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Kaikodo Journal XXXIII

River of Stars

Corresponding to the exhibition held between March 8 and April 28, 2017. 44 Chinese and Japanese paintings; 32 Chinese works of art. Preface by Mary Ann Rogers. Online edition.

Includes remembrances:
Professor Richard Edwards:
Carol Conover
Stephen J. Goldberg
Alice R.M. Hyland
Steven D. Owyoung
Jim Robinson
Thomas Smith

The exhibition, “River of Stars,” our thirty-third since 1996 introduces 30 Chinese paintings, 14 Japanese paintings and 32 Chinese works of art ranging in date from the 6th century B.C. to the 21st century.. Since ancient times the Chinese have come up with numerous ways to designate what much of the Western world terms “The Milky Way.” In the West this galaxy that we see as a band of milky or speckled light curving across the sky is perceived as a path, road, or way. However, in the Eastern world—in India, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, China as well as Egypt, which sits across both Western and Eastern hemispheres—it is perceived as a waterway or river, sometimes with very specific local references to describe it: “The Nile in the Sky” or “The Ganges of Heaven.” The exhibition was inspired by this phenomenon and its title by the Chinese terms for the Milky Way: xinghan or xinghe, “River of Stars.”

The arts of Asia populate our world as stars do our home galaxy and we here offer a few shining examples from this prodigious output. The Chinese paintings, dating from the 13th to the 21st century, are dominated by “Silver Pheasants under Spring Blossoms,” a monumental work fit for a palace wall by the mid-Ming dynasty painter, Ye Shuangshi. Of similar date is Zhang Yuanfeng’s “Wang Xizhi Writing on a Fan.” Coincidently the exhibition also features a Japanese version of the same subject by Aoki Shukuya (1737-1807), allowing comparison of the differences between Chinese and Japanese approaches to art. Eight miniature albums by 19th-early 20th century Japanese painters add a sprinkling of stardust to the works on view. Highlights among the Chinese works of art, made in such diverse materials as jade, glass, silver, bronze, lacquer, ceramic and porcelain, include a Ming dynasty celadon dish inscribed in Arabic, a Tang-period gilt-bronze Nestorian cross, and a very rare late Ming dynasty underglaze-blue decorated kosometsuke inkstone, made expressly for the Japanese market.

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Kaikodo Journal XXXI - Spring 2015Available
Kaikodo Journal XXX - Spring 2014Available
Kaikodo Journal XXIX - Spring 2013Available
Kaikodo Journal XXVIII - Spring 2012Available
Kaikodo Journal XXVII - Spring 2011Available
Kaikodo Journal XXVI - Spring 2010available
Kaikodo Journal XXV - Spring 2009Available
Kaikodo Journal XXIV - Spring 2008Available
Kaikodo Journal XXIII - Spring 2007
Spring in Jinling - Spring 2004
Kaikodo Journal XXII - Spring 2002
Kaikodo Journal XXI - Autumn 2001
Kaikodo Journal XX - Autumn 2001Available
Kaikodo Journal XIX - Spring 2001Available
Kaikodo Journal XVIII - November 2000
Kaikodo Journal XVII - Autumn 2000
Kaikodo Journal XVI - May 2000Available
Kaikodo Journal XV - Spring 2000Available
Kaikodo Journal XIV - November 1999Available
Kaikodo Journal XIII - Autumn 1999Available
Kaikodo Journal XII - Autumn 1999
In Two Dimensions - Spring 1999
Kaikodo Journal XI - Spring 1999
Kaikodo Journal X - November 1998Out of Print
Kaikodo Journal IX - Autumn 1998Available
Kaikodo Journal VIII - May 1998Available
Kaikodo Journal VII - Spring 1998Available
Kaikodo Journal VI - October 1997Not Available
Kaikodo Journal V - Autumn 1997
Kaikodo Journal IV - May 1997OUT OF PRINT
Kaikodo Journal III - Spring 1997OUT OF PRINT
Kaikodo Journal II - Autumn 1996OUT OF PRINT
Kaikodo Journal I - Spring 1996OUT OF PRINT
Backward Glances - February 1996
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