Mayuyama Junkichi visited Mexico in February, 1962. This was during his second overseas observation trip which spanned nine months, from September, 1961 to June, 1962. He flew via Dallas to Mexico City.
February 12th (Monday), Fair, Mexico City
Visited the:
National Palace
Museum of centropogalia
Cathedral
Main Square
University City
I was most impressed by the archaeology museum, Museum of centropogalia and the university buildings. All four walls of the university building are covered in mosaics designed by Juan O’Gorman. This 1956 work recounts the history of Mexico. In addition to the building, I was also greatly moved by the extremely beautiful arrangement of the building and its garden. The displays in the archaeology museum included numerous major works, completely different in scale and content than the small Mexican works I had previously seen in Japan. The scale was massive, and I was particularly interested in the stone sculptures.
February 13th (Tuesday), Fair, Mexico City
Today, I visited the pyramids at Teotihuacan on the outskirts of the capital. If you go straight there by car, it takes about an hour and a half each way. We visited the Tepexpan ruins en route, and also saw the old Acolman temple which dates to the 16th century. So, our journey took about two and a half hours. And yet the drive through the countryside was quite interesting with all different kinds of cactus growing, and we could see farmers at work and women out doing the laundry. There are lots of factories on the outskirts of town. Many of them were American companies, but it seems that Japan’s Toyota also has a factory there.
There are two pyramids, dedicated to the sun and the moon, and also an altar, for a total of three sections. They are as splendid as the pyramids of Cairo. Tourists mainly look at the altar, and it reminded me of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. It is surmised to date between two thousand and five thousand years ago, but it is not certain. The site was buried until it was discovered in 1903. We had lunch at a nearby restaurant in a grotto, and I was surprised at how many tourists there were from America.
February 14th (Wedensday), Fair, Mexico City
We went again to Museo Nacional de Arqueologia , the archaeology museum. Mr. Davila was our guide, and he was extremely knowledgeable about Mexican history and art history. He gave us a very easy to understand guide booklet and was an important person for us. Today, we spent almost an hour listening to his talk. The ancient Mexicans were extremely interested in the sun and the moon, the calendar and time. They used 1, 2, 3 numerals, and writing from a very early stage. He also taught us about the various periods in Mexican art history.
[Mayuyama Junnkichi, 1961-1962 Around the World Diary vol.Ⅰ]
[some sections have been omitted or supplemented for context reasons]
En route between Mexico City and Los Angeles, he drove over the mountain range and stopped in Acapulco.
February 17th (Saturday), Fair, Acapulco
I woke to the sound of a rooster crowing. The boy who brought breakfast to my room said that the weather was going to be good again today, and, that, yes, every day the weather is good here. The temperature rose to close to 100 degrees, and sweat started dripping off me. This morning, I swam at Morning Beach. I rented a beach umbrella for 2 pesos (16 cent) and a Coca Cola was 1 peso (8 cent), both very cheap.
[Mayuyama Junnkichi, 1961-1962 Around the World Diary vol.Ⅰ]
[some sections have been omitted or supplemented for context reasons]
[Exhibitions inspired this article]
Special Exhibition , ANCIENT MEXICO: Maya, Aztec and Teotihuacan
venue Tokyo National Museum Heiseikan
June 16, 2023 (Tue) to September 7, 2023(Sun)
Also at Kyushu National Museum Fukuoka, October 3, 2023 to December 10, 2023,
and The National museum of art Osaka, February 6, 2024 to May 6 2024.
