On a very beautiful sunny day last month, I visited the Kyoto National Museum. I was really looking forward to attending the exhibition of The Tale of Genji. In Japan, most high school students force to study a part of the story in Japanese classes, and I was not an exception either. Reading the original version is extremely difficult for modern Japanese people, and I read the modern version when I was younger.

The Kyoto National Museum was established in 1897, and some of its original buildings are still standing. It's fascinating to look around at those buildings.

When I visited the exhibition, a lot of foreign visitors were also there. I realized that The Tale of Genji was really famous around the world.

Unfortunately, photography wasn't allowed, so I share their website instead. You can see a part of the exhibit here. Many picture scrolls were breathtaking. I was especially inspired by the delicate, precise brushwork. Not only the paintings, but also the calligraphy looked amazing. There were some maki-e pieces related to the story as well.

There was a workshop on kai-awase, a traditional Japanese shell-matching game. It was a little bit late to join it, but I had a chance to talk to a curator about the game. I didn't know that the two shells in each pair have exact same paintings inside. The idea is to match the shells by finding the identical designs. I have two pairs of white porcelain shells, and I almost started designing them without knowing this important information.

Photography was allowed to take only the noh section. Even in the noh world, playing based on the Tale of Genji is quite popular. I was glad to see noh costumes related to the story. Every kimono looked so gorgeous.

I saw the advertisement for the next exhibit, which seemed very interesting! I'll definitely go back there to see it.

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