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.

Sun Bodhisattva (Nikkō Bosatsu)
{Sun Bodhisattva (Nikkō Bosatsu) · Maker unrecorded · c. 800 · Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0}

Bodhisattvas are beings who have attained enlightenment but delay entry into Buddhahood until they have fulfilled their varied vows to aid others along the path to enlightenment. The flowing robes and curving posture of this figure were inspired by Chinese Buddhist sculpture. However, the interplay of the wood grain in this single block of yew with the artist’s subtle carving is a Japanese innovation. Originally paired with the Moon Bodhisattva (Gekkō Bosatsu), this figure likely flanked a sculpture of the Medicine Master Buddha (Yakushi Nyorai).

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 A motif small enough to blind-deboss, which is where restraint actually shows.

Description source: museum curator text — not generated