Chris Meigh-Andrews

After a day at Kyoto Seika looking at video work in the University’s Media Center Collection, that evening I had dinner with Prof Ina and Kyoto-based media artists Akiko Takahashi and Chie Hirano. The following morning Shinsuke and I took the train to Tokyo, working on the the book translation en route.

My morning session viewing work at the media center at Kyoto Seika was enjoyable and fruitful, and I was able to see a number of works by Japanese moving image artists relevant to my research. The highlights of the morning viewing include two pieces by Takahiko Iimura- Ayers Rock (1985) and Ma: Space-Time in the Garden of Ryoan-Ji (1989), Visual Brains’ witty De-Sign 2 and a number of impressive works by Takashi Ito from two compilations of work from the 1980’s and 1990’s Illumination Ghost. The second compilation tape included an impressive and darkly disturbing work entitled  Zone (1996).

On my way home from the university this afternoon, I stopped to take a few more images, as tomorrow I leave for Tokyo, and Saturday I fly home to London.

I took shelter from the rain this morning in the vast hall at Nishi Hongan-Ji, and it will be my last temple visit this trip, as tomorrow I will spend the day at Kyoto Seika University, viewing tapes in the media centre in the morning and working with Shinsuke and Oha on details of the book translation in the afternoon. Weds morning I will leave Kyoto en route to Tokyo, before flying home to England on Saturday morning.

After lunch at “Second House” on Shichijo-Dori, I cycled northwards into downtown Kyoto and wandered about in Nishiki Market, enjoying the rich visual & culinary delights and looking for a bottle of sweet sake.

There are so many extraordinary temples to visit in Kyoto. Today I visited three more in the Southern  Higashiyama area of the city- Kiyomizu-Dera, Entouku-in and Kodai-Ji, with a side-trip to a little ceramics shop in between.

On the way home it began to rain heavily, and peddling slowly along on my bicycle in this downpour, I was soon thoroughly drenched. On returning home, after drying off and whilst drinking some hot tea, I came across this haiku by Matsuo Basho (1644-1694):

A traveler-

Let my name be thus known-

This autumnal shower.

This afternoon I spent a couple of hours at the Kyoto International Manga Museum in the centre of the city, which is run as a partnership project between the City of Kyoto and Kyoto Seika university. For the next three Saturdays the museum is hosting The Inter College Animation Festival showing the best work produced this year by students from 15 art schools across Japan. Today’s screening featured work from Kyoto Seika and Joshobi University of Art and Design, and the technical and creative standards were consistently high, with a diverse range of animation techniques and approaches. Prof Shinsuke Ina introduced me to Shuzo Ueda, the managing director of the Museum and gave me a tour of the Museum which has over 300,000 manga comics in its collection.

At 3PM Shinsuke, Isanori Oha and I went to a nearby hotel coffee shop to conduct an interview about Shinsuke’s work as part of my series of interviews with Japanese video artists. After the interview I cycled back through the city and along the river just as the light was fading, stopping to take a few images along the route.

I will be making a presentation about my early video work at the National Film Center at the Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo next Weds, Oct 6th from 4:00-6:00 PM, so I must leave Kyoto on Weds morning. This will give me a couple of days in Tokyo in which to interview Michael Goldberg and Itsuo Sakane about early artists’ video in Japan, before returning to London on Sept 9th.

National Film Center, Tokyo

Its hot again today, and my pace along the Kamo-gawa was definitely slower as a result. I cycled north, down beyond Kyoto train station to the Temple at To-Ji. There is a five-storey pagoda there- the tallest in Japan!

After lunch I crossed the river to see the Zen temple at Tofuku-Ji. This temple complex was peaceful and contemplative and quite deserted, as the season is too early for the spectacular colour changes which apparently draws huge crowds to this temple in November.

It gets dark early in Kyoto now, and although it is still warm during the day, the air cools down fast once the night falls. I passed this beautiful light shop in the Higashiyama area of Kyoto on my way home this evening, and I doubt I will pass this way again, so I took these two images.

Today the rain has set in, and thinking this would deter visitors to the temples at Ginkaku-Ji and Honen-In, I cycled across the river to Northern Higashiyama early this morning.  Ginkaku-Ji was already quite busy despite the rain, but it was still possible to get an unimpeded view of the stroll garden and the carefully raked white stones of the kogetsudai. Honen-In was, however, completely deserted and although I got thoroughly soaked-through wandering in the gardens, it was a treat to enjoy it in complete solitude.

This afternoon I made a presentation about my early videotape and installation work in the Media Centre  at Kyoto-Seika University. Professor Shinsuke Ina provided an introduction and Isanori Oha made a live translation of my presentation for the students, as well as handling a question and answer section at the end. During the two-hour session I tried to provide an overview of my work, but made a careful selection of material to avoid difficulties with the language, as some of my works do rely to a certain extent on the spoken and/or written word.