Kyoto National Museum

Today Abby and I went to the National Kyoto Museum which was under construction, and thus the general collections hall was not open to the public (until 2013!!). Fortunately, there was an exhibit on modern Chinese Ink Paintings in Japan in their “special exhibit” hall, which was open. Being a sumi-e student and a Museum Studies minor made it very interesting—I spent most of the time trying to figure out which brush strokes were used for a certain effect and if I could recreate it tomorrow in the sumi-e classroom. I also spent an inordinate amount of time examining the exhibits themselves—some of the display cases were atrocious! However, the light setup was really, really nice. The signage was pretty well-put together from what I could read…but that wasn’t much. XD

The two of us!

As for the exhibit pieces themselves: after studying them closely, I feel I have a better idea on how to make sumi-e with sparrows on them now…OFF TO PRACTICE~!

After that we went out for tea and headed back to the seminar house. We stopped for groceries on the way home, and that’s about it. 

Here's one of the many wild birds we saw today: some sort of blue heron (I think...?) and a cormorant! 

 Thanks to Abby for all the wonderful pictures!

Also in EXCELLENT news: I got my camera lens today! My baby is fixed~! Prepare for the photo onslaught~!