U.S. Campus Life Refuge in art By Makako Yamada	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
美術館で心をいやす 同時多発テロ事件から数週間経ち、表面上は、ボストンに普段の生活が戻ったかに見えます。しかし、高層ビルへの立ち入りが禁じられたり、絶えず新たなテロ攻撃がうわさされたり…住民の心が休まる日はありません。そこで、ボストン美術館は、芸術作品を見て市民に緊張をほぐしてもらおうと、無料で施設を開放しました。

After the tragic terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, many people have become frozen with fear or exhausted with sadness. Even though it looks as if Boston is "back to normal," there are many signs indicating that things are not the same: the bright American flags waving outside people's homes, the donation boxes for victims inside stores, the permanent closing of the John Hancock Tower Observatory, the endless rumors of impending attacks on the city.

It is against this tense backdrop that the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) made admissions free to all visitors until the end of September. The museum has provided its facilities as an oasis, where people can quietly think and observe beautiful things. This is an extraordinary move, since the MFA is a very popular tourist attraction that usually charges $14 (¥1,638) for admission. The MFA is one of the many institutions that has donated its resources after the attacks.

My friend Miguel and I decided to go to the MFA on a beautiful Sunday afternoon to see a special exhibit of Japanese "netsuke." In all honesty, I didn't even know what netsuke were, and I was a bit afraid of putting my foot in my mouth because Miguel is so knowledgeable about different kinds of art. However, I at least make up in enthusiasm what I lack in formal art education, so we've enjoyed visiting the MFA together several times in the past.

When we got there, we realized that the museum was truly not charging admission. All we had to do was provide our zip codes for statistical purposes. I've gone to "free" nights at the MFA in the past, but have been subtly pressured to donate $5 (¥585). There was no such pressure this time around; it would not have been appropriate to put pressure on an already tense population.

The exhibit was very well documented, with helpful diagrams and explanations everywhere. I quickly found out that netsuke are a very accessible kind of "art" worn on one's clothing to keep one's purse or bag attached to one's belt. Basically, they are intricately carved figurines made out of bone, wood, ivory and other hard materials. Since many of the objects were everyday things, I was able to catch some cultural references that Miguel, who is from Spain, couldn't pick up. For instance, we saw two people eating "kagami mochi" and I told him that it was a New Year's scene. We also saw a "kappa" slicing some cucumber and I told him that kappa love cucumber, and that's why cucumber sushi is called kappa-maki. The umbrella-shaped "bakemono" was also new for him.

Most of the netsuke didn't require much explanation, since their whimsy could be understood by all. There were a lot of realistic animals in very humorous poses. One of the pieces depicted an octopus riding a horse; another depicted a woman wrestling a squid; another depicted a rat chewing its own tail. There was one piece, that we called "Cat Prostitute and a Client," which we found strangely realistic; a female cat posed flirtatiously while a big-shot male cat ogled her.

There were also a very large number of "foreign" objects: Westerners, Chinese philosophers, non-Japanese animals like elephants and lions, mythical creatures like kirin and dragons. These objects were especially fantastic, since they were probably created partly from the imagination. My boyfriend, who has seen the exhibit before, told me that one could see the Japanese concept of "kawaii" in the netsuke. It's true. It took us over two hours to view all of the netsuke in the exhibit. There must have been hundreds of them.

I think that, at least for us, the MFA has successfully provided the opportunity to escape from the outside. Indeed, it's like another world, a world in which one can get lost even after several trips. We still haven't managed to visit all of the halls in the MFA. We'll probably be visiting again before the month is over. I hope that other Bostonians who have been feeling tense have the opportunity to engage in this therapy, as well.

Shukan ST: Oct. 5, 2000

(C) All rights reserved