Daisen Art at the Temecula Museum

The Temecula Valley Museum's newest exhibition is called Cultural Connections: Temecula and Daisen Art Exchange.

For more than 30 years, the City of Temecula has enjoyed a fulfilling and culturally enriching relationship with our Sister City, Daisen-Nakayama, Japan.

The exhibit begins with a video introducing the museum goers to the beauty that is Daisen, 365 days of the year (it made me want to return as my week there in 2004 did not show all its spectacular sights). The artwork was created by young artists from Temecula and senior artists from Daisen and showcases many unique talents.

The Japanese artwork included two different traditional Japanese art forms: E-tegami (simple hand-painted drawings accompanied by a few apt words, done on postcards) and Chigiri-e (pictures created from hand-torn Japanese paper called washi).

The stylized postcards seen in this gallery are known as "etegami," the combination of the phrases "E" meaning image, and "Tegaml," meaning letter. This art form has roots that date back to the 8th century, when the tradition of sending New Year greetings by letter had first begun. Phrases and illustrations wishing the recipient a warm and prosperous year were added by ink-brushing cards, in a manner somewhat similar to what were on display. I love this!

My favorite had to be this technique. Collages such as Mt. Daisen of Winter, by 88 year old Fumie Katsube (above), are known as "Chigiri-e," and are strictly made with thin paper. Its name means "to tear art," a self-explanatory definition when considering its primary process of tearing and cutting Japanese paper to create art. This truly has to be seen up close to fully appreciate its complexity. WOW.

The style was brought to Japan by Chinese Buddhist monks hundreds of years ago. It reappeared in the 20th century with the development of a type of handmade washi paper called tengu-joshi, one of the strongest and finest papers currently made. Tengu-joshi is made with 100% mulberry, and is sifted through bamboo boards woven with a layer of silk. In order to make a dynamic contrast in the piece, the artist must color the paper with vegetable dyes, inks, or powder pigments. While tearing is clearly the focus, it isn't the only method of creating chigiri-e; artists can fold, crinkle, crumple, twist, curl, poke holes, press, and more. The usual chigiri-e design is supposed to imitate the style of paintings, and similarly, images can be realistic or abstract.

In Japan, it is usually decorative, focusing on flowers and landscapes. These pieces are often in conjunction with calligraphy, with where poems are written in the background at the start of the process prior to being decorated, colored and mounted.

One of my favorite pieces was Girl (aki-chan) by 12 year old Nanaka Seo.

My granddaughters liked this tiger best.

Temecula artists impressed as well. AJ Pederson's A Fresh Face was very well done, especially for a 12 year old.

Other beautiful aspects of the Japanese culture were shared as well.

What an exceptional tribute to our Sister Cities relationship. It has made me miss all our friends in the Land of the Rising Sun. I hope our exchanges can begin again soon.