Monday, Sept. 30, 1985
Campus/Area
University Daily Kansan
7
Spirited Japanese art
Demons viewed at Spencer
By Jill White Of the Kansan staff
A supernatural atmosphere permeated the auditorium of the Spencer Museum of Art yesterday as the lights slowly dimmed and Roger Keyes, director of the Center for the Study of Japanese Prints in San Rafael, Calif., told earie but humorous tales of Japanese folklore.
Images ranging from the Taosti Immortals and Shoki the Demon Queller to mountain goblins and ghosts were portrayed in numerous slide reproductions of prints, paintings, screens, books and sculpture from the Edo and Meiji periods.
This folklore from 19th century Japan formed the basis for almost all the art work of the new exhibit, "Japanese Ghosts and Demons: Art of the Supernatural." About 250 people attended the exhibit opening yesterday.
"In the West, the supernatural is tinged with fear or demonic possession," Keyes said. "But Japanese artists have a much broader spectrum of supernatural interpretation that includes playfulness, humor and
imagination. They used the supernatural as a vehicle for exploring imagination."
Keyes said one common theme of Japanese art was the power of transformation from animal to human. He wrote that in *Tsukioka Yosikoshi's* prints.
Yosikotishi depicts the tale of a fox that transformed into a woman to marry a lonely man. The woman-fox bears a child but returns to foxhound because the man's first wife returns.
Humans can transform themselves into animals as seen in the story of Kiyohime, a woman who changes into a snake while pursuing an unrequited love.
The living also can become inanimate objects. Tanuki, a raccoonlike dog, can turn into a teapot. Tengu, a raccoon, can turn into Buddhas or priests.
"In the 19th century, the Japanese artists drew a lot from their internal fantasies to project their imaginations." Keyes said, "whereas in the 17th and 18th centuries, artists dealt entirely with the external world."
creasing prosperity and self-interest were elements that stimulated the more fearful or grusome prints that depict the doubt and fear of the Japanese during that era, Keyes said.
The declining feudal system, in-
For example, Hokusai's print of a haglike female character clutching a decapitated baby shows the image of women fallen from godlike beings to demons.
Other artists responded to these fears by inventing magical heroes such as Yoskitoshi's Shoki, the Demon Queller.
Florence Everitt, Omaha, Neb., senior, said she was glad she attended the opening lecture.
"My mind was much more open and receptive to new art forms," she said. "It was great because the whole audience was involved in the lecture."
The exhibit will be complemented throughout its three-month stay by various lectures, films and programs. The Spencer Museum is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
Northern Saskatchewan is an area with no roads and few people. The land is rugged and inaccessible, yet in this remote area geologists find clues about earth's early past, a KU geology professor said.
Canadian rocks give clue to past
By John Williams Of the Kansan staff
The area is important to M.E. Bickford and W.R. Van Schmus, both professors of geology, because of the age of the rocks - 1.85 billion years old.
Saskatchewan, in central Canada, is part of a 3.5-billion-year-old geologic feature known as the Canadian Shield. A shield is part of the craton, the stable inferior of a continent.
"The craton is part of the earth's crust that formed first and the rest of the continent gathered on it."
"The work we do with the Canadian Shield is pure science," Bickford, who travels to the shield once a year, said last week. "We are not out to find mineral or oil in our exploration; rather our research is aimed at understanding the history and mechanisms in which the continental crust developed.
Shield areas, found in Siberia, central Africa, Brazil and Australia, contain rocks that are extremely old and have been deformed by high heat and pressure. Geologists call these metamorphic rocks.
Rocks become progressively younger farther from the craton up to the western edge of the Appalachian Mountains where they are about 1.75 billion years old. Then they disappear, only to reappear at the front range of the Rocky Mountains near Denver, he said.
What happened to the missing thousand miles of deformed rock?
"It's there," he said, "buried under about a kilometer of sediments deposited when shallow seas covered the Midwest."
The rocks that cover the basement of deformed rock span about 300 million years, he said.
For the past 12 years, Bickford and Van Schmus have collaborated with companies in mineral and oil exploration to obtain core samples of the buried basement rock.
"That got us in touch with industry and they have been very cooperative in helping us," Bickford said. "We have encouraged them to turn the drill for another hour after they reach basement rock so we can analyze the samples."
Usually having companies run drills a little longer costs about $10,000 to $12,000, but it is much less expensive than drilling holes from start to finish. This works for $60,000, he said. Bickford calls this process piggybacking.
From the core samples they collect from exploration in Kansas, eastern Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa and Ohio, they reconstruct the formation of the continent by dating the samples using a process known as uranium-lead dating.
The dating process begins with the swing of a sledge hammer and after crushing samples into fine dust, the geologists separate zirconis — tiny, dense pieces of granite — by using a shaking table or using heavy organic liquids, such as bromoform, he said.
MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL SPECIAL Cincinnati Bengals vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
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4 Pool Tables Foosball Birdie King
West Coast Saloon
2222 Iowa 841-BREW
* Special good open to close Monday.
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Busch
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Arnold Steinhardt, violin John Dalley,琴
Michael Tree, viola David Soyer, cello
The University of Kansas School of Fine Arts Chamber Music Series Opens its 39th Season with the
BENITA VALENTE, SOPRANO
GUARNERI STRING QUARTET WITH
8:00 p.m. Thursday, October 3, 1985 Cratton-Preyer Theatre
ONE GREAT CONCERT
Program:
**Program:**
Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 44, No. 3
Mendelssohn
Quartet No. 2 in F-sharp minor, Op. 10, for voice and strings
Schoenberg
Quartet in C Major, Op. 61
Tickets on sale at the Murphy Hall Box Office
all seats reserved/For reservations, call 913/864-3982
Prices: Public: $11 & $9
KU Students with ID & K-12 Students: $5.50 & $4.50
Senior Citizens & Other Students: $10 & $8
Partially funded by the KU Student Activity Fee, Swarthout Society and the KU Endowment Association
Quote from Coach Gottfried on Vanderbilt game.
The Arts
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