‘Kensho‘ is a Zen Buddhist term meaning ‘seeing one’s essence’. It is the name used by the London art gallery Tristan Hoare (in Fitzroy Square) for an exhibition being held until 31 October 2026.
The exhibition features ceramics by Taizo Kuroda (1946-2021) and works in ink by Sousai Inada (born 1949). Both are Japanese.
The exhibition is small but very satisfying and the gallery provides a wonderful setting for the artwork.
KYOTOGRAPHIE IS ONE of Asia’s largest festivals of photography. Both Japanese photographers, Kawada Kikuji (born 1933) and Iwane Ai (born 1975), have exhibited their images at this festival. Works by these highly acclaimed photographers are on display at a temporary exhibition being held at Japan House London, in High Street Kensington, until 18 October 2026.
I have viewed many exhibitions of photography over the years, but few of them, if any, can rival what I saw at Japan House. Not only is the quality and content of each image amazingly good, but also the design (layout and display) of the exhibition space is itself a highly original work of art. To use a well-worn expression, this show ‘takes one’s breath away’.
Amongst the beautiful photographs on display, there are several relating to the domed structure which miraculously remained standing in the heart of Hiroshima after the atom bomb had been dropped on the city in 1945. These images were made in black and white by Kawada Kikuji. Some of them are almost abstract, but they are very moving. His other photographs are quite unlike any I have seen in the past. On the wall facing these pictures, there is a message in both Japanese and English, which reads:
“The voices calling for nuclear disarmament always disappear into the depths of the earth.”
Iwane Ai’s photographs, unlike most of Kawada’s, are coloured, but there are a few which are not. Some of the images are on curved screens, around which viewers can walk. One intriguing set of pictures has typically Japanese subject matter: cherry blossom. However, her photographs were taken during the covid19 pandemic when, unlike normal times, these trees blossomed in the absence of the usual crowds who come to see them.
Words cannot do justice to this fine exhibition. If you can get to see it, you will not be disappointed.
THIS IS AN exhibition you should not miss if you are in London anytime before 10 May 2026. It is being held at Japan House London in High Street Kensington, and is called “Hyakkō”. This Japanese word means ‘one hundred makers’. The exhibition is a display of 2000 handmade works made by 123 craftsmen and craftswomen in Japan. The exhibits are all exquisitely made. They are made using one or more of the following materials: ceramics, wood, metals, leather, and glass,
The works are attractively displayed, labelled, and well-lit. Accompanying the exhibits, there is a series of beautifully filmed videos. Each of these shows the makers at work in their studios and workshops in Japan. The videos show how natural materials are gathered, processed, and then transformed into fine examples of applied art. Many of the items seen being made in the films can be found in the exhibition. Watching the videos is an important part of enjoying the exhibition because you begin to appreciate the skill and artistry employed to create what you can see close-up in the show. I would advise you to watch the screenings first, and then to view the products of the skilful creators who appear in the films.
Not only are the creations wonderful in themselves, but the way that they have been exhibited is a work of art. Whoever designed the exhibition seems to share the superb aesthetic sensibilities of those who created the exhibits. It is worth visiting Kensington to enjoy this visual treat from Japan.
DURING THE EASTER weekend, we visited two exhibitions. Unlike many exhibitions I have written about lately, neither of them finish soon. Both shows relate to wood and trees. One is being held at the Serpentine South Gallery in Kensington Gardens and it ends on 7 September 2025, and the other is at Japan House in High Street Kensington and continues until 6 July 2025. So, there is plenty of time to see both exhibitions.
The show at the Serpentine is of artworks by the Italian artist Giuseppe Penone. I have already written a bit about him (https://adam-yamey-writes.com/2025/04/15/boulders-lodged-in-trees-at-a-park-in-london/). I did this after seeing those of his works that are on display near the outside of the Serpentine Gallery. I have now seen what is on display within the gallery, and was pleasantly surprised. Penone is fascinated by the intricate relationships between humans and nature, and this is what inspires his artworks. Many of the artefacts (paintings, installations, and sculptures) on display relate to trees and their leaves. The walls of the central hall of the Serpentine Gallery are lined with containers that hold thousands of dead laurel leaves. Another exhibit consists of semi-abstract sculptures that resemble human forms, and these are entwined with living plants growing out of large flower pots. Other works are formed from pieces of wood and twigs. One particularly effective work consisted of living branches with leaves and twigs. One of the twigs has been forced through a hole cut in a photograph of a man’s face in such a way that the twig seems to have grown from within the centre of the eye. I like this piece because it encapsulates what Penone does: he sees nature through his eyes and is inspired by what he sees.
In contrast to Penone’s work at the Serpentine, which is art for art’s sake, the exhibition at Japan House is designed to illustrate how man can create artistic yet functional artefacts from wood. Called “The Craft of Carpentry: Drawing Life from Japan’s Forests”, the show sets out (successfully) to illustrate the amazing skills of traditional Japanese carpentry. This informatively labelled exhibition has exhibits showing the variety of tools used, the types of wood employed, the range of joinery methods, templates for cutting shapes, and some of the final products including a life-size replica of the Se-an teahouse in a temple in Kyoto. Although everything on display is related to creating functional products, each exhibit is so beautiful that it could be considered a work of art in its own right. As with every exhibition I have seen at Japan House, the exhibits are displayed imaginatively and beautifully. The exhibitions themselves are works of art.
I recommend visiting both exhibitions not only because they are fascinating but also because they illustrate two completely different approaches to dealing with trees and their wood.
IT IS OFTEN a pleasure to see an exhibition of works by an artist, whose existence was hitherto unknown to me. In this case, the artist is the Japanese born Minoru Nomata, who was born in 1955 and lives as well as works in Japan. The exhibition of his works, currently at White Cube in Masons Yard (near Piccadilly) until the 24th of August 2024, consists mainly of paintings (acrylic on canvas).
At first sight, his paintings look almost like photographs. However, after a few moments’ contemplation, they can be seen to depict subjects – often structures and aspects of nature – that are at the same time unreal and almost but not quite real. His subject matter is not quite surreal, but is an unusually dreamy interpretation of the real world. None of the paintings on display contained any signs of human presence. The gallery’s website (www.whitecube.com/gallery-exhibitions/minoru-nomata-masons-yard-2024) includes the following:
“According to the artist, ‘construction, repair and demolition’ occur simultaneously in his paintings; they confer, too, upon the simultaneity of past, present and future distinct to Nomata’s work. As he states, he sets out to create worlds that ‘are not “somewhere”, but “nowhere”, in a position that helps [him] find a place to head for’. Devoid of identifiable temporal or geographical markers as they may be, Nomata’s ambivalent landscapes speak directly to humankind’s long-standing existential concerns about what place, if any, it has in the world.”
As I viewed the pictures, which I found aesthetically pleasing, I felt they had the ‘realness’ of images that appear in dreams, yet at the same time they seemed as if they could almost be depictions of reality. In brief, I found them both attractive and intriguing, and can recommend this show to everyone.
SEVERAL MONTHS AGO, I watched a wonderful film set in Japan and directed by Wim Wenders: “Perfect Days”. Set in Tokyo, the main character is a man who cleans the city’s public toilets. Each of the public conveniences he cleans is of a different design. And each of them, like so many things designed in Japan, is a beautiful work of art. Making things and places look special and visually pleasing seems to be an important feature of the Japanese philosophy of life, and has been since time immemorial. Yet, unlike many other countries, Japan has not yet established a dedicated national design museum.
Until the 8th of September 2024, the Japan House in High Street Kensington is hosting an exhibition called “Design Discoveries”. The website of the Japan House (www.japanhouselondon.uk/whats-on/design-discoveries-towards-a-design-museum-japan/) explained:
“This exhibition brings together seven major designers, from filmmakers to architects, to consider what they would put into a permanent collection of design treasures. Their personal responses capture Japan’s regional diversity and 10,000 years of history.”
The beautifully laid out exhibition is not merely educational but also a feast for the eyes. Examples of Japanese design (and technology) dating from about 4500 years ago to the present century are beautifully displayed and intelligently explained.
Should the Japanese eventually get around to creating a museum of design, I am certain that visiting it would be a very exciting experience. Meanwhile, if you can get to Japan House – a beautifully designed place – you should not miss visiting the exhibition in its basement.
By Masaomi Yasunaga
Straight from the kiln
Fine ceramic artwork from Japan
Good to behold
DURING OUR TRIP to India in late 2023 and early 2024, we saw works of art that have been created using ceramics. The creators of these ceramic artworks shape clay into a form that they have in mind, glaze it, and fire the object in a kiln. The artists hope that what emerges from the kiln after firing and cooling will resemble what they had in mind. The resulting sculptures and other artworks bear the conceptual imprints of the artists’ visions – usually with considerable accuracy.
Today, the 7th of February 2024, we visited an exhibition in London’s Lisson Gallery in Paddington. On until the 10th of February 2024, it is a display of the creations of the Japanese sculptor Masaomi Yasunaga (born 1982), who works in Japan. All the exhibits are bizarre but beautiful – quite unlike anything I have ever seen.
Yasunaga is part of an avant-garde group of Japanese artists, Sodeisha, which was formed after WW2. The movement rejected and challenged previous Japanese artistic traditions. It also introduced non-functional ceramic objects as an artform. The objects on display at the Lisson Gallery were created as follows. Yasunaga used glaze rather than clay as his starting material. Combining it with raw materials such as feldspar, whole rocks, metal and glass powders, he created artistic forms. Then, he buried the creations in layers of sand and kaolin, before subjecting the whole lot to heat in a high temperature kiln. After the firing and cooling, the sculptures were carefully excavated from the beds (of kaolin and sand) in which they were fired.
Apart from fusing the various elements of each artwork, the heat of the furnace also produces unexpected transformations (both chemical and morphological) of the work so that although it bears some resemblance to what existed before firing, it has acquired characteristics that the artist would not have been able to foretell. The action of the fire in destroying the artist’s original conception is described by Yasunaga as follows:
“…melting the material and letting gravity take hold of its shape once again, eradicating the ego along the way …”
Further, he explained:
“… the ultimate goal of my art is not self-expression but what’s left of self, after being filtered through fire.”
The effects of the heat are uncontrollable, but as the website of the Lisson Gallery explained:
“… Yasunaga describes how beauty can be discovered in the most uncontrollable situations, referring to the process of his sculptures transitioning in the fire, evolving from something artificial to natural, and yielding a beauty that is perfectly pure.”
Regardless of how and why these sculptures have been created, they are a joy to behold. One of the many roles of an artist is to show us the world in a new light and to open our minds to new ideas. Yasunaga has achieved both aims in a wonderful way.
A FEW WEEKS AGO, we viewed a wonderful exhibition of contemporary quilt making at Swiss Cottage Library (see: https://adam-yamey-writes.com/2023/07/15/quilts-in-a-wonderfully-designed-library/ ). These quilts were made with both recycled bits of material and/or textiles specially bought for use in their manufacture. Although some of the works on display could be used as rugs or coverings, many of them were designed as non-functional artworks for display. Today (1st of August 2023), we visited the Brunei Gallery in London’s Bloomsbury. Our intention was to see an exhibition of paintings and drawings from the south of India. However, when we entered the place, we discovered that in addition to what we had come to see, there was another exhibition, which we did not know about. This is the rather intriguingly named “Japanese Aesthetics of Recycling”, which is on until the 23rd of September 2023. With a name like that, we could not resist taking a look at what was on show.
The exhibition has a fine collection of exhibits demonstrating the Japanese tradition of recycling old materials to create new objects. In a country where raw materials were highly valued, it made a lot of sense not to waste them, but to re-use them. We saw many examples of ‘Boro’ textiles. These are items made by fashioning worn clothing and waste fabrics to create another usable textile. Often, a large piece of used material with damage (e.g., holes) was made usable by patching it with scraps of waste material. Both quilting and Boro involve sewing pieces of material together. Unlike quilting, which uses scraps of material to create a brand-new entity, Boro uses scraps to restore worn textiles to make them usable again. There were also examples of ‘Washi’ on display. This is handmade paper concocted from already used sheets of paper (for example from discarded account books). The Washi was made waterproof by painting it with persimmon paste. Washi paper was used for many purposes including wrapping valuable clothing, floor coverings, room dividers, making bags, and more. For example, there was a conical hat made in leather and lined with waxed recycled Washi paper. In addition to these recycling techniques, there were several others. One which caught my attention was ‘Sakiori’, which in many ways resembles the North American and European rag weaving technique.
The exhibition was not only fascinating because of the range of recycling techniques exemplified, but also because many of the items made from the recycled materials were aesthetically pleasing. The exhibits are beautifully displayed, and the accompanying labels are interesting and informative. Whether you are interested in Japan or recycling or both, it is well worth visiting the Brunei Gallery to see this show.
THE JAPAN HOUSE in London’s High Street Kensington first opened in 2018, and its aim is to increase people’s awareness and knowledge of Japan, the Japanese, and their culture. Until the 11th of June 2023, the Japan House is host to a superbly laid-out exhibition of Kumihimo – Japanese silk braiding. The braiding is a complex form of plaiting, using dyed silk threads. When, for example, hair is plaited or braided, three or more strands of hair are intertwined to form a plait. Practitioners of Kumihimo plait great numbers of often different coloured threads to create braids with beautiful repeating patterns. The most expert craftsmen and craftswomen can braid patterns using up to 140 different threads.
The exhibition shows how the threads are dyed, then spun into bobbins before finally being woven into braids. The braider uses a stand that holds the reels of thread. The threads are then plaited over each other in a repeating sequence to produce a patterned braid. Great concentration is required to maintain the sequence without making errors. A weight is hung onto the braid to hold it straight and taut whilst it is being created. In addition to examples of the various types of braiding stands, there are well-made videos illustrating braiders at work. There are many examples of finished products, including belts, fashion items, armour plating, and modern artworks. All of them are intricately patterned and incredibly beautiful.
The exhibition was set up by a Tokyo-based company, Domyo, which has been producing braided silk cords since 1652 AD. Kumihimo was a technique imported into Japan between 538 and 794 AD from the Asian mainland, and then refined and developed in Japan
When I learned that I was to visit an exhibition of braiding, I was not filled with enthusiasm. However, as soon as I entered the basement exhibition area, I realised that I was about to see a fine and most interesting display. Not only is there great beauty in the exquisitely detailed braiding, but this was also the case for the way the exhibits have been arranged. To summarise, see this exhibition if you can!
