Celebrate India
By Saturday, August 28th, the city’s sweltering summer heat will yield to a more accustomed winter chill, so we recommend warming up with the Asian Art Museum’s Celebration of India.
Get moving with the Chitresh Das Dance Company, flex your mind and body with yoga gallery tours, sample Indian desserts and spices, and create your own works of art.
And since no fewer than five people have asked about it today, yes, Sanjay Patel will be presenting his new book, Ramayana: Divine Loophole. Check out his Gheehappy.com, or learn about his influences (he has excellent taste) and read an interview on Pixar’s site.
A huge new shipment of South Asian books just arrived in the Museum Store, so if the docents pique your curiosity, you can take some of the museum home with you. Namaste!
In an effort to balance both sides of samurai—the skilled fighter vs. the refined artist—I tipped the scales on the side of the stereotypical samurai, and in the process sparked a lively, and at times heated, dialogue about the glorification of war through the creation of art activities. Although the previous projects posted through the blog focus on the tools used by the samurai class in ceremonies as well as in combat, I stand by them as a way to bring history to life and engage kids in an exploration of Japanese art, culture and history, and provide a launching point for a larger, more thoughtful discussion about war and violence (and pacifism, the anti-war movement and critical thinking)…
People are serious about their swords. I was trying to show the swords and sword guards (tsuba) on view in Hambrecht to a friend the other day, but couldn’t quite reach the cases housing these finely crafted beauties. A group of hungry-eyed gentlemen hovered over them like vultures waiting for lunch—mouths open, staring. Although I tried, even my most effective derby moves weren’t enough to get the two of us close enough to see the displays. We ended up looking at the 
Samurai wore elaborate suits of armor to protect themselves in battle. Four distinct styles were worn—the showier, fancy armor generally saved for ceremonies –oyoroi and domaru-gusoku — and the two that were more often actually worn in battle, haramaki and tosei-gusoku (in case you haven’t already, you can see samurai armor on view at the museum through September 20). Armor was made of materials such as iron, bronze, metal, leather, lacquer and braided silk, and constructed in pieces so the samurai could move easily when fighting their enemies. Among other pieces, samurai armor consisted of the breastplate (dō), which protected the samurai’s heart and guts, and the tassets (kusazuri), which protected the hips. Like the helmets samurai wore, breastplates were often decorated with elaborate designs that distinguished them from the other samurai, guardian figures that protected them and creepy imagery that frightened their opponents. Ever wondered what it’s like to wear samurai armor? 
In addition to masks, helmets (kabuto) were an important part of the samurai uniform. Made of metal and decorated with materials like wood, fur, feather and bone, the helmet’s features were both decorative and functional, distinguishing samurai from one another and protecting their necks from the sharp sword blades of their enemies. With the extra material added to the design you’d think the helmet was one of the heavier elements of the samurai’s uniform. In fact, they only weighed about 5 lbs—depending upon the type of armor, this was anywhere between 1/5 to 1/10 of its total weight. Of course, I wouldn’t choose to wear a 5 lb. baseball hat around all day while trying to play Guitar Hero, calculate the square root of pi and hang out with my friends. I’m just sayin’.
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