The National University of Fine Arts in Ueno, Tokyo Geidai, is the most exclusive art school in Japan. It may be the most competitive of all universities in Japan to enter, and that is saying something. Students study exhaustively and face years of rejection to enter. Once inside they get the stamp, the brand. Brands are important in Japan. You enter a room and for the rest of your life people whisper, "He went to Geidai you know," even if all you do is teach night school in Okinawa.
Geidai kids have distractions. They command good part time jobs at cram school's teaching others to pass the entrance tests. The school festival in early September is a wild drunken weekend that requires months to prepare and time to clean up. Every weekend offers another distraction.
This year's pandemic seemed to have blocked some of that allowing students to focus their attention.
The graduate exhibition this weekend surpasses anything I have seen in thirty years I have visited.
