I thought I should tell you at the beginning, I don't know much about art. But I'm interested. A while ago, I went to The Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo with my ex-girlfriend at the time. This museum has several floors and many works are on display. It felt like an art museum with a high level of difficulty.
It took over two hours to go all the way around, and I remember my legs getting tired and sore. After visiting the museum, we took a walk around the nearby Imperial Palace. I also recently went to Ginza to see an exhibition by calligrapher Souun Takeda. Mr. Takeda has produced various works of art derived from calligraphy. He is famous in Japan.
If you look at his works, he included wonderful kanji such as love and gratitude. I felt a positive energy like the joy of living. Another person I'm paying attention to is the painter Shogen. He was staying in the village of Bunju in Tanzania, Africa. He is also a popular YouTuber with over 200,000 subscribers.
Shogen learned about the philosophy of life and what happiness is from the natives of Bunju village. That experience is reflected in his work. In this way, I like to learn about the artist's personality, thoughts, and background before seeing the work.
I'm not an art expert and I don't have a great sense of sensibility, so I thought it would be better to understand the background of the work before looking at it straight away. I also place more emphasis on emotion and passion than on the technical aspects of art.
By the way, I think that many Japanese people today judge art based on whether it is good or bad. This is probably a value influenced by compulsory education. In Japanese art classes, students' work is graded. As a result, people who receive low scores believe that they have no artistic sense, and their self-esteem decreases.
Also, when I was in junior high school, I didn't really enjoy art because I was so focused on trying to draw well based on other people's evaluations. It's fine to express what your heart desires, but back then I guess it was difficult for me to listen to my heart.
If we can break away from the world of superiority and inferiority, I think more and more Japanese people will love art. In a sense, the artists who are active in Japan today may not have fit into the mold of Japan's compulsory education. From now on, I would like to try to express myself honestly, not just in art, but without being influenced by society's values.