The Gates of Hell

~My trip to the Ueno Zoo was a lot of fun, but there was more to see after leaving. Soon after exiting the zoo, I saw this fantastic sculpture:

^A bronze cast of "The Gates of Hell" by Auguste Rodin, outside of the National Museum of Western Art. Inspired by The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. The original was sculpted from plaster by Rodin over several decades (it was finally finished in 1917) and is at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. This is one of three bronze casts of the sculpture, also made in 1917.

Here's a closeup of the bottom part:

^ A bit gruesome, isn't it? "The Gates of Hell" shows many scenes of famous sinners from The Divine Comedy, most of them writhing in eternal suffering. But at least they look good in bronze while writhing away.

^ Does anything look familiar here? Yes, that's "The Thinker", one of the most recognizable pieces of sculpture in the world. "The Gates of Hell" incorporates many smaller sculptures that, like "The Thinker", were created (in larger sizes) by Rodin as models for the complete "Gates of Hell".

Today, these individual pieces are thought of as independent works of art (had you even heard of "The Gates of Hell" before?). But they were made to be part of a larger whole, and should be considered as such. "The Thinker" is, to me, much more interesting and profound when he's calmly sitting there, ruminating, surrounded by horrific scenes of hell and torment.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to explore the National Museum of Western Art, because closing time was soon and I had already been to the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. As I was entering the doors of that museum, I saw these two strange fellows:

^ They were performing some kind of comedy sketch and attracted quite a crowd. I didn't have a clue what they were doing, but they do have amusing costumes, don't they? It must be awfully difficult to go through doorways with those gigantic hats.

Inside the museum was a fantastic display of artifacts from Ancient Persia, including huge statues of winged bulls, minted gold coins, and wonderfully-restored jewelry and household items. Photography was very much against the rules, but sometimes it's best to look with your eyes rather than a viewfinder or an LCD screen.

^ Here's an interesting statue in Ueno Park. This man is Hideo Noguchi (1876-1928), a doctor and medical scientist who worked to find a cure for infectious diseases such as Yellow Fever, which he ultimately died from in Ghana. He is holding a test tube in his hand. The words on the pedestal read, "PRO BONO HUMANI GENERIS", which means, "For the Good of Humankind".

^ Just outside of the Ueno Zoo was this large, colorful temple. How do I know it's a Buddhist Temple and not a Shinto Shrine? Because it has this near the top:

^ No, it's not a Nazi Temple! Remember what I said about the manji?

^ This peculiar building was just outside the temple (you can see it in the above temple picture). I think it's some kind of incense burner, although I really couldn't be sure as I didn't smell anything out of the ordinary. Water continually dripped from the dragon's mouth onto the rocks. Here's a closeup of the dragon:

^ Quite a fearsome little fellow, isn't he? In Japanese, the word from dragon is ryu. It's a bit difficult to say for native English speakers; you have to say the r sound very fast. It almost sound like 'yu', or 'ruh-yu' with the 'ruh' said very fast.

That's all for now! Oyasumi.