Japanese art is
eccentricity made organic. It is strangely enticing.
Akutagawa’s fables create
odd worlds that are not unlike those created by Kafka. They are less
claustrophobic but they are just as natural. It’s some incredible feat – to make
absurd seem so wholesome and so consistent. Only in Kafka’s case it was the
mental state of one man. Here, it’s the state of the whole nation.
“The Nose” in
particular seems a masterpiece of abstract expression that you can smell and
almost taste. Japanese art is like Japanese tea. And I mean that in the best
possible way.
