倉田「ここの美術館にはルノアールの絵があるそうですね」
木村「いいえ。実はそれがにせもので、画商に一杯くわされたという話ですよ」
Mr. Kurata: Kbfeo no bijutsufean ni wa runoaaru noega arusodesu ne.
Mr. Kimura: lie. Jitsu wa sore ga nisemono de, gashoo ni ippaikuwasareta to iu hanashi desu yo.
Mr. Kurata: I hear there's a Renoir in this art museum.
Mr. Kimura: Not exactly. It's actually a fake. The museum had the wool pulled over their eyes by some art dealer.
* * *
Ippaikuvvaseru refers to pulling the wool over someone's eyes, to deceiving them. Ippaikuwasareru refers to being taken for a ride, getting bamboozled.
This week's conversation takes place at an auction in London. Hearing that something special is to be auctioned off, art dealers from all over the world have gathered. The auction begins with various lesser known pieces being bought and sold. Finally, however, a stir passes through the audience. A Renoir, one supposedly stolen from the Paris Museum of Art, is to be auctioned off. But before the bidding begins, an art critic makes a speech. "As I'm sure you are all aware, this painting is said to have been stolen from the Paris Art Musuem. The original has yet to be found and there still isn't any evidence that this particular painting is the original." The dignified words of the elderly critic appeared to endorse the painting's authenticity and so the bidding began at a high price.
A Mr. N representing N city in Japan seemed deter- mined to buy the painting. "If our city could only put it in our new art museum. Then we'll surely get many visitors." In the end he paid an unbelievable \3 billion for the painting.
Later, Mr. N: "Masaka ippaikuwasareta to wa omoimasendeshita" ( "The thought never occurred to me that I had been caught in a trap"). "Ano hyooronka ga ippaikuwaseru yoo ni wa miemasen deshita kara"("That art critic just didn't look like the kind of person who would pull the wool over someone's eyes"). "I used money collected from the taxes of the people of our city to buy a fake! How depressing." To trick someone, of course, requires the setting of a subtle trap. In this case there was the gossip about the painting, the critic's skillful stage-setting, and the charged atmosphere. Mr. N, the unfortunate victim, was also there to fall into the trap. His friends tried to console him: "Getting tricked just couldn't be helped"("Ippaikuwasaretemo shikata arimasen yo").
The painting now hangs in the city's art museum
where people come from all over to see if it's the real thing or just an imitation. Most visitors, of course, can't tell. After all, if specialists have a hard time deciding, who's left to call it a fake? Some people probably think the musuem itself is encouraging this gossip; "watashitachi wo ippaikuwaseyoo to shite iru no kamo shiremasen"("they're probably just trying to deceive us"). That the museum has become famous owing to talk of the painting's authenticity is one reason they may be right. Then again, the Renbif may be the real thing after all...
Not only are people like the critic in this week's story called kuwasemono (they look so good on the outside but turn out to be rotten on the inside), but fake paintings can also be called kuwasemono. The difference lies in the Chinese character for mono; in the fomer it is the character for people, in the latter the character for things. One has to be careful when writing kanji.
Kuwasemono (people) ni kuwasemono (things) no e wo kawasareta N shi wa ippaikuwasareta no desu (Mr. N was tricked by an impostor into buying a phoney painting).
Mizue Sasaki is a professor at Yamaguchi National University