Although not a bedtime story to put one to sleep, the stories of the recurated  “Storytelling in Japanese Art” exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art will keep one ensnared with the captivating tales of Japanese history and culture. Starting February 8^th, the Met will be reintroducing this exhibit that through text panels, captions and diagrams, reveals the narrative side of Japanese art with acute clarity. What’s so different about this show, is that it is normally a permanent exhibit in the museum, though now it will have a temporary show filled with temporary loans, which makes this exhibit filled with more stories than ever before to be told.

The main showing in the exhibit is the emaki, or scrolls, which focus on human drama and stories rather than a scene or just an individual person. These scrolls were used as almost films to tell stories, not necessarily relating to reality. The scrolls could include stories about dragons, spirits, the afterlife, and the casual trip to hell and back. The stories were very important to Japanese culture and its relationship with the spiritual world.  The main goal of this exhibit is to follow the different narratives and its genres and style.

It is interesting to note the different uses of art used by different ancient cultures. Whereas we have the Japanese focusing on stories and traditions, one could see the Islam, I’m sorry, the “The Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia” exhibit focusing more on reality and the story of what actually happened both socially and culturally. Both these cultures had the similar capabilities to paint a message on their chosen medium, but each one chose their own path. We can then point out the different ideals that were important to each culture.

The idea that we are looking back on different people and trying to understand there lives through their art is kind of scary. If we are looking so deeply into the stories of older cultures, then I don’t want to fathom what people would think of us when they look back at our movies and then ask themselves what they think we valued in our lifetime.