Otsuka Bijutsukan

[Julie Turnock]

The description of this museum is interesting, particularly because it 
reminds me of plaster cast reproductions of European art in America.

In the late 19th C and early 20th C, in parts to compensate for lack of art, 
the insufficiency of photographic reproduction and the low estimation of 
American-made art, most major American cities, especially on the east coast, 
commissioned full-scale minutely detailed reproductions of European marble 
and bronze sculptures.  Sometimes they were part of existing museums (such 
as, I think, the Met) and sometimes they were in purpose-built structures 
similar to the Otsuka Bijutsukan.  (I'm afraid I don't have my reference 
materials with me so I'll have to be a bit vague in parts)

These plaster casts employed the latest technology to get the best detail 
and accuracy of the originals.  It is also interesting to note that these 
casts, usually made in the 19th century, have been used as tools for 
restoration and research, since the copies have not withstood 100 years of 
industrial revolution pollution, overzealous cleaning, and battle damage, 
and are therefore often almost more "authentic" than the originals.

I'm afraid I don't remember exactly who sponsored these things, but if 
memory serves robber baron types (their aquisitiveness would eventually fill 
these museums with "real" art) who felt the general public deserved the 
edifying benefits of the experience of European art in their own cities, and 
of course as public relations for their companies.  Exposure to the "great 
works" of the continent would not only lift the human spirit of the viewer 
but also refine their cultural and artistic sensitivities, leading 
eventually to the improvement of American art.  It may be amusing that Andy 
Warhol is on record as loving the plaster casts in Pittsburg he looked at as 
a boy, because "You don't have to go to Europe anymore."  So aparently these 
displays were in place until at least the 60's in some places.

The history of plaster casts in America suggests the large scale 
reproduction of orginal and far-flung art work, although it seems like an 
"only in Japan" kind of thing, cannot be considered an essentially Japanese 
impulse.

Maybe the reader has already guessed that I'm a lapsed art historian.  What 
do other people think about the "Japaness" of this project?

Julie Turnock
Hamamatsu



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