Rabindranath at 55+ (contd-1)

(Kampo Arai of Japan)

In the Bengali Naba Barsha of 1916, Ranidranath war in Shantiniketan. He left Shantiniketan on 3rd Baishakh (16 April 1916) and went to calcutta to start for America via Japan.  He came back to Shantiniketan on 16th Mar 1917, 11 months later. During these 11 months News of Brahmacharyasram was not available since Tattwabodhini magazine did not publish any news of the Asram and the persons like Rabindranath, Andrews and Pearson who used to circulate the mews of Asram were absent. Moreover, the hand-written magazines behaved miserly in publishing information about Asram.

In the last year, a house for Pearson and Andrews to live,  was constructed by the former at Shantiniketan. But they had to leave that house because they had accompany Rabindranath to America via Japan. This was informed to Nagendranath by Pearson;

"Dinu is going to occupy our new house while we are away, which will fill it with music and songs." He also added in this letter,"He is going with some of the younger boys on a trip to Eastern Bengal." Because the number of  participating students coming from east Bengal was much greater than that of from other places and one of the teachers of Shantiniketan accompany them to their home. This time Dinendranath accompanied them as he liked to travel.
Rabindranath did forgot about the going of School even when he was abroad.    

(India has a long history of cultural relations with Japan. It started in 1902 through a historical meeting between two great intellectuals, Tenshin Okakura and Rabindranath Tagore in Calcutta. Tenshin, the Forerunner of Japan-Bangla relationship, was deeply impressed by the revivalist movement on culture and arts, going on at that time in Kolkata. On returning to Japan he sent two distinguished artists, Yokoyama Taikan and Shimomura Kanzan to Kolkata, where they met Rabindranath Tagore and Abonindranath Tagore and exchanged opinions and artistic views. The relation further enhanced by the five visits of Rabindranath to Japan (1916, 1917, 1924, 1929-twice). Since then there have been an intimate and lingering cultural and artistic tie between the two countries. These encounters had brought into contact a remarkable group of intellectuals and artists of Japan and Bengal. They not only influenced Indian artists but also got influenced by the new line initiated in Bengal and gave contemporary Japanese art an Indian touch.

The paintings presented here represent the impressions the Japanese painters received while they were in India and have been produced by the characteristic method of the Japanese Art.)