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.

三彩合子
{三彩合子 · 京都国立博物館 Kyoto National Museum · 唐時代・8世紀 / Tang ・8th · Japan Search · 国立国会図書館}

This is a small, vibrant blue glaze pot with a lid. White speckles are present within the blue glaze, and there is a layer of brown glaze applied on top, creating a flower-like pattern. The bottom is said to be a plain earthenware dish, used as a container for medicine or incense.

藍色の釉が鮮やかな小型の合子である。甲部の藍釉の中に白斑があり、その中には褐釉が施され、花文状に仕上げられている。底は平底の蓋物で、薬や香などを入れた容器といわれている。

View the original at Japan Search →
The law
屋外広告物法
Outdoor Advertising Act
昭和二十四年法律第百八十九号 · Act No. 189 of 1949

Article 1 gives three grounds for regulating a sign: forming good landscape, maintaining scenic character, and preventing danger to the public. Article 3 then lets a prefecture prohibit outdoor advertising outright, by ordinance, in named categories of place.

The cool part. Read the list in Article 3 and it stops being an advertising law. The places where signage can be banned include landscape districts, scenic districts, preservation districts for groups of traditional buildings, the surroundings of designated Important Cultural Properties, and historic sites, places of scenic beauty and natural monuments. The statute protects the view by removing the sentences written across it.

Verify at e-Gov 法令検索 →

Use it The border is the idea. Use it as an edge treatment and leave the centre empty.

Description source: museum curator text, translated — not generated