Get to Know the Artists in the Shikansuiyo traditional Japanese media Exhibition ②

The literal meaning of the expression Shikansuiyo (紫幹翠葉) is “purple trunk, green leaves”, but it is used to refer to a beautiful scene of nature. From prehistoric times, the Japanese people have found beauty not only in Mt. Fuji and cherry blossom, but in the humble everyday nature of rice fields, wild flowers and birds, too. The artists have prepared their works with particular thought for the shrine and its sacred forests, and with passion, awe and respect for nature and our daily lives. The media chosen for their works are the traditional Japanese forms of folding screens, hanging scrolls, partition screens (paintings) and folding fans. A centerpiece of the show will be folding fan-shaped paintings commissioned from approximately thirty contemporary artists, renowned for both their skill and talent, which will be exhibited along one wall. We hope you will enjoy the many lucid and expressive works on show in the amazing natural surroundings of Meiji Shrine.

Born in Shizuoka, Japan. Graduated Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Design. Works as a costume artist in advertising, theatre, dance, ballet, film and TV. Currently in charge of costumes for NHK ETV “Nihongo de Asobo”. Designed costumes for many performances including Kabuki performances “Nodaban: Togitatsu no utare”, “Nodaban: Sakura no mori no mankai no shita”, dance “Circus” at New National Theatre Tokyo etc. Current performances: “ LIVE BONE “, “ WONDER WATER “, “Humanoid LADY “, “ FLY,FLY,FLY “, “Rinne”, “Piece to Peace”. Exhibitions and workshops include The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale (2018), Setouchi Triennale (2019), Ichihara Lakeside Museum (2018), Dazaifu Tenmangu (2019) etc.

Born in Hiroshima, Japan, 1966. Graduated from Kanazawa College of Art in 1995. With memories with his late wife as well as his late sister, both of whom left this world at a young age, as the main theme for his work, he has been working on installations using salt, symbolizing cleansing or purification in Japan. On the last day of his exhibitions, he destroys the installation with the audience and returns the salt to the sea. Exhibitions include MoMA PS1, State Hermitage Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo and many more. He currently relies in Kanazawa. 

Born in Ibaraki, Japan. Graduated PHD Tokyo University of the Arts, Oil Painting in 2010. Her works hover between the real and the unreal, the visible and the invisible, painted in a realism style. Main Exhibitions include Yokohama Triennale 2011,  “MINIMAL/POSTO MINIMAL Contemporary Japanese Art since the 1970s“, Utsunomiya Museum of Art (2013), “Kaoru Usukubo, Daisuke Ohba” LOOCK, Berlin (2020) etc.

Born in Kanagawa, Japan, 1970. He works in sculpture, drawing, painting creating animal characters that depict a reality we cannot see with our eyes. Main exhibitions include “Hiten”, Roppongi Hills A/D Gallery (2018), “Sleep and Death”, nu petit GARAGE (2017), “Kakegawa Chaennale” (2017), “Kemono Apartment”, Yokohama Apartment (2015) and “totem”, nca | Nichido Contemporary Art (2014).  His work is included in the collections at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo and Kasama Nichido Museum of Art.

Studied at École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, 2008. Her work questions the true nature of things through the intricacy and depth of the traditional arts and crafts of Japan and her own esprit, fusing together craftwork with cutting-edge technology such as artificial intelligence. Main exhibitions include "Culture City of East Asia 2018 Kanazawa: Altering Home”, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (2018), “Throughout Time : The Sense of Beauty” ICOM Kyoto 2019 Commemorative / Nijo-jo Castle The 25th Anniversary of the World Heritage Listing, etc.

Born in Yamaguchi, Japan, 1958. Moved to Tono, Iwate, in 1987. One year non-resident scholar position in New York City through the Japanese Ministry of Culture (1999). Since the 1990 he has produced series of charcoal pencil drawing titled “Mountain Walking”. Exhibitions include "Dieu Donne Gallery,” New York (2000), Weinstein Gallery, Minneapolis (2000), Group Show “Gallery 203”, Minneapolis Institute of Arts (2000), “International Paper” UCLA Hammer Museum (2003), “series Artists Today 2003 Yokohama” Civic Art Gallery (2003), “CAMK ryu Gendai Nihonga no Seika”, Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto (2003), “Primeval Portraits”, Aomori Contemporary Art Centre, Aomori (2009) etc. 

Born in Osaka, Japan, 1951. Graduated Kyoto City University of Arts. Produced a self portrait of himself dressed as Van Gogh in 1985. Since then has produced self portraits based on historical figures. After being chosen for the Venice Biennale's Aperto 88 exhibition in 1988 started garnering attention overseas. Main solo exhibitions in  Japan include "Morimura Yasumasa : The Sickness unto Beauty, Self-Portrait as Actress” Yokohama Museum of Art (1996), "Morimura Yasumasa : Self-Portrait as Art History” Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (1998),  “A Requiem: Art on Top of the Battlefield”, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (2010),”Yasumasa Morimura: Ego Obscura”Japan Society(2018),"Yasumasa Morimura: Ego Obscura, Tokyo 2020”Hara Museum of Contemporary Art(2020) etc.

Born in Toledo, Spain, 1979. BA in Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan. Following his time working as a financial market trader, Kawakubo embarked on his artistic career in 2008. How multimedia installation works skillfully weave stories based on actual historical events into universal truths. Recent group exhibitions include “Roppongi Crossing 2019 - Connexions”, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, (2019), “21st DOMANI: The Art of Tomorrow”, National Art Center, Tokyo, (2019), “Islands, Constellations and Galapagos” Yokohama Triennale 2017. He was awarded the Ohara Museum of Art Prize at the VOCA 2015 The Ueno Royal Museum of Art, Tokyo, and has been shortlisted for the Shiseido Art Egg Prize in 2016 and the Sovereign Asian Art Prize (HK) in 2012.

Born in Tokyo, Japan, 1966. After working as art director at a record label, became an artist. He advocates a new style of traditional Japanese painting “Neo Nihonga”, and in 2000 started a new movement called “Butoha” to fight the authoritarian art world with painting. Exhibitions include "Kawanabe Kyosai and Tenmyouya Hisashi Exhibition" Kawanabe Kyosai Memorial Museum, Saitama, Japan (2002), "MOT Annual" Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2006) 17th Sidney Triennale (2010) etc. In 2010 he proposed a new Japanese art scheme named “BASARA” which is extravagant and extraordinary and embodies a Samurai aesthetic like "Basara" in Nanboku dynasty era and "Kabuki-mono" at the end of Sengoku era.

Born in Osaka, Japan, 1987. MA in Kyoto University of Art & Design in 2016. “The school of “Nihonga”, which has survived so long with its strict adherence to a hierarchy system and academic skills, has blocked the progress of painting in Japan - so what should we really call “Japanese Painting”? My search is for that natural progression.” Solo exhibitions include "Aphotic Utopia”, Anteroom Kyoto  (2018) and "GOLD,WHITE AND BLACK”, AIR Kamo Nasu, Kyoto (2020). He has exhibited his work in Japan, Seoul, Taipei and other parts of Asia, as well as in Basel and New York. 

Misawa was born in Kyoto Prefecture in 1961. He received and M.F.A. in Sculpture from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1989. In 2000, he started to make the series of wooden sculptures of animals, called "Animals". From that same year, he has been holding solo shows at Nishimura Gallery, Tokyo. In 2001, he received the 20th Hirakushi Denchu Prize. Between 2007–08, his exhibition toured five museums, starting with the Hiratsuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa. Since then, he has held many solo exhibitions at museums throughout Japan. In recent years, exhibitions of his work have been held at the Shoto Museum of Art, Tokyo, 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 is currently a professor at Musashino Art University and lives in Kanagawa.