Takashi Murakami
Takashi Murakami is one of the most visible and important Japanese artists working today. Like me, you probably know him through his collaboration with the fashion brand Louis Vuitton.
Murakami’s influence in Japan rivals Andy Warhol’s in the United States, and he is known for disseminating and promoting pop art strategies in ways unforeseen by American critics and artists. He unifies many strands of culture that are frequently considered in opposition: traditional Japanese painting with Western influences, fine art with the otaku lifestyle, and commercial retail spaces with museums and other public venues.
At the Kyocera museum
Like an art kaleidoscope or where PopArt met Japanese culture past and present. Ambassadors of Japan’s soft power, like Makoto Shinkai and Hayao Miyazaki, for the animation.
Takashi Murakami’s answer to the Museum manager’s endearing proposition to create new works for the show will be on display until September 2024.
The challenge was to entwine not just Nihonga and PopArt, as he had done before, but also Nippon’s concentrated essence of self, representing Kyoto City. He found inspiration from hundreds of works of art held in Kyoto shrines and temples, and with that momentum, new pieces were created.
Worth the visit
The dark hexagonal room impresses me the most of all the displayed pieces. The contrast between the darkness and the light-up vast images of the fantastic beasts is jaw-dropping. Then, when you get closer, you see all the small details that compose each piece.
The hexagonal room
The walls of the galleries at Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art are aligned with Kyoto’s orientation to the north, south, east, and west.
The four symbols in the hexagonal room, representing the four cardinal directions, have been featured in stories since the Heian period. In this octagonal room, they are depicted as brave figures on the four walls placed in those directions.
The four beasts
Kyoto is thought to have four locations corresponding to the Four Symbols: Kamo River in the east is likened to the Blue Dragon, ”Seiryuu” the San’ indo highway in the west to the White Tiger, In Japanese culture, “Byakko”, the ‘White Tiger’ is the Celestial Tiger of the West, King of the Beasts. Ogura Pond (which used to exist at the convergence of present-day Fushimi and Uji City) in the south to the Vermilion Bird, ”Suzaku” and Funaokayama and Kitayama in the north to the Black Tortoise ”Genbu” (a fusion of a turtle and a snake).