Huang Goodman · Art Forgotten

Art Forgotten

Art from public museum collections. A mismatched real Japanese law, and some other factoids.

Every object, image and description comes from the museum's own catalogue record, and every object links to its original. Japanese records are machine-translated into English; the museum's Japanese is kept beside the translation because it is the authoritative form. Each law carries its official number and links to e-Gov 法令検索, the Japanese government's statute database.

A Low Tide Pentaptych
{A Low Tide Pentaptych · Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese, 1797–1861) · c. 1830 · Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0}

Five surimono, called "printed things," consist of this image: women gathering sea life during low tide. Above the scene, ten poems are inscribed. Nine of these poems include the words "low tide." The last poem describes abalone as a precious jewel.

Five surimono 刷物, privately commissioned prints known literally as "printed things," make up this image of women collecting sea life at low tide. Ten poems written by members of a poetry salon appear across the upper part of the composition. All but one contain the words "low tide," with the remaining poem describing abalone as a sought-after jewel.

View the original at Cleveland Museum of Art →
The law
アイヌの人々の誇りが尊重される社会を実現するための施策の推進に関する法律
Act on Promoting Measures to Realise a Society in which the Pride of the Ainu People is Respected
平成三十一年法律第十六号 · Act No. 16 of 2019

Article 1 describes the Ainu as the indigenous people of the northern part of the Japanese archipelago and of Hokkaido in particular, and cites international circumstances concerning indigenous peoples as a reason for acting. It requires the government to set a basic policy, and lets municipalities draw up regional plans for approval by the Prime Minister.

The cool part. The definition in Article 2 is the part to sit with. Ainu culture means the Ainu language, and the ways of living, music, dance, crafts and other cultural products inherited among the Ainu, and cultural products developed from these. That final clause refuses to freeze the culture at a date, and treats what is made next as equally the thing being protected. The Act then reaches into trademark law, reducing or waiving registration fees for regional collective trademarks used by approved projects.

Verify at e-Gov 法令検索 →

Use it Take the ratio, not the picture. It sets a page better than a grid does.

Description source: museum curator text, translated — not generated