At Sato Sakura Museum, Admire Cherry Blossoms All Year Round
In this Tokyo museum dedicated to the ‘nihonga’ art movement, this symbol of spring is represented on large canvases.
© Sato Sakura Museum
At the Meguro River in Tokyo, the bank is adorned with beautiful pinkish colours every spring, a sign that cherry blossoms have begun to bloom. This place, so popular with Tokyoites who gather here to celebrate hanami and admire the sakura, is also home to the Sato Sakura Museum. Opened in 2012, the little brother to the Sato Sakura Museum in Koriyama (Fukushima Prefecture) deserves a visit. Its façade, entirely black, stands out against the surrounding landscape.
Sakura, a favourite theme of traditional art
Inside, visitors will find traditional nihonga paintings. In addition to the museum’s four to five annual exhibitions, the second floor showcases a dozen large-scale canvases painted in the traditional aesthetic that pay tribute to the cherry blossoms, offering a visual consolation for those who visit Japan outside of the sakura flowering season.
This artistic movement, which emerged in the 1880s during the Meiji era, advocates Japanese art produced according to certain conventions and using traditional materials and techniques, but also borrows from Western art. Nihonga is still practised today by Japanese artists and is given a dedicated platform at the Sato Sakura Museum. Despite the traditional style of the paintings on display, which must be painted on wood, silk, or washi paper, their creators are all contemporary artists, born after the beginning of the Showa era (1926). In recognition of these talented artists, a satellite of the museum opened in New York in the form of a gallery in 2017.
More information on Sato Sakura Museum is available on its website.
Address: 1-7-13 Kamimeguro, Meguro, Tokyo, 153-0051
© Sato Sakura Museum
© Sato Sakura Museum
© Sato Sakura Museum
© Sato Sakura Museum
© Sato Sakura Museum
TRENDING
-
A House from the Taisho Era Reveals Its Secrets
While visiting an abandoned building, Hamish Campbell discovered photographs the owner had taken of the place in the 1920s.
-
The Taboo-Breaking Erotica of Toshio Saeki
The master of the 1970s Japanese avant-garde reimagined his most iconic artworks for a limited box set with silkscreen artist Fumie Taniyama.
-
With Meisa Fujishiro, Tokyo's Nudes Stand Tall
In the series 'Sketches of Tokyo', the photographer revisits the genre by bringing it face to face with the capital's architecture.
-
Masahisa Fukase's Family Portraits
In his series ‘Family’, the photographer compiles surprising photos in which he questions death, the inescapable.
-
Hajime Sorayama's Futuristic Eroticism
The illustrator is the pioneer for a form of hyperrealism that combines sensuality and technology and depicts sexualised robots.