Soul vs. Seoul

The dynamics in this painting cast a dark shadow over the misery of war and self-sacrifice. The female subjects are beauty intertwined with this misery of soul and spirit, and patriotism.   One, a young Japanese beauty, and the other, a young Korean beauty.   Two opposing factions united in suffering and beauty.    Mishima had also identified with similar dark themes of beauty and pain in his works, and ultimately suicidal glory.





Shock Art is a contemporary art form that showcases disturbing imagery, like when I witnessed Mr. Aida Makoto masturbating in one of his private exhibitions in downtown Tokyo the other night.  There was something disturbingly fascinating about a grown man pulling his penis over the kanji of "beautiful young woman / bishojo 美少女"  as throngs of people watched on flat screen display.  Almost similar to when the late Mr. Mishima Yukio's ejaculation over the depiction of St. Sebastian, a male, nevertheless, was beautiful in his own mind.   Shock art may be a bit of an overstatement or a mislabeling of his work, but for me it isn't.  Throwing a young girl in a blender and making a puree out of her is shock art in my dictionary.   

The contention between Japan and Korea goes back many years and cannot be separated from rhetorical discourse, not even art.   One such contentious period would be during Japan's annexation and colonial rule of the peninsula from 1910 to 1945, which for the most part, contributed to the building of heavy industry and public education for Koreans there.    This in turn helped bolster Japan's war economy in an attempt to strengthen Asia against Western expansionist policies through-out the Far East.    Makoto pieced together this drawing to illustrate that turbulent time period.    And it was not as if ordinary Japanese were aware of what was actually going on over in Korea at that particular time given the circumstances back at home.    The rendering of the war from Makoto's perspective had to incorporate young tender beauty, much like the soul of this nation used to be when the whole race was pure, now tarnished.  Makoto seeks to mesh together that lost purity with images of rampant over-westernization and decadence, and how the destruction of the soul is evident in modern Japan, yet the beauty is somehow still there amongst the detritus and the dead.     

In reality the young tender beauties of Makoto's time have grown into delicious looking Jukujo mothers with thick legs and hefty bust lines.   Bovine beauties that are no longer seen as beautiful in the eyes of Japanese men.    The one thing Makoto and I have is a strong attachment to is beautiful smooth legs and a lurid sense of sexuality and patriotism towards Japan.    We both love Japan.

My only connection with Koreans before I came to Japan is when they were annexing the ghettos of north America with their booze, cigarettes and in some instances drugs.   Some liquor stores even provide sofas and places to sit outside for many poor people so that they can binge drink themselves into oblivion.    90% of all liquor stores in the ghettos are owned and operated by Koreans, who contribute very little to nothing to the communities they exploit, namely black communities.   When there should be schools and supermarkets and community centers for young kids, there are liquor stores, many of which are in the vicinity of churches in the poorest neighborhoods.  Koreans have killed black people just for looking suspicious, a fact.   This is their contribution to the community when they come to America.

All Koreans, even religious types believe that all black people are devils by birth, and that redemption is virtually impossible if your skin is dark and are therefore damned to hell.    Koreans worship white people, just ask the cosmetics industry, and believe that they are the true manifestation of godliness and that they are without sin.   I will never forget nor forgive the debt to humanity Koreans owe Blacks in these poor neighborhoods where their main stock and trade is peddling booze, and where they make a fortune off the backs of the poor and disenfranchised.    Neither will Korea forget Japan's enlightenment period when they educated the Koreans in everything, even etiquette, or even better, humanity.     I am sure the Vietnamese comfort women will never forget the atrocities committed by the Korean Armies and the enormous debt owed to them, and the compensation they never received - not even an apology.

I can still remember the crooked black toothed Korean tour guide in Seoul.    I was in a tour group full of Whites from Eastern Europe, and we were on a tour of the DMZ.   The Korean tour guide kept laughing and praising the virtues of the atomic bomb, like it was the greatest blessing ever bestowed upon the Japanese race.     I almost threw up.    She should be humbler being so poor and uneducated.    Such an attitude could be construed as barbaric on her part.   Maybe she should be thanking the Japanese instead for at least providing her forefathers a higher standard of education and an industry which they still use today, albeit in different form.      

Japan has paid monies in the form of ODA, even the Korean survivors of the atomic bomb received 6 billion yen in compensation for the fallout caused by Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Japan has done more than enough for Korea and has granted these people the opportunity to exploit the Jukujo with their songs and pop culture, which I hate, and is unforgivable in my book.     

After visiting Korea for the sixth time and seeing them in their 'Korean form' when they are not whoring over whites in the U.S.A. is interesting.    They are much more composed and docile, still shrewd though.    And I like how most of them behave here in Japan, but in Los Angeles and New York you can forget about everything they learned from the Japanese, in terms of civility and moral decency.    

Actually, I do have a story of an experience I had once.   It happened almost ten years ago when I was attending a meditation session at a zen house in downtown L.A. at around 6pm.    In the group were a mix of whites, Koreans, and some other people.   We were walking around in a circle chanting some incantation of sorts.    Korean lady behind me asked me "don't you have your own gods?"  I never reacted to that curt comment, but I took it to mean that I was not welcome, and I never returned.  The head practitioner was a fat Caucasian.     Zen is not a racist practice, but I guess everybody needs a crutch every now and then when they feel weak and vulnerable.  Spiritually enlightened or not, Koreans are still racist in nature, and they show it.   This is my experience with them, maybe not your experience.   Was her soul any different from mine?   Do Koreans have soul?   Much to ponder there.   Blacks invented soul.   

Drawing back to Makoto, I still find beauty even from the soulless types.   Korean women are beautiful, that cannot be denied, even their stinging rebuke of blacks spews of tainted beauty from a black heart is sickeningly beautiful and caustic all at the same time.  

N.B.  Sort of NSFW, but I recommend watching it.  It's a specialty video made for a type of smoking fetish.   Look into her eyes, see the smoke, smell the smoke, Watch and feel her pollute.





The views expressed in this piece are my own, and are not the actual artist's opinion, except for the depiction of the first piece of art which I stumbled upon via twitter.    





Aida Makoto's exhibitions will be on display until March, so I highly recommend attending it if you want to get a very unique perspective on the heart of Tokyo.    This is one of the best art exhibitions I have attended in a long time.    You can request the audio phone in English or Japanese.   Don't know if it's available in any other languages.   I highly recommend renting the audio guide!  The museum has a place that keeps your coats and bags for free.   Some exhibitions you can take pictures.  





In closing, art is not always pretty if you are a prude.   Sometimes images as well as rhetoric can be rather off putting, but that doesn't lessen the meaning nor the essence of it.   There is a message there, even a nugget of truth if you are open minded.