NHK's Bijutsun!（びじゅチューン!）

 

I guess Captain Janeway told Leonardo
about the Enterprise after all...

I'm gonna lay it on the line and say that I'm not an art fan by any means. Haven't visited the Art Gallery of Ontario since 1976 although someday I do want to see the permanent Yayoi Kusama exhibit there. Let's see what happens once the current second wave of COVID-19 dissipates.

Having said that, I've been admiring the works of artist Ryo Inoue（井上涼）. Nope, he isn't a long-dead master; he's very much alive and in fact, he has been manning a short 5-minute show on NHK since 2013 called "Bijutsun!" which is an amalgam of bijutsu and tune so we get "Art Tunes". We've been able to watch the show via TV Japan, and on it, we get to see comical cartoons created by Inoue as they are set to songs that have also been created by him (words and music). He pretty much does everything on the show by himself, and although he isn't the strongest singer, the main point is that "Bijutsun!" is all about (re-)introducing some of the most famous and perhaps some of the more obscure works of art to viewers in a far more whimsical and accessible manner than the dry narration of a guide in an art museum.

For example, the first video I remember on "Bijutsun!" is "Narcissus Tenki Yohou" (ナルキッソス天気予報...Narcissus' Weather Report) which is a take on Caravaggio's famous painting of Narcissus gazing lovingly into the water. Never thought that I would see a narcissistic weather forecaster since I usually see those folks as being rather outgoing and happy-go-lucky court jesters (I would think that the anchors would be more that way). The other reason that I remember it is that Inoue's music has that mysterious beatnik jazz feel to it. The video, by the way, first got onto TV screens in May 2016.

The other video that I've seen on "Bijutsun!" via TV Japan is "Nan ni demo Gyunyu wo Sosogu Onna"（何にでも牛乳を注ぐ女...She Puts Milk on Everything） from April 2018 which references Vermeer's "The Milkmaid". It's a boppy little number about the titular milkmaid as a company employee who absolutely mystifies the head cook in the cafeteria with her penchant to put milk on any dish. Frankly, that would terrify me.

Although it's not shown in the videos here, Inoue does pop up after the first viewing of the video to explain about the original art work and why he interpreted it in his own special way through the video before a second viewing is shown to help the audience digest things a bit more. I knew of the existence of Caravaggio's "Narcissus" but didn't know anything about Vermeer's "The Milkmaid". 

But of course, I know about the Mona Lisa and since the legendary lady is in the thumbnail at the top along with a famous starship, I figure that Inoue must have paid tribute to her somehow. And sure enough, it was one of his earliest subjects for video, coming out in February 2014. "Otsubone no Mona Lisa"（お局のモナ・リザさん...Queen Bee Mona Lisa） is the second time that I've heard the word otsubone. It was just five days ago that I first came across the word through a Charisma.com song "Otsubone Rock"（お局ロック） and like over there, "Otsubone no Mona Lisa" is all about the feared Queen Bee of the corporate office: she sees all, she hears all, she judges all, she controls all. However, at the very end of the song, apparently she shows some heart after all.

If you wish, you can take a look at the official NHK website for "Bijutsun!" or just cut and paste the kanji for the title into YouTube. You can also check Inoue's own website.