Art Festivals & Events

Today, when daily life is scrambled and the state of the world remains unstable, “Mindfulness,” “Well Being,” and “Chill” have become the current keywords, words bearing a sense of our emotional fluctua-tions. The context that has brought those terms to the fore is the need to consider our own interior state and find healing for our hearts. In these disturbing times, the Yamatane Museum of Art is holding an exhibition that will, through appreciating Japanese art, heal our spirits.
Please enjoy a time of joyful healing in our pleasant galleries, where works of Japanese art that bring peace of mind are on display.
The gentle, charming images painted by Itō Jakuchū and Nagasawa Rosetsu are a delight. Jakuchū’s Hotei (private collection) and Fushimi Dolls, with their simple, kind expressions, and Rosetsu’s cute, frolicking Puppies with Chrysanthemums (private collection) are captivating. These richly humorous works bring smiles to our faces. Paintings of adorable animals and children, such as Okumura Togyū’s Rabbits and Koide Narashige’s Standing Figure of a Child, for which his own child was the model, com-municate the affection that the artist has for the cherished subject of the painting. Those charming sights soothe the heart and kindle warm emotions.
Standing before Kawai Gyokudō’s After a Mountain Shower, with its depiction of the ever-inspiring Japanese natural world, and Uemura Shōen’s Listening to a Cuckoo’s Call, which makes one im-agine delightful sounds, is a relaxing experience. The exhibits also include works such as Okumura Togyū’s Dainichi Buddha, which the artist himself created to soothe and heal his own heart.

Main works

Itō Jakuchū, Fushimi Dolls

Fushimi dolls, clay dolls made in Fushimi, Kyoto, are known for their simple forms and colors. Jakuchū painted them again and again. In this example, the expressions on the Hotei dolls, arranged in a rhythmical composition, are gentle and highly approachable. This painting is an excellent example not only of Jakuchū’s style, with precise depiction in rich colors and ink painting using ingenious techniques, but also the breadth of his oeuvre. The rough touch of the paint and his use of lustrous pigments tell us that he has taken deliberate care to communicate the texture, the material feel, of these clay dolls.

Takeuchi Seihō, Ducklings

This painting depicts the charming scene of young ducklings gathering where they are fed. Seihō created many other works with ducks as their subject in the period this painting dates from. “When he paints animals, he depicts them down to their smells” was the evaluation of Seihō, who is known as an artist excelled at capturing living creatures’ momentary enable him to render the ducklings’ innocent expressions and gestures brilliantly.