a review of the exhibit in the most recent issue of the New York Review of Books, I almost booked a trip to London in order to see an extensive collection of materials on the world's largest pilgrimage. I shall have to be content reading the catalogue of the exhibit.

Portomarin

The rumors are true. A very large number of additional pilgrims, from listening most of them from Spain, join at Sarria in order to walk the 100 km required for the Compostela. Already crowded in tis exceptionally warm autumn, the Camino is almost like a one-way city street. Never today was I out of earshot of chattering peregrinos, and it was rare when no one was nearby. I fear that may be the rule all the remaining four days.

Lots of rather rude people on the path including the Frenchman playing a "boom box" with some of the most vulgar American rap "music" one can imagine. An Irish woman told him he was seriously offending English speakers, but he just shrugged and went on, blasting the noise as he moved forward. Cell phones are ubiquitous along with banal "I am on the Camino" calls to people back home. Why one needs to do this while walking, I will never know. Finally, and most distressingly, the shedding of trash is truly horrific with used tissues in almost every semi-hidden place. Perhaps it is time to institute standards of conduct for peregrinos on the Camino.

Santiago in Philadelphia

Fairmount Waterworks, Philadelphia Museum in back, Philadelphia, PA, 1998

© EOP

Earlier this week I spent several days in Philadelphia, a city well-endowed with things to see and do, W. C. Fields notwithstanding. In the midst of a heatwave, the Philadelphia Museum was a cool respite from the outdoors. The large exhibit of medieval materials, most from France but with a few representative pieces from elsewhere in Europe, was new to me and well worth the visit.Included in the medieval collection is a Romanesque arched Portal from the Abbey Church of Saint-Laurent, France a 12th century building near Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire, a pilgrimage church on the Chemin St.Jacques. It is one of many churches and other facilities along the Chemin influenced by the Benedictines of Cluny. The arched doorway leads to a small cloister with a Spanish fountain from Monastery of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa in Catalunya, an exhibit that brings back many memories of France and Spain and of the Chemin/Camino!


Tickets to view the Barnes Collection in Merion were a primary reason for the trip to Philadelphia. The collection is due to be moved to a site in central Philadelphia in a couple of years, and the current year is the last to visit the peculiar museum in its suburban splendor. Most people go to see the awe inspiring collection of French art from the impressionists through the 20th century. Scattered among the gems of that part of the collection are a number of pieces of other provenance, including some fine sculptures and paintings from Renaissance Europe. Spread in several galleries are a third life size statute of St. Roch, a painting of St. James the major in a guise largely unrecognizable to those of us familiar with Santiago Peregrino (pilgrim accouterments including staff, hat and scallop shell)  and Santiago Matamoros astride a horse, and a painting of St. Sebastian with Santiago Peregrino. I foolishly did not carry a notebook, and the museum prohibits photographs and does not offer reproductions in its shop. Any follower of Santiago able to visit the museum is advised to look for the statue near the head of the stairs on the second floor and the paintings in the galleries east of the main room on the first floor.