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EXHIBITION Sunday, July 20 to Wednesday, August 20, 2003
Summer Special Exhibition Honoring the 100th Anniversary of Kobayashi Hideo’s Birth The Heart in Search of Beauty Sunday, July 20 to Wednesday, August 20, 2003 (Closed on Mondays and the day after national holidays)
Organized by Miho Museum and Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc. Sponsored by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Shiga Prefecture, Shiga Prefectural Board of Education, and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.) Otsu. Supported by Kajima Corporation. Special Assistance from Shinchosha Company. Assisted by Toray Industries, Inc. Planning Assistance from Zipangu Inc.
“EXHIBITIONS and CONCERTS have been increasingly held, and the number of people viewing art work and listening to music appears to have precipitously risen in recent years. Perhaps because of this, young people often ask me about art and music. They say, ‘Paintings and music these days are difficult to understand. What do I need to do to better appreciate them? What should I study? Can you suggest some books to read?’ I think it is fine to read books on art and music, but more importantly, I always reply that it is best to not think of anything and just see and listen as much as possible.”
This is how The Heart in Search of Beauty (J., Bi o motomeru kokoro) by Kobayashi Hideo (1902-1983) begins. From around 1955 to 1965, Kobayashi, who had already been long called the “God of Criticism” in Japan, wrote on art for young people in an extremely simple, yet persuasive language that was beautiful and powerful. He explained that one did not have to think very hard to understand art. If one read acceptingly like a child, eventually one would begin to understand the heart of beauty. The critic Aoyama Jirô (1901-1979), who influenced Kobayashi in his decision to entire the world of art, was none other than a genius. In an argument, he could outdo Kobayashi and easily refute the essayist Shirasu Masako (1910-1998), their protégée and friend. In an interview with Aoyama, Kobayashi says the following:
Shirasu Masako wrote on Kobayashi’s famous words, “Here, we have a beautiful flower, nothing compares to the beauty of this flower,” as follows: “This is based on Zeami’s concept of ‘flower’.... If we replace a ‘beautiful flower’ with ‘object,’ we can understand Kobayashi’s aesthetic sensibility. He says, ‘There are beautiful objects, yet nothing is like the beauty of an object.’ [These words] hit the mark, there is nothing ambiguous in what he said. People can endlessly talk about the beauty of things. However, beautiful things insist upon silence. Kobayashi, from beginning to end, was a writer, who focused on this single point, it did not matter whether his subject was an antique, a literary work, or a painting.”
Kobayashi: “Form cannot be understood in one’s head. It is captured foremost in the trained sensitivity and is similar to training one’s palate. Like swimming, you cannot study it. You need to just jump into the ocean and splash around until naturally you can swim... In other words, you have to feel and experience it with your entire body and all your senses. It has nothing to do with thinking about it intellectually.” Aoyama: “It’s kind of like a flying kite, isn’t it?” Kobayashi: “After a while, one gets used to the water and the ocean. Similarly, one needs to experience beautiful forms. People need to bathe in the ocean of beautiful forms. Without doing so, one cannot understand form. Such things do not exist these days, do they?”
Kobayashi trusted artisans and often said, “I am an artisan.” This was because he considered writing to be similar to the ways of artisans, who understood and felt their medium with their entire being and tried to make it into a complete form. Kobayashi concentrated on thoroughly seeing and listening to the soul of his subject in order to understand it and seriously observed it until their souls rubbed against one another to create a “sound,” which, then, for the first time, allowed him to “touch it with his eyes.” He expressed this “sound” through his words. Whether his subject was a painting, music, a person, or food, he positioned himself towards his subject in this way his whole life. In this exhibition, we have brought together many works of art that Kobayashi Hideo cherished and that captured his mind’s eye. The answer to what is necessary to understand these works can perhaps be found in The Heart in Search of Beauty or perhaps in a painting that hangs in the last section of this exhibition, Forest by Cezanne. The aged, bedridden Kobayashi, who spent his life searching for beauty, silently gazed upon this piece for hours and hours. In the end, however, he left no words to describe or explain this work, only silence.


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