“Takashi Murakami: The 500 Arhats” underway at the Mori Art Museum is attracting large crowds daily, and in this series of six blog pieces we discuss a selection of the works on display.
Takashi Murakami
The 500 Arhats [White Tiger] (detail) 2012
Installation view: “Takashi Murakami: The 500 Arhats,” Mori Art Museum, 2015
Photo: Takayama Kozo
© 2012 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
The 500 Arhats - “Blue Dragon” and “White Tiger”
On The 500 Arhats comments Murakami: “At the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, faced with a national emergency, the Japanese people experienced a sense of helplessness, yet despite this sense of helplessness people had to continue to live their lives... In order to recover from despair, we needed a narrative that would restore our hope, even if that narrative was a fictional one. Throughout history, religion and legends have offered such narratives, and now those stories are needed again. The Five Hundred Arhats is a story about healing 500 different varieties of human suffering. The balance between life and death was called into question after great natural disasters and the motif of the Five Hundred Arhats suddenly started to seem relevant.”
The resulting work is a massive painting measuring three meters tall and 100 meters wide all together. It comprises four sections, each of which is named after one of the four Taoist gods that reign over the four points of the compass: the Blue Dragon of the east, the White Tiger of the west, the Vermilion Bird of the south, and the Black Tortoise of the north. Grounded by particular focus on the sixteen central arhats, it depicts in a dreamlike, dynamic fashion a total of 500 arhats along with various sacred animals and birds against a background of raging flames and roaring winds. Close inspection reveals the extent to which the individual elements, including the detailed portrayal of characters, the multiple layers of paint, and the lustrous finish of the glitter-covered surface, have been painstakingly incorporated into the work using sophisticated techniques.
As a side note, viewers may be able to make out in the middle of “White Tiger,” which is displayed in the exhibition. Murakami's Study of Nagasawa Rosetsu's “Five Hundred Arhats,” Included in Hosun.
Takashi Murakami
The 500 Arhats [Blue Dragon] 2012
Installation view: “Takashi Murakami: The 500 Arhats,” Mori Art Museum, 2015
Photo: Takayama Kozo
© 2012 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
■Relevant Information
・“Takashi Murakami: The 500 Arhats”
Saturday, October 31, 2015 - Sunday, March 6, 2016
・“Takashi Murakami: The 500 Arhats” Works of Murakami
（1）The 500 Arhats--“Blue Dragon” and “White Tiger”
（2）The 500 Arhats--“Black Tortoise” and “Vermilion Bird”
（3）Making The 500 Arhats
（4）New painting series
（5）The Birth Cry of a Universe
（6）Mr. DOB, Tan Tan Bo, Gero Tan
（7）Bonus! Murakami Arhat Robot
