Art I Saw Recently: Kyoto
Exploring nationalism, human form, and more in Kyoto.
Cover photo: Posing outside the Kyoto National Museum, Kyoto, Japan (2025).
Intro
Kyoto boasts one of Japan’s best art scenes, and while I visit the city less often these days to avoid the growing crowds, I made a recent trip to see some stellar exhibitions, ranging from traditional to contemporary art, Japanese and international.
Tsutaya Galleries
As usual, my first stop in Kyoto was Tsutaya, a popular bookstore chain with many free galleries. It’s a great place to see contemporary works by Japanese artists. On this visit, I encountered art by TAM, Naoko Saito (サイトウナオコ), and Aya Kawato (川人 綾).
TAM has a fashion-editorial sensibility, focusing on moody portraits. For exhibition materials, he writes, “As the saying goes, the eyes speak louder than the mouth. I hope that you can enjoy imagining and catching the emotions from the facial expressions and gazes.”
I especially enjoyed Naoko Saito’s expressive work, reminiscent of Austrian artist Egon Schiele. Washed in warm browns and soft textures, her paintings are masterful visions of ennui. Saito’s cats are particularly engaging.
Aya Kawato’s grid work explores optical illusions, inspired by neuroscience and traditional textiles. Kawato explains, “The three-dimensional world we inhabit is a simulacrum our brains devise based upon the two-dimensional images captured by our retina.” She recently designed a tapestry for the State Guest House at Expo 2025 in Osaka, in collaboration with local fabrics company Kawashima Selkon. While I enjoy her use of color, her works read more like abstract art than deliberate illusions.
I also happened upon a print of Buzz Aldrin — Apollo 11 astronaut — on the surface of the moon in 1969. It’s one of the most memorable photos in history. For The Guardian, art critic Jonathan Jones declares, “Anyone could be in that suit. It is a portrait of humanity evolving before our eyes into something new and extraordinary.” It was certainly magical to see in person.
Young Poland: Polish Art 1890-1918 at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
On Saturday, I first went to the National Museum of Modern Art for the exhibition Young Poland: Polish Art 1890-1918, on loan from the National Museum in Kraków. The show traces the search for Polish identity during the partitions of Poland, when the nation was literally erased from world maps by Russia, Prussia, and Austria.
The show is magnificent, one of the best I’ve seen this year. The narrative of Polish identity is carefully considered through every work, all so beautiful. The exhibition also includes Polish crafts such as wycinanki (paper cuttings), lace, and woodwork, as well as works in dialogue with Japanese art.
The most memorable work, of course, is a sketch for the iconic Stańczyk by master Jan Matejko. It’s perhaps the most famous painting in Polish history: while a jubilant royal ball rages in the background, a dejected court jester sits in sorrow. According to the letter beside him, the Polish city of Smolensk was just lost to Moscow. Painted over three hundred years after the event, the 20th century artist reflects his own feelings of despair and frustration. Smolensk remains a potent symbol of Polish loss today, coincidentally, as the site of the 2010 plane crash which killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others.
As a Polish-American, I was moved to see this wonderful collection. On a personal note, I’ve long been self-conscious of my nose, considering it too big for my face. My own students have commented “hana takai” (“tall nose”). The remark makes me uncomfortable, though I’ve since learned this is a compliment in Japan. Admiring the beauty of fellow Poles rendered here, I felt reconnected to my heritage in a new way.
Poland seems to be enjoying a moment in the spotlight here in Japan, thanks to Tokyo’s long-running Polish Festival in May, an excellent presentation at Expo 2025, and an exciting slate of upcoming events. I also recommend a visit to Max 1921 in Kyoto, a Polish cafe run by Shinsuke Hosoda (細田 信輔), a retired professor who received his doctorate in history from the University of Wrocław!
Japan: An Artistic Melting Pot at the Kyoto National Museum
Afterwards, I left for the Kyoto National Museum, hosting Japan: An Artistic Melting Pot. In celebration of Expo 2025, 200 Japanese masterpieces are on display, including “important cultural properties” and “national treasures.” Photography is not allowed — save for one sculpture — but perhaps it was for the best as this was one of the most crowded exhibitions I’ve attended in Japan.
Similar to Young Poland, the exhibition traces Japanese identity through art, spanning lacquerware, pottery, calligraphy, and screen paintings. Interestingly, the first comprehensive book about Japanese art was written in French. Published for the World’s Fair of 1900 in Paris, Histoire de l’art du Japon sought to consolidate and legitimize a nationalist idea of Japanese art for an international audience.
Exhibition highlights include Katsushika Hokusai’s Great Wave and Red Fuji, marvelous Buddhist sculptures, and a float tapestry from Kyoto’s famous Gion Festival — held annually in July to ward off plagues.
I was most excited for the Wind God and Thunder God Screens by Tawaraya Sotatsu. Depicting the powerful deities on fields of gold, the screen pair is one of the most beloved artworks in Japanese history. I had previously viewed a reproduction at Kennin-ji (Temple), as well as Takashi Murakami’s own homage last year at the exhibition Mononoke Kyoto, but this was my first time to finally see the originals in person. The combination of musculature, expressions, and fluid motions is brilliant; the gods appear truly alive.
Tamotsu Yato at Shimadai Gallery
Lastly, I caught the final day of Kyotographie, an international photography festival. I was especially eager to see the work of late Tamotsu Yato (矢頭保), a self-taught photographer who spent much of his life documenting Japan’s hadaka matsuri (“naked festivals”) — competitions for luck and prosperity.
Considered a pioneer of Japanese homoerotica, Yato’s work is a celebration of the male body — rejecting puritanical censorship imposed by the Meiji Government. It’s a raw expression of male vigor, rendered in monochrome.
Only one photograph was on view at Shimadai Gallery, but I was able to read through Kyoto Journal 44 (2000), which includes a feature article. Novelist and friend Yukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫) appreciated “the ancient belief that the naked male body is undefiled and sacred” captured in his pictures.
As a gay man, raised Catholic, it’s moving to see the nude male in a reverent light, totally unashamed, but the future of these liberating events is uncertain; Somin-sai in Iwate Prefecture was held for the final time last year, a casualty of population decline. I hope to join a hadaka matsuri before I leave Japan.
