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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.
4 November 2014
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Kimura Kohsuke Exhibition
4 September - 24 November 2014
LIXIL Gallery
(Tokyo)
Huge mirrors, aligned in sets of three, stretch from floor to ceiling. The visitor suddenly notices that the images in the mirrors are moving ever so slightly. The artist's intention may be to shake up our everyday perceptions, but the question his work provoked in this reviewer's mind was a technical one: how does he make them do that?

Shiriagari Kotobuki: Doko-made Yaru-ra (How Long Will It Go On?)
5 April 2014 - 21 February 2015
The Center for Creative Communications
(Shizuoka)
Shiriagari's manga cover the desks in the gallery, which was once a classroom in a now-closed elementary school. Included are works from his school days and pre-debut years. The pleasure of viewing this show is augmented by its suggestion that the artist got his start doodling at desks just like these.
Rika Noguchi: My Father's Album / Small Miracles

19 September - 5 November 2014

Gallery 916
(Tokyo)
Berlin-based photographer Noguchi selected and printed these images from negatives snapped by her father, who died in 2013, with his half-frame Olympus Pen camera. While the objective might be to vicariously see the world through her father's eyes, what astonishes is the high quality of the photographs. No doubt her father would have enjoyed seeing these printed.
Young Pretty Girls in Art History

20 September - 16 November 2014

Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art
(Shizuoka)
The exhibition lives up to its promise of showcasing "young pretty girls" in Japanese art, ranging from early-Edo courtesan portraits and the bijinga of ukiyo-e to the mangaesque contemporary figures of Takashi Murakami and Aya Takano. Among the more idiosyncratic standouts are Kiyokata Kaburagi's early-20th century sugoroku board-game pictures, Ado Mizumori's illustrations, Osamu Tezuka's classic manga Princess Knight, and the cyber-idol character Miku Hatsune. Special bonus: a new anime work jointly created by curators from three museums.
DISCOVER, DISCOVER JAPAN

13 September - 9 November 2014

Tokyo Station Gallery
(Tokyo)
An appropriate presentation for a gallery housed in Tokyo's central rail terminus, this is a retrospective of Japan National Railways' seminal DISCOVER JAPAN campaign, launched right after the closing of Expo '70. Immediately identifiable by its prominent all-caps English logo, this was a pioneering effort to draw tourists, both domestic and foreign, to attractive destinations accessible by train. Starting with TV commercials by the campaign's legendary creator, Dentsu executive Wakao Fujioka, the displays run the gamut from posters, newspaper ads, and magazine travel columns to train schedules, excursion tickets, commemorative station stamps, and even box lunch wrappers.
Tokyo Olympics and the Bullet Train

30 September - 16 November 2014
Edo-Tokyo Museum
(Tokyo)
Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and anticipating the next one in 2020, this sprawling show doesn't highlight the event that marked Japan's resurgence from the ashes of World War II so much as it celebrates the concurrent first flush of postwar economic growth that famously made the "3C's"-- car, cooler, and color TV -- the holy grail of every home. Featured are the advent of these and other household appliances, the superexpresses that preceded the bullet train, the sportswear boom, and the still fresh-looking posters designed by Yusaku Kamekura.
Photographs by Five

26 September - 8 November 2014
Zeit-Foto Salon
(Tokyo)
The "five" are Kazuo Kitai, Yuki Onodera, Ryudai Takano, Asako Narahashi, and Yuki Urakami -- all photographers who have exhibited solo at this gallery over the past few years. They represent a broad spectrum of styles as well as generations, from Kitai, born in the 1940s, to Urakami, born in the 1970s.
Mitsuhiro Okamoto: Makkuro Pop

25 October - 22 November 2014
Eitoeiko
(Tokyo)
Okamoto's works doggedly pursue questions that arise amid the most ordinary life situations, cheerfully but sharply skewering all manner of preconceptions and conventional wisdom. His unwavering expressive stance has earned him a substantial fan base.
Tatsuno Art Project 2014 -- Japan-Poland Contemporary Arts Festival: "Flow"
2 - 6 November 2014
Former Higashimaru Shoyu and Hyogo Shinkin Bank buildings
(Hyogo)
The old castle town of Tatsuno has been sponsoring this performing-arts project since 2011. For the fourth installment, on the theme of "flow," a blend of contemporary music, theater, and fine art occupies such historic structures as an Edo-era soy sauce warehouse (a registered Tangible Cultural Property) and a former bank. Participants in the fine-art category are Makoto Ofune, Sawako Tanizawa, Masakazu Miyanaga, and Polish guest artists Miroslav Balka and Aleksander Janicki.
Toshiya Murakoshi: Soot Dancing in the Wind
20 September - 3 November 2014

Kichijoji Art Museum
(Tokyo)
This is Murakoshi's first solo show at a museum, and he seems to have given it some extra punch. Photographs large and small fill the space, which the curators have adroitly designed to draw the visitor's eye deeper and deeper into the installation's recesses.
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