There are no strangers between us!
We are all brothers to each other.
Under the cherries in bloom.
―Kobayashi Issa
The exhibition “Memories of Japan” in the Memorial Apartment of Svyatoslav Richter continues the cycle, “Years of Travel,” and is dedicated to one of the favorite countries of the pianist. Richter first visited Japan in 1970 to take part in the Osaka Expo and give several concerts. Since then, he has visited the Land of the Rising Sun several times (the last tour took place in 1996). Each trip became for Richter a fascinating immersion in the culture of this mysterious country for every European, in which even today his name remains one of the most beloved and revered. There is evidence of this fascination with Japan in Richter’s apartment – there are natural wallpaper straws brought by a pianist from the first trip around the country, elegant chairs for the Yamaha piano, a wooden mock-up of a Japanese sword bokken, a hot water boiler and a portable hearth for the tea ceremony, and also traditional Yunomi and Tyavan ceramic bowls. Of great interest is the extremely diverse collection of Japanese porcelain and ceramics, which the host has been lovingly collecting for many years: painted plates, handmade designer vases, sake sets, animal figurines and a large number of mingei ceramic objects. The exhibition will feature two prints of Katsushika Hokusai from the collection of S. Richter, as well as several ukiyo-e prints of Japanese masters of the 19th century from the collection of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.
*The original text is in Russian.