The Japanese fever for Joan Miró (and for Catalan cuisine)

TokyoJoan Miró is a sensation in Japan. As early as 1940, poet Shuzo Takiguchi published the first monograph on the Catalan artist, who was also a lover of Japanese culture. Drawing on this mutual love, the Joan Miró Foundation has chosen Tokyo to organize one of the major exhibitions to commemorate his fiftieth anniversary. Juan Miró. Poetry into Painting, a retrospective that, with nearly a hundred pieces, spans from the beginning of his career to his later works. Since it opened at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, the exhibition has been a success, receiving more than 2,000 visitors daily. One of them, this Monday, was the President of the Generalitat (Catalan government), Salvador Illa, who visited the exhibition accompanied by the foundation's director, Marko Daniel, and the Spanish ambassador to Japan, Iñigo de Palacio. on the first day of his official trip to the country.

This is the first major Miró retrospective to be held in the country since 1966 and covers seven decades of his career. It contains a selection of all his essential works, from The Palm House until Dutch interior, going through the series of the Constellations either Character in front of the Sun. Scrupulously following the instructions of the Japanese team, who prescribed the timing and the route through each room down to the minute, Illa visited the exhibition and then invited Daniel to briefly outline for the journalists why this is a must-see. "It's a gift for the Japanese public," explained Daniel, a German by origin (and fluent in Catalan). The visit begins with a 1919 self-portrait, which Miró himself gave to Picasso, and the final touch is a mural painting, Fireworks, who had only left the Foundation once before.

Quite a "learning experience"

The organization of this exhibition in Tokyo has also been, as Daniel explained, a "learning experience" and a cultural exchange at the same time, a result of the Japanese way of working (which has also impacted, in these first hours of travel, the Generalitat teams, due to its rigidity and extreme planning). The selection was made in collaboration with the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and seeks, through the success of Miró, to introduce Catalonia to new audiences. In celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Foundation wants to combine this more international aspect—with another major exhibition in Washington—with a local one, with an exhibition in Solsona. "In the same way that, for Miró, there is the universe and, next to it, a grain of sand," he added.

Miró's relationship with Japan goes back a long way. The artist traveled to the country for the first time in 1966, for a retrospective, after years of hesitating to go to Japan to learn about its art and traditions. Among other curiosities, a photograph of him with a sumo champion and a visit to a flower art school run by Sofu Teshigahara survive from that trip. Miró was an enthusiast of the country, which he also became familiar with thanks to the mediation of the artist Eudald Serra and the folklorist Cels Gomis, organizers of the first exhibition of Japanese folk art in Barcelona in 1950. Miró showed a special interest in the kokeshi, traditional Japanese wooden dolls, as well as small objects and everyday toys (such as Mallorcan siurells). Her work also reflects the influence of Japanese calligraphy and the use of materials in her art.

A dinner to explain (and sell) Catalonia

If Miró is an ambassador of Catalonia in his own right in Japan, so is Catalan cuisine. With the aim of further expanding the fame of Catalan gastronomy in the country, and taking advantage of the president's trip, the Catalan Tourism Agency organized a gastronomic cocktail party this Monday under the name Tastry Catalonia Conceived and executed by Carme Ruscalleda and Joan Roca on the occasion of the designation of Catalonia as a World Region of Gastronomy 2025. In front of some 200 guests at the Ritz Hotel in Tokyo, tastings of calçots, tomato bread with Vic sausage, and Barce bombas were presented. Influencers Japanese have approached the two chefs while, at two work tables in the party room, Ruscalleda and Roca have just finished plating an anchovy from L'Escala with cottage cheese on a carquiñoli and an innovative salty sweet filled with duck with panels with Santas, they have finished some Santa, wines from Familia Torres, Recaredo and Freixenet.

From the stage, the Catalan president linked Japan's passion for Miró with the country's gastronomy. "It's another example, like this dinner, of Japan's interest in Catalan culture," he emphasized. According to the Catalan Tourism Agency, culture and gastronomy are the two main reasons for Japanese tourists to visit the country. Illa also highlighted the recognition that Catalan gastronomy represents for being a World Region of Gastronomy, a distinction that "reaps the fruits" sown by El Bulli, Sant Pau, and Bodega de Can Roca, the three winners of the award for best restaurant in the world.

Beyond the fraternal relationship that Catalonia wants to foster with Japan—two countries that share "a culture of hard work, esteem for knowledge, respect for the territory, and a willingness to cooperate," according to Illa—there are also economic reasons. Some 500,000 tourists come to Catalonia from Japan and Korea each year (before the pandemic, there were up to 700,000), and the idea is for even more. In the case of the Japanese, the average daily spending is 600 euros, well above the average spending of foreign tourists (211 euros). The trend is similar among Koreans, with a daily spending of 570 euros.