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Picks is a monthly sampling of Japan's art scene, offering commentary by a variety of reviewers about exhibitions at museums and galleries in recent weeks, with an emphasis on contemporary art by young artists.
1 October 2014
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Jun Okubo: "Going out!"
1 July - 2 August 2014
Café Campagne
(Tokyo)
Okubo's snapshots are obviously spur-of-the-moment inspirations, triggered when his antenna pick up something of interest. Lately, he says, he's become obsessed with photographing his own prints. The resulting images are always a bit out of focus, but that actually enhances their allure, producing a pleasantly fuzzy sensation.
Wataru Yamamoto: Spring
25 July - 23 August 2014
Yumiko Chiba Associates
(Tokyo)
Multifaceted artist Yamamoto says that the titular photo series is "an attempt to grasp changes in sunlight and temperature using water and color film as a substitute for the skin." To produce these images he immersed film in water and froze it, then simultaneously thawed and exposed the film with the light passing through the tiny aperture of a pinhole camera. Somehow, these visual products of a random process do indeed bring to mind the waking of life from a long winter's sleep.
Cozue Takagi: Biwajima
31 July - 16 September 2014
Canon Gallery S
(Tokyo)
This show afforded the opportunity to rediscover Takagi's 2012 work Biwajima, a gargantuan collage of some 300 photographs. In 2011 Takagi relocated from Tokyo back to her home turf of Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture, where she has been expanding into such fields as archaeology, folklore, and anthropology.
Takarazuka Revue 100th Anniversary Exhibition
5 August - 28 September 2014
Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art
(Hyogo)
To commemorate the centenary of the renowned all-woman theater troupe -- founded and still based in the Hyogo hot springs resort of Takarazuka -- this show offers up a potpourri of stars' portraits, stage props, costumes, posters, and more. Not exactly an art exhibition, this is more of an event for diehard Takarazuka fans, who are legion.
Under35: Takuya Yamashita
8 - 20 August 2014
BankART Studio NYK Mini Gallery
(Kanagawa)

Yet another piece of the BankART Dreams of East Asia extravaganza, this was the inaugural presentation of "Under35," a series of shows by emerging young artists. Yamashita offered up a dark gallery in which over a dozen colorful, curiously shaped, birdlike creatures floated, illuminated by blacklights overhead. They turned out to be modeled on the mascot character Tobimaru, and produced by carving images on large boards, printing them on paper, then cutting out and assembling the components.
Takeshi Arai: EXPOSED in a Hundred Suns
25 July - 20 September 2014
Photo Gallery International
(Tokyo)
Arai's solo show consisted of daguerreotypes taken in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima, as well as the title series about the Lucky Dragon 5, the fishing boat fatally exposed to fallout from the Bikini H-bomb test in 1954. Arai's work has entered thematically deeper waters of late, and the quality and scale of his photography have grown as well.
Forms of Houses and Towns
14 June - 31 August 2014
MOB Museum of Alternative Art
(Tochigi)
Founded in 2001 in an abandoned wooden schoolhouse, this is one of the first museums in Japan to focus on "outsider" art. For this recent show the museum asked 13 artists what a "house" looks like, and means, to them. Most of the works on display are architecture-oriented paintings that do indeed convey powerful images of dwellings. Colorful, loose-lined, and beholden to no particular art trend, these works happily betray no hint of the artists' ages.

Evangelion Exhibition
19 July - 9 September 2014
Sogo Museum of Art
(Kanagawa)
The first half of this show described the making of the eighth angel battle scene (which in hindsight looks like a prophecy of the 2011 tsunami) in the Rebuild of Evangelion anime film series. The second half introduced a full spectrum of rough animation sketches, ranging from basic settings to specific episodes. So overwhelming was the sheer quantity of hand drawings that the exhibition's design threatened to collapse under them, but they certainly testified to the creative ardor of the animators.
Nizo Yamamoto
4 August - 23 September 2014
Shizuoka City Museum of Art
(Shizuoka)
Yamamoto is a major creator of animation art in Japan. His work adorns such films as Future Boy Conan and a number of Ghibli productions, including Laputa: Castle in the Sky. Formerly a student of architecture, he is known for his exquisite backgrounds. The meticulous care he devotes to the minutest details on these small cels -- so that they lose none of their impact when viewed on a big theater screen -- is nothing short of awe-inspiring.
Toru Narita: Art, Special Effects, and Monsters -- The Origins of Ultraman
19 July - 31 August 2014
Museum of Modern Art, Toyama
(Toyama)
Narita (1929-2002) graduated from Musashino Art University and intended to become an artist, but wound up instead pursuing a career in anime after participating in the production of Godzilla while still in college. He went on to design the monsters for the Ultraman series, and later in life devoted himself to drawing monsters of all sizes and shapes. This show provided a comprehensive look at his life and career.
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