Yoshitoshi Moshi Moshi
Alex wasn’t sure if this art class was a good idea. He had wanted to teach only adults, but The Authority had a policy of community-building and insisted that classes at the Transparent Temple – nickname of their glassy community centre – should be open to all. The Official Response Document asked the question, “Do children benefit from inter-generational interaction and instruction?” and then answered it too, saying, “Yes, they do. They should thus be offered classes alongside adults.”
The school thought this was wonderful. It was a good way to stretch their resources – they could send Year Twelve students to Alex’s art class instead of running one themselves.
Alex’s first term focus was PIA: Philosophy In Art. Now with two audiences to please, he wondered if that would work well. Maybe he should simplify the topic and start with a particular style of art, and see how that went before broadening its intellectual scope.
The audience had self-segregated. Adults sat along the left of the room and teens along the right.
“Good morning everyone,” Alex said confidently. “Welcome to PIA:Philosophy In Art class. It is wonderful to have both adults and teens present. I am looking forward to hearing a wide range of views and opinions from you all. I’d like to start with a particular style today, something very distinctive. Who knows something about Japanese design?”
The teens were more enthusiastic than he’d supposed. Their hands shot up and they began calling out.
“Pac Man!”
“Manga!”
“Godzilla!”
“Transformers!”
“Pokemon!”
“Tomagotchi!”
“Yu-Gi-Oh!”
This wasn’t really what Alex had wanted, but the last example was fortuitous. He decided to pick up on it.
“What is Yu-Gi-Oh? Oh, it’s a card game? The King of Games! Is it good? What are the characters like? Who is the main hero? So it’s Yugi Mutou? Thank you for enlightening me. I’ll prepare myself for battle! I’d like to introduce you to a similar word – Ukiyo-e. Can you say that?” Some of the class had a go.
“Well done! Ukiyo-e is traditional Japanese woodblock printing. Who has heard of Hokusai?”
Most adults put up their hands, but none of the teens.
“He was the son of a mirror-maker and became obsessed with Mt Fuji. He spent much of his life drawing it in surprising ways. Another artist is Hiroshige, the son of a fire fighter. When he was a child he loved to play with miniature landscapes, and later experimented with many different perspectives. The third artist I’d like to consider is Yoshitoshi. He lived in a time when feudal society was breaking down in Japan. It was a time of great chaos, and many of his images feature violence and death. So which of these artists shall we deal with first?”
A boy shouted out, “Yoshitoshi!”
A girl shouted out, “Moshi moshi!” Alex couldn’t help laughing. This was the usual way that Japanese people answered telephones.
A chant began in the classroom, with boys shouting out “Yoshitoshi!” and girls responding with “Moshi moshi!”
“Yoshitoshi!”
“Moshi moshi!”
“Yoshitoshi!”
“Moshi moshi!”
“Yoshitoshi!”
“Moshi moshi!”
Alex joined in with both chants. This class would be more fun than he’d supposed.
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