Tokyo, Japan Today was our long-awaited visit to the museum of Yayoi Kusama, an avant-garde artist whose work we find exciting. You may have experienced some of her work if you’ve ever seen a polka-dotted pumpkin.
Today we got to see a few of them.
What we were able to photograph of her work was very limited, but very exciting. Her pumpkins just do it for me. No surprise — we are now proud owners of a small one that is going home with us. But isn’t this huge one just stunning?
Though she’s now 95, Yayoi Kusama is mostly focused on death and suicide, and lives in an asylum by choice. But her work is full of life, and is now celebrated all over the world. We saw her on a video and I assume she was telling us to embrace life through the perfect form — a circle.
You have to applaud a woman who embraces color so passionately.
From Don: After the polka dots, I went off to a performance of Sleeping Beauty performed by the National Ballet of Japan at The New National Theatre. It’s a massive complex of an opera house and two smaller theatres.
The Sleeping Beauty production was lavish. The dancing was precise, without being particularly exciting. The choreography looked like a simplified version of what I’ve seen before. But it was beautiful.
After the performance, I took a backstage tour. No photos of the production allowed, but there’s a nice view looking into the auditorium. The whole interior is wood, including the seats. No wonder the acoustics were so great. The auditorium, although it looks very large, only seats 1,800.
Don’s Food Corner
We are in a hotel that is part of a massive center, connected by endless corridors, that houses the Dentsu headquarters as well as many ancillary businesses that appear to be supporting Dentsu. I think most of the people staying at this hotel are here to deal with them.
The lower levels of this complex are packed with various restaurants. There is an Indian place that caught our eye the first time we went searching for the underground entrance to the subway. (Finding various subway lines in these underground mazes — here and everywhere else in Tokyo — is an adventure unto itself.)
In short, when Jo peeled off after the polka dot lady’s exhibit, she found her way back to the hotel via this Indian restaurant. She had a great butter chicken. And she swears it was the best naan she ever tasted.
Later, as I returned from the ballet, I dropped into the same Indian restaurant and had an equally excellent saag paneer (cheese in a spinach sauce), a piece of tandoori chicken, and the naan Jo raves about. I’m not sure it was the best naan I ever had, but it was perhaps the biggest.
I keep breaking my no-international food vow. We’ll try harder.
I’m a big fan of Kusama and saw an outdoor exhibit in NYC etc. I even have a t-shirt of her pumpkin!
Jealous…
Love Kusama. So brilliant. I want a huge pumpkin but affordability and lack of space come in the way. Fortunate to see quite o few of her works including interactive installations here in NYC and some other parts of the globe.
She is everywhere — and deserves to be!
Oooo I love Kusama! That museum had to be wonderful!!
And I am in awe of your trip planning. Fabulous.
It was so amazing — just too small!
Don — little fish can definitely swim in the hollow behind the ballerina’s right clavicle!
Love that a 95 year ole Japanese lady is crushing it internationally and has such wide appeal across the ages! I saw an exhibit of hers in Seattle, we drove down specifically for it, and the Instagram throngs were sending it.
There’s something about those pumpkins!