Hiroaki Miyayama. Genji Monogatari 6+ Automatic translate

Erarta Museum presents an exhibition by Tokyo artist Hiroaki Miyayama, immersing the viewer in the exquisite world of traditional Japanese culture

• Graphics inspired by The Tale of the Radiant Prince Genji, one of Japan’s premier classics
• Filigree color etching technique where each color is printed from a separate copper plate
• The author, whose works are kept in the collections of the State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin and the State Museum of Oriental Art

"Genji-monogatari" is the first exhibition in St. Petersburg by the artist Hiroaki Miyayama, who combines modernity and the traditional culture of Japan in his work. The exhibition is named after one of the greatest creations of Japanese classical literature, created during the Heian era (794-1185) - "Genji-monogatari", or "The Tale of the Magnificent Prince Genji". The plot of the book, the authorship of which is attributed to the court lady of the Empress Shoshi Murasaki Shikibu, is based on the love story of Prince Genji, the illegitimate son of the emperor. Each of the 54 short stories tells about a separate episode from the life of a young man, conquering women’s hearts with exquisite ease and ingenuity. This book has attracted artists for a thousand years. And in the Edo era, notebooks with illustrations for the "Tale" were an integral part of the bride’s dowry.

Referring to the legendary text in our time, in the era of Westernization and globalization, Hiroaki Miyayama created fifty-four color etchings for ten years. They are not literal book plot illustrations in the European sense, but separate graphic sheets. They contain poetic parallels with the text and the atmosphere of traditional Japanese grace. The female characters, whose names in The Tale are consonant with the names of flowers, in Miyayama’s work appear as a cherry branch, an iris flower, a tulip bud… The artist’s laconic graphics embody the aesthetic credo “everything superfluous is ugly”. He combines the stylistics of traditional Japanese painting "kate-e" (a picture of flowers and birds) with such features of modern Western engraving as free space, fragmentation, and understatement. Hiroaki Miyayama masterfully masters the technique of color etching,that requires focus: each color is printed from a separate copper plate. Sometimes the artist prints from five to seven plates, and uses gold or silver leaf to overlay the background.

An artistic interpretation of Hiroaki Miyayama’s "Genji Monogatari" immerses the viewer in the graceful atmosphere of traditional Japanese culture. The works of the artist, whose graphics are presented in many museum collections, including the Shanghai Museum, the National Museum of Taiwan, the National Museum in Warsaw, the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin, the State Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow, have already been introduced to viewers in Japan. The USA, China, Italy, Belgium, Czech Republic and other countries - now the visitors of the Erarta Museum are going to plunge into this exquisite world.