When visiting the little town of Kitagawa in Japan, what you may expect to find there may differ widely from your actual experience. You may expect to find conventional Japanese bath houses, gardens of lotus flowers or perhaps conventional farming. Maybe a memorial for Nakaoka Shintaro, one of the founders or modern Japan, who was born here in 1838.
However, a absolute European style garden with European trees and flowers, twin connected ponds and lots of water lilies will probably seem a bit out of place. In fact, the only local feature of the garden would seem to be the Japanese bridge spanning over the link between the two ponds. A deeper look at the bridge, set among these ponds and circled by water lilies, might even make that seen a bit out of place. There is something eerily familiar about the setting, and even with bridge and all it is not something related to Japan. Rather, the idea of something French springs to mind. Because has not this exact scene appeared in European art? In fact, was there not one particular artist that painted this particular setting again and again?
And then it dawns on you. The Japanese bridge was painted by Claude Monet, French impressionist, in his garden in Giverny, most famously in the painting Water Lily Pond from 1899. And the water lilies in the ponds were similarly painted by him continuously. Only, of course, Giverny is in France and this is most certainly Japan. Something is still not quite right.
The explanation for this Monet garden in Japan in truth goes all the way back to Monet alone. Many Impressionists, and most undoubtedly Monet, were captivated by Japanese art. He participated in the so-called Japanese dinners where Japanese art was discussed, he was close to some Japanese artists, he even portrayed his wife Camille dressed up in a Japanese outfit and he had about 250 Japanese prints decorating his house in Giverny. In Japanese art, Monet saw a mirror of many of his own ideas on art. The way Japanese art, particularly the prints, focus on simplicity i.e. that from elements exclusively refined they draw the best aesthetics. The idea of simplified movement; the way a simple print reveals new details the more you watch over it; the way beauty is in the indispensable factors, rather than in the amount of colors and decorations. Monet himself identified with these views and attitudes towards art. Meanwhile his own Japanese art collection also inspired him and helped him see there are more ways to do landscapes. This collection also introduced him to e.g. Japanese bridge design.
However, he did not install the bridge simply from his artistic requirements. Monet designed his garden so that one pond would be in the shelter, one would be in the sun. However, with a arched Japanese bridge spanning the thin point between the two pools, the rays of the sun passes beneath the bridge and light up the shaded area, where the water lilies are in the shades. This creates a shade and light effect, and it was the observation and study of this that was at the essence of his water lily paintings in Giverny.
The Japanese, in turn, also answered to Monet’s style, which in many ways reminded them of their own. That is for what reason Monet still today is so fashionable in Japan, and that is why it was decided in that to mark the millennium, a copy of Monet’s garden would be created in Japan. More then 200.000 visitors came to see Monet’s garden in Japan on the first year alone, and they are still coming. So whether in Giverny or in Kitagava, you can be blessed with the view Monet revealed as he painted his famous Japanese bridge, spanning above the water lily pond in his garden.
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Japanese Bridge by Claude Monet
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