Yasumasa Morimura. Ego Obscura at Japan Society

Art, Art 2018, Japan, Museum, show and exhibition

Japan Society is having a show, Yasumasa Morimura. Ego Obscura.

Yasumasa Morimura is one of my favorite artists. I haven’t heard about him for a while so I was very happy to see his work again. As you see, his works are funny and witty. He transformed his body to greatest artists and beyond. He could be anybody.

One of Japan’s most prolific and versatile contemporary artists, Yasumasa Morimura. Ego Obscura highlights Morimura’s 30-year-long project of excavating “the self” from layers of art history, Japanese postwar history, and personal history.

Japanese painting and calligraphy

Art, Japan

Karasu uri, Mieko Arai

The artist and her painting

Raijin, Mieko Arai

Fujin, Mieko Arai

Sakura, Mieko Arai

I went to Japanese painting, Nihonga and calligraphy, Syodou show at Gallery MC. Most of the paintings are steel life. And the subject matters are nature like flowers. The artist, Mieko Arai has a long Nihonga career. I asked her if she paint without seeing real objects. Her answer was “nature is the greatest teacher.” You can learn art by seeing nature. So, painting from real object is crucial part of Nihonga. I think this is an essence of Japanese art.

Hiking at Nara-Horyuji

hiking, Japan, Nara

I visited my home town, Nara, Japan during holidays. It was windy and chilly on New Year’s day. But I decided to go to Horyuji. Japanese are generally religious but we have a custom to visit a Buddhist temple on January first. So, I followed this custom.
It was about one hour walk from my parent’s house to Horyuji. I was really amazed by the view. I had known the view but I did not know it was such a beautiful landscape. Maybe because I have lived outside of Japan for long long time, I can see them with my fresh eyes. Here are some of the photos I took. I would like to share with you.