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Giverny in the land of the Rising Sun : Kitagawa Monet and Japan
You have certainly heard about Monet's house and garden in Giverny, and you may even have visited them. But did you know there exists an almost exact replica in Japan? Have a look at the photos below. You think you can recognise Giverny ? Well, you are mistaken, they were taken several thousand kilometres away from Giverny!
In order to mark the Millennium,
Mr Gérald Van Der Kemp had decided to carry out a project named
'Jardin de Monet Marmottan au Village de Kitagawa' (Garden of Monet Marmottan
in the village of Katagawa), i.e. to replicate Monets's garden in Giverny
in the little Japanese town of Kitagawa-mura as accurately a possible.
It might have
seemed unthinkable to duplicate a patch of Normandy in a very different
cultural and climatic environment and yet a visitor, just back from Giverny
says that the Kitagawa garden "is quite close to the real thing with
a very nice lake complete with an assortment of Japanese and European
plant life."
Kitagawa was indeed designed
as a copy of Giverny: the garden includes the same pathways, flowers,
plant life, pond, and (of course) water lilies as the original. Besides,
authenticity was ensured thanks to the help and advice of Giverny's head
gardener.
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Everyone knows how much the Japanese admire Monet and therefore it is not difficult to believe that the Garden of Monet in Kitagawa was a success attracting huge crowds : as many as 200,000 people flocked there the first year. Here is how a Japanese visitor describes Kitagawa :" They say it is a stunning French garden, but what surprised me most were the many rare flowers, and people and more people were everywhere."
Only the photo in the middle is from Giverny Completing the garden was a challenge: the setting facing the sea, the lay of the land with steep hills , the weather conditions that lead to a different biotope, tropical typhoons, all these made the job very difficult, says Mr Gilbert Vahé, the head gardener in Giverny. But he also makes it clear that "every element that could hinder the completion was turned into something positive , whether it was the hills, the sea nearby or the weather." Gilbert Vahé explains for instance that it was possible to add to the range of plants and flowers in the garden because of the weather and the difference in biotope, or to use the sea in order to create long-distance vistas. "Typhoons are the only hostile element that remains" he adds. "This is why I admire these gardeners who constantly have to start all over again and fight against natural elements."
Well, why are Japanese people so much interested in Monet? It is certainly because there exist parallels and similarities between Japanese art and impressionism. It is well known
that Monet, like many other European artists of the time, was influenced
by Japanese painters. He took part in the famous 'Japanese dinners'
during which the participants used to talk about Japanese art , he was
close to Hayashi Tadamasa, one of the main contemporary masters, etc…
And of course , all this affected his painting. One simply has to look
at the portrait of his wife, Camille, dressed as a Japanese woman, but
more generally some of Monet's ranges of colours and themes, movement
and framing were
For Monet, modern painting did not simply mean painting modern subjects but also finding a way to show the perceptions that the rhythm of modern life seemed to be accelerating. The study of 19th century Japanese prints, which also show modern life, helped the Master develop his conception of impressionism: the use of flat planes of bright colour, asymmetry, and the telescoping of near and far, all this proved Monet that there existed other pictorial ways than the harmonious cool tones, the balanced compositions, and slow rhythms that are omnipresent in landscape painting before Monet. Monet had a
collection of 250 Japanese prints (displayed in his house in Giverny)
whose colours, shapes and techniques fascinated him, especially those
colours and techniques found in Hiroshige's and Hokusai's prints, two
masters of Japanese painting.
Claude Monet : Poplars on the Banks of the River Epte in Autumn (1891) [12] Eastern influence is also to be found in Monet's garden: in a few years he completely transformed the place, designed new alleys, planted numerous species of exotic plants, substituted Japanese crabs and oriental cherries for apple trees. From China and Japan, he had bamboos, exotic water lilies and rare plants shipped. In 1924, Georges Truffaut (a famous horticulturist) wrote in "Jardinage" (Gardening magazine) that, in Monet's garden, plants were placed without any previous plan, in an asymmetric way and this clearly showed strong attraction for the Far East. But the most
conspicuous connection between Claude Monet's garden and Japanese gardens
is obviously the bridge, called the "Japanese Bridge" since
it has the same arch as those in Japan. (Note however the green colour
while 'genuine' ones are usually red.). Such bridges are called "moon
bridges " because light rays and moonshine can pass under them.
Deeply inspired
by Japanese art, which Europe discovered after the beginning of the
Meiji era which opened up Japan to Western influence, this is how Monet
is an obvious link between both artistic cultures. Thus, one better
understands why Japanese people have developed a passion for Monet and
are attracted by the 'garden of Monet Marmottan in the village of Katagawa'. A very special thank to Mr Flint who allowed us to use many of the photos shown here, without which we would not have been able to write this page. Other photos of Monet's garden at Kitagawa can be seen in Mr Flint's website. We invite you to have a look at it. (http://flintyinjapan.typepad.com/photos/the_monet_gardens/index.html) Webography and et bibliography : * The website
of the garden of Monet in Kitagawa-mura http://www.kitagawamura.net/monet/ * Another site,
but also in Japanese * Article about
"Horoshige " in the French edition of Wikipedia http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshige * Interview of Mr Gilbert Vahé, head gardener at Fondation Claude Monet http://www.museesdefrance.org/museum_back/0507/museum9.html ( in French) * Paris Normandie (local newspaper) : 02.10.2001, 15.11.2002 and 31.03.2004
8,
9, 26, 31 : unknown origin, found on the Web We
could not ask for some copyrights, among which those of the official
site of Kitagawa garden, as we were unable to (or did not know how to)
to find out the email addresses in pages that are totally written in
Japanese. A few pages
about the 'original' garden in Giverny and "an American Giverny"... . |
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