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.

Prince Shōtoku at Age Two (Shōtoku Taishi)
{Prince Shōtoku at Age Two (Shōtoku Taishi) · Maker unrecorded · early 1300s · Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0}

Two-year old Prince Shōtoku (573?–622?) places his palms together in a gesture called gasshō. Shōtoku played a major role in the introduction of Buddhism to Japan, and devotees of the prince commissioned painted and sculpted images commemorating important moments of his life. At age two, the prince faced east and chanted the name of the Buddha without having been taught the practice. This sculpture captures the fantastic event foreshadowing his future acts.

View the original at Cleveland Museum of Art →
The law
景観法
Landscape Act
平成十六年法律第百十号 · Act No. 110 of 2004

Article 1 states the aim as a beautiful and dignified national land, and it covers not only cities but farming, mountain and fishing villages. Inside a landscape planning area, Article 16 requires advance notification of new building, extension, rebuilding, relocation, and any repair or alteration that changes the exterior. Landscape Districts go further and impose direct restrictions on the form and design of buildings.

The cool part. Read Article 16 to the end of the sentence. A change of colour is listed alongside new construction as an act you must notify. Repainting your building is, in law, the same category of event as putting up a new one. This is the machinery behind the muted shopfronts of Kyoto. The brown coffee-shop sign is not a marketing choice, it is compliance.

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