The Kosetsu Museum of Art is tucked away in Mikage, an upscale residential neighborhood in eastern Kobe that first flourished as a sake production area in the 18th century. The private facility is surrounded by a small garden of plum trees and a few benches covered with red parasols where green tea is served. Opened in 1973, the Kosetsu is a repository for the private collection of Ryohei Murayama, who died 40 years earlier in 1933. more...
Getting under the Skin: Photography by Jun Morinaga at Gallery Bauhaus
Susan Rogers Chikuba
On any afternoon, visiting gallery bauhaus near Ochanomizu Station in Tokyo is a little like falling in love. There's a pulse of anticipation as you turn from a noisy thoroughfare onto a hushed slope that draws you upward. The lane has a warm, old-timey feel that's increasingly rare in this city -- a sense that this is a place where the past still intersects with the present. more...
Lonely Crowds: Kiyokazu Yonetani at the Mitaka City Gallery
Alan Gleason
Kiyokazu Yonetani employs the traditional materials of Nihonga-style painting to decidedly untraditional ends. He works mostly with mineral pigments on kumohada mashi ("cloud-surface hemp paper"), a type of washi made of hemp and mulberry in his home prefecture of Fukui. But that is pretty much the extent of his allegiance to Nihonga conventions. Working on large canvases (many around two meters square), he slathers the pigment on thickly, often in loud primary colors. more...
