Get to Know the Artists in the “KIINSEIDO”

 The term “Kiinseido” (気韻生動) means that a work of art is full of noble character, elegance, and vivacity. This phrase is said to have been coined by the Meiji-era thinker and art critic Kakuzo Okakura, who sought a state of being for painters. The exhibition will feature works by Hirakushi Denchu, who lived through the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa eras until the age of 107 and left behind wonderful wood sculptures, as well as contemporary artists Kiichi Sumikawa, Takashi Fukai, Katsura Funakoshi, Kimio Tsuchiya, Tatsuo Miyajima, Atsuhiko Misawa, Koji Tanada, Yoshihiro Suda, Tomotaka Yasui, Kohei Nawa, Yoshimasa Tsuchiya, secca, and paintings by Masato Kobayashi and Ryosuke Hara. Of particular note is the exhibition space, the Homotsuden Treasure Museum Chuso, built in 1921, and the display cases inside it, both of which are designated as National Important Cultural Properties. We hope you will enjoy the graceful works on display.

Hirakushi Denchu has deep connections with Meiji Shrine. He is well known as a representative of modern sculpture in Japan, and when he was thirty years old his work “Shoka-kimigayo” was acquired by Emperor Meiji. In addition, construction of the Homotsuden Treasure Museum, which is registered as an important cultural asset and was completed in 1921, replicating the traditional Azekura log-built storehouse of the Shosoin treasure house in Nara, was built by Shintaro Oe. Oe’s son, Hiroshi Oe, and grandson, Shin Oe, would go on to build the Kodaira Hirakushi Denchu Art Museum and its workshop, respectively. Thus we can see how the fates of Hirakushi Denchu and Meiji Shrine are inseparably entwined.After he became a lecturer at Tokyo University of the Arts, many of Denchu’s works were donated to The University Art Museum. And when the Ibara Municipal Denchu Art Museum was opened in his hometown in Okayama, Japan’s top sculpture award, the Hirakushi Denchu Award, was established. 

Born in Fukui in 1955. MFA in sculpture from Chelsea College of Art and Design, 1989. After a time in London, he has been working in Europe, and his works are permanently installed at Grizedale Forest and the Musée d'Art Contemporain de la Vassivière, etc. He received the 3rd Fumio Asakura Award in 1990 and the 11th Shin Hongo Award in 2003. He continues to create poetic and thoughtful works using stone, glass, and waste materials that hold human memories. He has created public art and other sculptures that engrave the memories of the land and its people in Japan and abroad. In recent years, he has been creating sculptures that are integrated with traditional Japanese architecture, and creating installations that resonate with the memory and time of the space.

Born in Osaka in 1975. Currently based in Kyoto. He graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts with a Ph. D. in Fine Art Sculpture in 2003. He founded the art platform “SANDWICH” in 2009 to create works in Kyoto. He explores the potentiality of sculpture, working with beads, polyurethane foam, silicone oil, and a wide range of other technologies and materials, through his original concept “PixCell.” Nawa's recent projects extend this exploration to architecture and performance, to create both space and art. In 2018, he exhibited his monumental sculpture “Throne” in Musée du Louvre, France, while “VESSEL” - a dance creation developed with French-Belgian choreographer Damien Jalet, is on world tour since 2015."

Born in Shimane Prefecture in 1931. Graduated from Yamaguchi Prefectural Iwakuni Technical High School in 1951. While still in high school, he fell in love with the wooden Kintai Bridge and began researching it, which led him to aspire to become a sculptor. Graduated from the Department of Sculpture at Tokyo University of the Arts in 1956. 8th Hirakushi Denaka Prize 1979, Yoshida Gojuhachi Prize for the creation of the Yamaguchi Prefectural Government's front yard monument 1988, and many other awards. He works mainly in wood sculpture, focusing on the themes of "sleds" and "cambers". He was the supervisor of the Tokyo Sky Tree design and has created many large-scale monuments throughout Japan. Among his works, "Tower of Wind," an artificial floating island in Kawasaki on the Tokyo Bay Aqualine, is one of the most representative. He was appointed President of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1995, is a member of the Japan Academy of Fine Arts and Music, and was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit in 2008 and the Order of Cultural Merit in 2020.

Born in Kanagawa in 1975. Graduated from Tama Art University, Department of Painting in 2000, and Graduate School of Art and Design, Tama Art University in 2002. Awarded the Grand Prize at Tokyo Wonder Wall 2001. Part-time lecturer at the Department of Painting, Tama Art University from 2013 to 2017. In 2018, he started a series of art lectures and workshops with Satoru Aoyama and Yoichi Takebayashi. Based on the theme "between people, nature, and painting," he incorporates conceptual elements such as multiple time periods and different spaces in his work, and considers painting to be a form of dimensional movement. Recent solo exhibitions include "on a color" at Engakuji temple Ryuinan in Kanagawa (2017) and "Myoe no Hakko" at second 2 in Tokyo (2020). Recent group exhibitions include "The Road Leading to (from) the Art Museum," Chigasaki Art Museum, Kanagawa (2019), and Sapporo International Art Festival 2020, Hokkaido (2020: cancelled, archive only).

Born in Iwate in 1951. BFA in Sculpture, Tokyo Zokei University, 1975. MFA in Sculpture, Tokyo University of the Arts, 977. Main exhibitions: Nishimura Gallery (1985-), ""The XXXX III Venice Biennale"" (1988), "Documenta IX" (1992, Germany), "Katsura Funakoshi" (2003-04, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo and toured), "Katsura Funakoshi: Summer Villa" (2008, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum), "Funakoshi Katsura: ‘Exploring My Inner Fountain’” (2020, The Shoto Museum of Art). There are many public collections of his work in Japan and abroad, such as the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. He has made a great contribution to the revival of wood carving and coloring. His major awards include the 18th Hirakushi Denchu Award in 1998.

 Born in Antwerp in 1974. Graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts in 2001 with a Master's degree in sculpture. With the core theme of the coexistence of nature and human beings, he has attempted to comprehensively grasp the things and objects contained in nature and society, and create a tranquil spatial expression using light and time as the starting point for the process and actions of his sculptures. He uses traditional techniques of dry lacquer and mother-of-pearl inlay, as well as creating sculptures using both 3D digital data technology and handwork, and a project in which the relationship between a house and a town is seen as sculpture and space. He received the 34th Teijiro Nakahara Award for Excellence. His works have been collected by the Hakone Open-Air Museum, the Thalie Art Foundation, and others. His major exhibitions include "Somebody and Something" (MA2Galley, 2020) and "Takamatsu Contemporary Art Annual vol.09: Time and Imagination" (Takamatsu City Museum of Art, 2020).  

Misawa was born in Kyoto Prefecture in 1961. He got M.F.A. in Sculpture fromTokyo University of the Arts in 1989. In 2000, he started to make the seriesof wooden sculpture of animals called "Animals". From the same year, he hasbeen held his exhibitions at Nishimura Gallery, Tokyo. In 2001, he receivedthe 20th Hirakushi Denchu Prize. 2007–08, his exhibition tours held at 5museums, starting with the Hiratsuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa. Since then,many solo exhibitions have been held at museums throughout Japan. In recentyears, his exhibitions have held at the Shoto Museum of Art, Tokyo in 2017,Yokosuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa and Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art &Design in 2018. In 2019, he received the 41st Nakahara Teijiro Prize. He iscurrently a professor of Musashino Art University and lives in Kanagawa.