Return to Kobe, Day Three

Our third day in Kobe took us to the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art located near the waterfront in the HAT district.  It was an interesting building designed by architect Ando Tadao, who we later discovered also designed Gifu's convention center.  He had no formal architectural training, although he traveled and took in famous buildings.  His style is sleek and spacious, and his designs often take the environment into account rather than making the environment bend to the design.  He uses natural light to a great extent, as with a church he designed, where the cross is made from cutouts in the building's wall so sunlight shines through.  This museum didn't work so much with light, but the design played impeccably between lines and circles.

The permanent collection was probably the best laid-out of any museum I've seen.  The first floor began with self-portraits, showcasing primarily Japanese artists with a few Westerners thrown in.  This slowly transitioned into portraits of other people, then portraits of objects, and finished with landscapes.  It was a true journey, as we saw artists first engaged with themselves, then with others, and finally with the outside world.  On the second level, we were treated to some fantastic photography, including a series by Yasui Nakaji.  That artist tragically died early of renal failure, but not before taking some of the most telling portraits of Jewish residents of Kobe displaced by WWII and other disenfranchised groups.

After the museum and some lunch, we went to the local zoo.  We're both often on the fence about animals in captivity - for it when the animal wouldn't be able to survive anymore in the wild, for example - but we thought it would be a good chance to see what a zoo is like in Japan.  We saw a few species unique to the Asian continent that we'd never seen before, like the Binturong to the left and the Silver Pheasant to the right.  Binturongs are adorable.  The Silver Pheasant, as Matt said, is "made of brush strokes."


The most inspiring moments: a sloth languidly climbed over our heads in a steamy rain forest room, and we were investigated by a 42-year-old chimp named Cherry (one of the first born in captivity).








Next door to the zoo was a free citizen's space with a small literary exhibit.  It was a beautiful old building (pictured with the growing moon), that reminded me of old American church buildings.  Matt pored over the cases, which featured prominent Kansai-area writers, most of whom he'd read.  We were both excited to see Jun'ichiro Tanizaki (whose house we visited our last day in Kobe).  Matt also noted Shohei Ooka, who wrote what he believes to be the most moving book about the Japanese soldiers of WWII.

Afterwards, we were ready for dinner, having trekked many km.  We found a wonderful Korean restaurant near Ikuta shrine, and settled in for fantastic biminbap and makkoli (basically the Korean version of sake).  What a great end to a perfect day!