For more than half a century, Japan has been rightly perceived around the world as a country that has become one of the most advanced in the use of the latest technologies and at the same time managed to preserve its national identity and traditions. At the same time, the latest technologies are often considered as something introduced from the outside and not compatible with the national culture. And traditions are understood only as strict observance of the external ritual aspects of certain customs that create a specific Japanese flavor, while the complex of worldview principles underlying them is not taken into account.

However, often the most modern technologies are used not only in production, construction and design, but also in the field of traditional genres of art. Sometimes in this way they seek to find new techniques and means of artistic expression, sometimes-to revive ancient cultural customs. At the same time, traditional cultural and ideological values, without losing their former meaning, are embedded in modern life with its scientific and technological progress and "efficiency".

MUSEUM OF THE POETIC GAME

In January 2006, in Kyoto, through the efforts of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu Cultural Foundation, a foundation dedicated to encouraging the study of the ancient poetry anthology "One from a Hundred Poets" (Hyakunin Isshu)¹, and the world's largest company for the production of computer games and game consoles Nintendo in one of the most beautiful places in Kyoto in the Arashiyama Mountains near the Moon Crossing Bridge opened a kind of historical and literary interactive museum, in which all halls and expositions are equipped with equipment based on the use of the latest digital technologies.

Nintendo was founded in 1889 as a company that produced playing cards with images of flowers and plants. It was the first company to produce electronic toys in the 1970s, and in the 1980s it produced very popular electronic games. Today, it is one of the world's largest computer game companies. Nintendo products are so popular that you can talk about their influence on the subculture in all countries of the world.

The museum was named Siguraden. The word shigure means "drizzling rain". In the old days, in aristocratic manors, this was the name of a place where they spent their leisure time or indulged in any entertainment in inclement weather. Over time, shigureden became known as theme parks and other places for entertainment.

The museum has become a kind of" house of poetry", where visitors can play the ancient poetic game uta-karuta (literally," cards with lyrics"), using devices based on digital technologies.

Uta-karuta appeared in Japan in the 17th century, when the Japanese were introduced to the European card game through the Portuguese.

Its main condition is knowledge of poems included in the most famous of the anthologies compiled on the principle of "one poem from a hundred poets", the author of which was the famous poet Fujiwarano Teika (Sadai) (1162-1241).

For many centuries, this collection was copied by hand or printed from woodcuts. The text of each poem was accompanied by an image of its author. Most likely, they were devoid of portrait similarity, but in the Middle Ages, Japanese artists emphasized in the image details of clothing and accessories that characterized the author and era, so in each individual case, poets are easily recognizable.

The popularity of this anthology

it was so great that many people knew all the hundred poems by heart even centuries after its appearance, that in the XVII century. it served as an impetus for the invention of the card game "in the Japanese style".

Uta-karuta became a kind of new link in the chain of poetic meetings that have long been held in Japan - at first at the court of emperors (VIII century), later (from the XII century) also among the military class, and three centuries later (from the XV century) and among city merchants and artisans.

These meetings were not held in order to better or faster than others to lay down the tank*. The main thing was to create a special atmosphere of emotional tension by "stringing" poems. In other words, each participant had to read a poem that could be a continuation of the previous one in terms of content. In addition, meetings were also arranged, at which all those present took turns composing a tank in such a way that each poem was a response to what the previous participant had composed.

By the 15th century, a new poetic form, the ranga, which means "poetic chain", was very popular among the townspeople². Rang's poetry was also a collective creation. However, if when" stringing " poems during poetic meetings, one poem was supposed to be a response to the previous one, in renga, lines composed by one poet should have been continued in lines composed by another.

The game uta-karuta is based on the same principle, with the only difference that it did not require the creative activity of players, it was only important to remember one hundred tanks included in the collection "One poem from one hundred poets". Each card had the opening or closing stanzas of a poem written on it. The winner was the one who first managed to connect the "halves" and make up the whole tank.

Uta-karuta has become not just a popular game, but a traditional New Year's Day entertainment.

Today, the use of digital technologies allows you to expand the" game " range of this poetry anthology, as visitors to the Shigureden Museum can see.

Here, on a liquid crystal screen about 50 square meters in size, forming a floor in one of the-

* Tanka (short song) - a non-rhymed pentad consisting of 31 syllables (5+7+5+7+7).

Portraits of the authors of poems included in the collection, created by medieval artists, are presented, as well as lines from poems. Each visitor is presented with an electronic collection "One poem from one hundred poets", with the missing lines on the "floor" images.

"Armed" with remote controls, visitors move from one image to another in search of "their half".

In the remaining halls, there are charades, puzzles and other games, including video and interactive games on the themes of poems and historical events of the era, as well as knowledge of poetic techniques typical of the traditional tank genre.

Of course, today not everyone knows these hundred poems by heart, but the high attendance of the" house of poetry " indicates its popularity, and among all age and social groups. Needless to say, the cooperation of business, science, technology and poetry, which has always played an extremely high role in the life of Japanese people, has brought great benefits to society.

"LANDSCAPE ON LOAN"

Modern forms, materials and technical means provide additional opportunities for expressing the philosophical and poetic principles underlying the traditional worldview in design.

An example is the new railway station building in the ancient capital of Japan, Kyoto.

Kyoto is a city of gardens, temples and shrines, a city where religious and artistic traditions were born, which determined the identity of Japanese culture. 14 monasteries and temples in Kyoto have been declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

Even the scenery around the city is declared a national treasure in the country as "Great Views of Kyoto". The fact is that the development of the city from the moment of its foundation to this day is carried out in such a way that from every intersection you can admire the mountains. Views of the local places are described in works of classical literature and are familiar even to those Japanese who have never been to the city.

In 1999, against the backdrop of "Great Views of Kyoto" near the Eastern Monastery of the main votive ³ Higashi Honganji, whose darkened wooden temples with roofs covered with dark gray tiles, harmoniously fit into the surrounding landscape, the new station complex appeared occupying a huge space. Such a glittering glass and metal structure, where everything is made according to the latest technology and design, is not found anywhere in Japan, and this is not often found around the world.

The decision to build a new railway station building was made in 1995, when the 1200th anniversary of the founding of Kyoto was celebrated. It was supposed to be a symbol of moving forward on the path of progress while preserving the continuity of Japanese cultural traditions.

Despite the well-thought-out technical solutions and perfection of their execution, the scale and external forms of the building, its obvious dissonance with the surrounding nature causes many complaints. At the same time, the new station has many fans who call themselves its fans - Kyoto station fan - and have their own website on the Internet ⁴, where they discuss the features of its architecture and design, as well as the events and performances of the theater located in the eastern part of the station.

In short, the new building has become a landmark of the city, and not only because of the unusual appearance of the exterior and interior, but also because it can be an example of how the most unconventional ways and materials can convey traditional philosophical and poetic ideas, spiritual and aesthetic values of the Japanese.

Here, a lot of things create the feeling of being on a space station. This effect is achieved not only due to high-tech structures and designs, but also due to the technique that consists of-

It has long been used in traditional architecture and was called shakkei, which literally means "landscape on loan".

Shakkei is the use of the surrounding landscape as an integral part of the entire architectural complex, which creates a sense of harmonious unity of the structure and nature.

The sky itself became part of the architectural appearance of Kyoto station: in a massive and impressive structure, in the most unexpected places - in the wall, in the aisles - there are huge openings through which you can see the sky. This is what creates the impression of being in extraterrestrial space.

The interior of this unusual building style plays out in a peculiar way the effect of illusory, characteristic of the spirit of traditional art, which was influenced by the philosophy of Zen Buddhism that denies the existence of opposites. Zen asserts that the true understanding of the essence of things is not based on a dual perception of the world, but on the ability to perceive true and false, real and unreal as being one and the same, because each of these paired phenomena contains an element of the other. Reflections are one of the most characteristic examples to illustrate this point.

The visual effect of "reflecting-reflected", when it is difficult to determine where one is and where the other is, is characteristic of all parts of this grandiose structure. The motif of" reflections " is repeated by one of the internal walls of the building, and the external one, which reflects the Tokyo tower, and the two-tiered auditorium in the theater, which is located in the east wing of the station. It is built in such a way that if you look at the hall from the stage or from the first rows of the stalls, you get the impression that the first tier is a reflection of the stalls.

The foyer of the theater is characterized by a calm, simple design. However, even here, thanks to the lighting, the shape of the lamps (straight pillars topped with plafonds in the form of a truncated cone extending upwards) and their location, the floor with the lamps standing on it seems to reflect the ceiling and vice versa.

The clean lines, the absence of any decorative details in this realm of white and grays-from light to almost black-create the impression of strict elegance in the Japanese spirit. The only color spot here is the bright red carpet lining the stairs leading to the theater. It is an allusion to the red cloth that covered the benches in front of the first teahouses, where the girls who served travelers - the prototypes of geishas-entertained them with songs and dances. Benches covered with red cloth can still be seen today in places where tea ceremonies are held or simply offered to drink tea.

However, despite many such significant details, the main evidence and symbol of the continuity of traditions was the wide and long staircase located in the station hall, reaching into the sky.

Escalators are installed on both sides of the stairs. The staircase and the escalators moving parallel to it seem to go to infinity due to the fact that the upper steps of both stairs and escalators pass into an open viewing platform, which gives the impression that they go into the sky. The stairs and escalators are shaded by giant fans (folding fans were invented in Kyoto many centuries ago), constructed of gray material with a soft sheen. To the climber, it seems that both the stairs and the escalator go into the sky, and the descendant does not see their end.

All this gives the impression of a continuous flow.

Stream-nagare - for the Japanese is a metaphor for human life. Another metaphor for human life is traveling. Wanderings are in the same associative row with the railway station.

An unusual staircase and escalator in the station building in Kyoto are not just functional parts of the structure. They carry a certain meaning that creates a corresponding psycho-emotional state.-

personal attitude. The fact that the effect is not accidental is also indicated by assigning the name "Kyoto Staircase" to this part of the structure and including it among the "Great Views of Kyoto".

Convincing evidence that architects, designers and builders managed to recreate the spirit of the city on this "space station" is the custom of lovers coming here and sitting in silence for a long time on the stairs leading up to the sky.

This custom may be incomprehensible to a foreigner, but every resident of Kyoto is familiar (and residents of other Japanese cities are familiar) with the city's characteristic picture, which can still be observed today: the bank of the Kamogawa River, strewn with couples in love, who sit in solemn silence by the water at dusk, often with traditional elegant boxes of food in their hands. It's a kind of ritual.

When asked why they come here, the answer is usually "there is a special mood here."

In the same way, lovers sit in silence with these boxes on the staircase that goes up to the sky, which is overshadowed by a giant fan made of ultra-modern material, in harmony with the interior that has never been seen before. Because here, they say, there is "the same special mood." Apparently, there is an emotional identification of this staircase going up into the sky with the river, with an endless stream.

This means that the architects in the station building, where people leave and come scurry around, managed to recreate the atmosphere of evening twilight on the riverbank, in the place where you can see one of the landscapes of the "Great Views of Kyoto" and where the "special mood" that Japanese people need from realizing their momentary existence in the stream of eternity, which has become the leitmotif of the arts.

"DO NOT FOLLOW IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE ANCIENTS, BUT SEEK WHAT THEY SOUGHT."

Japanese intellectuals ' reaction to the suibokuga^Nihonga 5 Tabuchi Toshio (lit., "water ink painting") also speaks about the ability of the Japanese people to recreate the desired atmosphere that provokes the expected emotional response.

The exhibition held at the Takashimaya - Suidobashi exhibition hall in 2009, where they were presented, became one of the sensations in the art world of Tokyo. These were not just paintings in the form of vertical kakemono scrolls, such as are usually hung in the niches of tpokonoma houses or in meditation halls. These were the grandiose sliding walls-partitions of fusuma, transported to Tokyo from the Kyoto monastery of Accumulated Wisdom-Chishyakuin.

The suibokuga genre appeared in the countries of the Far East - in China and Korea - in the IX-XII centuries, and later in Japan, many masters began to work in this genre, and gradually suibokuga acquired a "Japanese identity" ⁶.

Suibokuga was considered a "high" painting with deep philosophical overtones. In Zen monasteries, these paintings served as an object of contemplation during meditation. The philosophical significance of the paintings was based on the depiction of nature as a cosmic principle. To express this idea by means of painting, there were certain techniques: a significant part of the space of silk or paper on which the landscape was painted remained unfilled, which represented one of the most important concepts of Buddhist philosophy - mu (Emptiness) as the substance from which everything appears and disappears, continuing to exist in an unmanifested form.

A distinctive feature of this painting was also a kind of incompleteness, which expressed the idea of infinity and the variability of the world, which also underlies the philosophy of Zen Buddhism and has become one of the most important elements of modern art.

Tokonoma-a niche where a painting scroll hangs and there is a vase with flowers collected in a bouquet according to the laws of ikebana. It has not so much decorative as sacred significance.

one of those Buddhist ideas that were perceived by the Shinto consciousness as related. Therefore, suibokugas show us the real world-mountains, people, boats, flowers, etc., emerging from empty space, perceived as Emptiness, and disappearing again, dissolving in it, as in a fog, and the strokes of the artist's brush moving on paper (or silk) in a certain rhythm convey the emotional structure of what is captured in the picture. moments. The artist did not paint nature from nature, but generically reproduced its appearance from memory in a single act of creative impulse. Additions and alterations were not allowed.

One of the most famous Japanese masters of this genre was Hasegawa Tohaku (1539-1610). In the main monastery of the Shingon Buddhist school in Kyoto, the Chishyakuin Monastery of Accumulated Wisdom in question, he painted fusuma (1592), marking the beginning of the "painting of maples and cherries". This monastery is also famous for its garden, which was especially loved by the founder of the classical Japanese tea ceremony, Senno Rikyu (1521-1591) ^.7

In the same Tishyakuin monastery today, the artist Tabuchi Toshio had the honor of painting 60 fusuma of huge size in the temple, where he depicted the seasons at different times of the day.

Cherry blossoms, grasses, pines, bamboo-classics of Far Eastern painting-are depicted as a phenomenon that characterizes the seasons, in their brightest manifestation, gradually appearing and disappearing as if in a fog into Oblivion. In other words, Tabuchi expressed the beauty of a moment drowning in Eternity - the same leitmotif of Japanese art.

Critics called the exhibition of paintings by Tabuchi Toshio "Suibokuga Exhibition of the XXI century", and the artist's works, in which he conveys in his own way, as required by the genre, the beauty of the moment, drowning in Eternity, characterized as a new step in the development of the genre.

However, Suibokuga Tabuchi Toshio is recognized as innovative in this genre of painting not because he used modern techniques in the process of work (for example, projected each of his many sketches on the screen using a projector), although this is a personal "know-how" of the artist should be noted. The very fact of working in this way in a genre that traditionally presupposes a single act of creative impulse, in which a certain sacredness is seen, is something new, but, judging by the reaction of both the religious and secular public, it is not forbidden if the final result corresponds to the set goal.

Tabuchi Toshio's works are perceived as a new step in the development of the suibokuga genre due to their artistic features and accents. In general, it is a hymn to nature. By nature, the Tabuti drawing is more calm and "filigree" than the drawings of old masters of this genre, its lines are more elegant and subtle, there are fewer heavy strokes. They seem more complete. All sixty paintings are united by one idea-a fast-flowing and endless time, in the bosom of which winter, spring, summer and autumn invariably arise. In short, Tabuchi Toshio managed to fulfill the commandment of Kukai ⁸, the patriarch of the Shingon school, to which the monastery of Accumulated Wisdom belongs:"do not follow in the footsteps of the ancients, but seek what they sought."

These are just a few examples of combining the classic with the new, with the modern, in whatever form it takes. Just a few examples from a great many others that simultaneously affect the fields of science, technology, literature, urban planning, economics, art, and religion.

But they also show that modern technologies, materials, forms, and methods not only do not prevent the preservation of the traditional philosophical and poetic worldview, but in some way contribute to its maintenance, just as throughout the history of Japanese culture, many "borrowed" elements served as new means of expressing the main thing that underlay national beliefs It also helped to strengthen the specific features of their own culture.

¹ The collection "One poem from a hundred poets" was published in Russian translation by V. Sanovich under the title "One Hundred Poems of a Hundred Poets" in 1994 in St. Petersburg.

² The renga alternated verses in 5 - 7 - 5 and 7-7 syllables, in other words, triplets and couplets. There could be any number of participants, the task was to "add" a couplet to the three-line so that each stanza echoed the neighboring one. The first stanza of 5 - 7-5 syllables was called hokki.

³ The Main Vow is one of the 48 sacred vows made by Buddha Amida, who promised everyone who believes in him the road to paradise.

⁴ http://www.soudosuka.com

^Nihonga is a generalized name of the national types of Japanese painting from the second half of the XIX century in contrast to the Western European painting yoga.

⁶ For more information, see: Nikolaeva N. S. Iskusstvo Yapanii, 2002.

⁷ For more information, see: Gerasimova M. P. "The Way of Tea" - harmony, respect, purity, calm (History, philosophy, ritual). Meet-Japan. Moscow, Japan Today, 2005, N 41.

⁸ Kukai (774-835) is the posthumous name of the Great Teacher of Law Kobo-daishi, the eighth patriarch of the Shingon school, also known to his contemporaries as a scholar, artist, and calligrapher. Kukai'u is credited with creating the Japanese syllabic alphabet.

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