This week the leaders of important Western countries gathered at Huis ten Bosch, it might be a good idea to reflect on the copy of the Dutch royal palace, located in Japan.
Thanks to Laura Kok’s recent visit to the theme park named after Huis ten Bosch near Nagasaki, three generations of Dutch artists are united in this place. The park came into being after a visit by Japanese businessman Yoshikuni Kamichika to the Netherlands in the 1980’s. He was so impressed by what he saw that he decided to copy some remarkable Dutch buildings along Omura Bay.
The historical ties between the two countries go back a long way: the Portuguese were unable to get a foothold in the Japanese empire because of their urge to convert the people. The Dutch took a more pragmatic approach; in the Far East, they were primarily merchants and they silenced their inner Protestant preacher. In 1600, the Dutch frigate ‘De Liefde’ arrived off the coast of the island of Kyushu. It had left Rotterdam two years before in the company of four other ships, which had not made the crossing. The latter also applied to as many as 85 of ‘De Liefde’’s 110 crew members. The Dutch managed to gain the trust of the Japanese. From the island of Desjima, they traded and exchanged knowledge with the local population. The fruitful trade relations between the Netherlands and Japan lasted for at least about two centuries.
In the city Kamichika built in the 1980s, the city hall of Gouda, Huis ten Bosch and several Amsterdam canal houses, among others, rose a stone’s throw from each other. The Japanese version of Utrecht’s Dom was ten metres less high than the original tower because of frequent air traffic. The Japanese Dom tower has a lift, though. As the Dutch Queen Beatrix did not give permission to copy the inside of her palace, Kamichika had to look for an alternative option. Artist Rob Scholte (1957) turned out to be the ideal candidate for this mega job.
With a team of assistants, Scholte worked for four years on a colossal mural he called ‘Après nous le déluge’ (After us the deluge). The mural is set up as a hip-hop collage containing image fragments of paintings by Salomon van Ruysdael and Nicolaas Maes, clippings of stock market reports from the International Herald Tribune, plumbing brochures and advertising photos for model ships. ‘Après nous de déluge’ shows the shared Dutch-Japanese history from the voyages of discovery through the period of colonialism to the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Helicopters fly in a post-modern manner between historic sailing ships. At the top of the dome, Scholte and his team painted a sky filled with zodiac signs and mythological characters, below them he created an ingenious mosaic floor. In 1992, the park was opened by Dutch Prince Constantijn and Japanese Prince Mikasa, who cut a ribbon in the pouring rain.
More than thirty years later, sculptor Laura Kok travelled to Japan with her partner Koen Rijnsent (who took the photos). Laura used a montant (part of a church window) that sat at eighty metres from the Cathedral Tower, recently removed during restoration. In that stone, she carved the images of both the tower and Miffy. Dick Bruna’s (1927 – 2017) cuddly rabbit is very popular in Japan. Miffy even got its own corner in the park recently: ‘Miffy Wonder Square’.
Laura took her 41-kilo artwork as hand luggage on the plane. They continued their route in a reinforced bicycle trailer that they used to ride to the theme park. On 24 March, the Utrecht-based artist handed over her sculpture to director Kotaro Takamura, who revived the theme park after a period that it was closed because of financial troubles. Laura’s sculpture will get a place of honour in the park.
Of course Laura was also curious about the state of Rob Scholte’s mural after the transition period. The only visible change is that the four traffic lights designed by Harald Vlugt, which functioned as alternative chandeliers, have been removed from the artwork for unclear reasons. ‘Other than that, the mural still looks fine,’ said Laura, who has returned home after a long journey through Japan.
