Thousands of miles away from India, the traditional Madhubani painting and several other art forms, which are on the verge of decline in the country, have found an oasis in Japan that can boast of a museum exclusively dedicated to their preservation.
The 'Mithila Museum', situated in Tokamachi hills in Japan`s Niigata prefecture and a brainchild of Tokio Hasegawa, is now a treasure house of 15,000 exquisite Madhubani paintings and attracts hundreds of artists from India throughout the year.
"I did not want this spiritual (Madhubani) art form to disappear like our own ukioye (Japanese art from the 17 century in Ado period). Today even if we want to set up a museum we cannot as most of our paintings are with collectors and museums in the west," says 60-year-old Hasegawa on his endeavour to save the art form that originated in Bihar.
"The paintings are being kept at the museum for eternity," he said.
The idea for the museum came when a group of students approached Hasegawa with 80 Madhubani paintings in 1982 which they had purchased during a trip to Bihar and were looking for a place to exhibit them.
Hasegawa, a 16th generation Tokyo resident and a renowned musician, had at that time "escaped" city life to live in the mountains to be "more close to his music and god".
"So we decided to covert a vacant primary school for a museum," says Hasegawa. With this began a long journey which took him over 20 times to India -- collecting art, encouraging artists and bringing them over to Japan.
[From outlookindia.com] |
