The Fukuoka Prefecture Art Museum advertised itself as a place where local artists could show their stuff. From the exhibition on the first level, it seemed like a place where community art classes could exhibit their progress.
Couldn’t resist taking a photo of this photo. How cute is this feathered creature?
Moving to a room of water colors with a clearly posted sign indicating No Photography, I wondered why. These were local artists not priceless works.
There were no English explanations on the titles of the paintings so I went to Google translate and pointed my phone at the plaques to decipher the Japanese. A staff woman hurried over and indicated no photos by holding up her crossed wrists.
Side note. Crossing one’s arms at the wrists is the commonly used gesture for NO (as in “not here” or “not open” or “don’t do that” which brings up another thing…the Japanese don’t like to say “no”. For example, instead of saying “no thank you”, one might say “mmm, arigato gozaimas”. In English that would be “mmm, thank you very much”. A complete deflection.
In social situations, saying no is seen as confrontational or destructive to social harmony. One could say “I’m not sure, let me think about it” or “I’m busy right now”.
Anyway, the woman telling me with her crossed wrists not to take photos was polite and friendly about it. When I showed her I’d been translating the signs not taking pictures, she laughed and hurried away only to come back with a flyer, all in Japanese and indicated it had even more information I could translate. Oh yay.
Up on the next level, we were told “photos okay”. This was a display of kimonos. There is something about kimonos that make them seem rather flat when not on a person.
On to the Fukuoka Museum of Asian Art where the works of Japanese and other Asian artists of some renown could be seen. A few caught my eye and photos were allowed.
