We Were Out Early,

as we are going to London,

to visit the Victoria & Albert Museum,

it was a bright but chilly day,

we arrived just before our train,

for the start of our trip appropriately to Victoria,

all set? then I will begin,

after taking a couple of tubes we arrived here, no not China town,

but in South Kensington,

we made our way past many of the restaurants and cafes in the area,

and here it is, the V & A, 

the front entrance was closed. so we made our way up Exhibition Road to the side entrance, going past the side of the Natural History Museum on the way,

we were soon in the courtyard,

and making our way to the entrance,

a quick pose as we looked for a cloakroom, but due to covid they were closed,

as it happens in the same area, there was a small gift shop, if David Bowie is your favorite, here is the book for you,

it was already getting crowded in the main foyer,

we decided to take a quick look in the garden,

where there was a café, 

but it was so chilly, 

we just took a couple of photographs,

before we were back inside,

this looked interesting, but it was for members only, and we were not members, 

we started walking through some of the halls,

and found ourselves in the Japanese display,

these illustrations featuring Manners & Modernity,

using a style of poster that looks old but is not,

if you watch programs featuring antiques as we often do, a Netsuke is bound to be seen,

there are so many here,

at the moment the world is going through a covid pandemic, but here is a fact in the period 1615 - 1868 every 20 to 30 years or so smallpox would ravage the nation, in Tokyo alone killing tens if not hundreds of thousands in just one outbreak, so as you might imagine poster were produced about the killer disease,

a few above,

this is a description of the poster below,

I wonder if it worked, as an aside when one of these outbreaks happened, as stated in Tokyo alone the disease killed tens if not hundreds of thousands, fast forward to today, in all of Japan, not just Tokyo, covid has killed as of its latest update 21,198, nowhere near the total of just Tokyo that every 20 or 30 years died of smallpox,

we continued looking around the exhibits,

and then before I could say it, Diana looked at me and said "onibaba"

the demon mask of the film,

 Onibaba (鬼婆, lit. Demon Hag), it is a 1964 Japanese historical drama horror film, written and directed by Kaneto Shindo, the film is set during a civil war in the fourteenth century, Nobuko Otowa and Jitsuko Yoshimura play two women who kill soldiers to steal their possessions, and one, the mother, appears to conjure up a demon, I have featured a few highlights from the scroll (see the whole thing complete here), the digitisation of which appears to have come from the International Research Center for Japanese Studies – Yokai Database, I should say we have watched the film a couple of times,

we then found ourselves at the front of the Japanese display,

where there was this display of sword guards,

that we made a post about some years ago,

we wandered into another gallery,

the sheer size of the exhibits here,

has to be seen to be believed, we went into the next room,

that featured stained glass,

one of two as it happens, there may be more!

as well as stained glass,

this hall featured altar pieces,

we continued,

past a group of artists,

along the corridor,

to the Casts Rooms,

the exhibits in the previous room were big,

these even more so,

from the web site, opened in 1873, the Cast Courts display copies of some of the world's most significant works of art reproduced in plaster, electrotype, photography, and digital media. The cast collection is famous for including reproductions of Michelangelo's David, Trajan's Column, and Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise, amongst many others,

a description of the above,

and a couple of close ups,

such detail,

a statue many of us will be familiar with,

the Three Graces,

a close up of one of them,

the Brunswick Lion,

up close,

from now on I will only make occasional comments, and let the signs do the talking, as it takes so long typing, 

there was a sample and description of how casts were made,

into another hall of wonders,

I did not want to get too close, but this artists work looked just so good,

back into one of the corridors,

to wooden works that have survived,

a few visitors take a rest,

for us onward,

we were entering the Wolfson Gallery,

and what treasures it held,

below,

a quick pose,

I will finish this post with a close up of the salt cellar, if you want to see the second part of our day at the V & A please hit the 'Older Posts' button at the bottom right of the page.