Article by: anees

Akira Yamaguchi Original paintings are installed in public art installations and allow viewers to take a closer look and decipher the meaning of the work.

The best artist in Japan is Yamaguchi Akira. However, while a huge number of Japan’s art viewers know him well, the saddest fact is that in other countries he does not yet seem to be widely appreciated.

Akira Yamaguchi Original painting and production supervision public art installed at Nihonbashi Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line. A large-scale stained glass public art "Nihonbashi Minamizume Shengsei No Kei", which was originally drawn and supervised by Akira Yamaguchi, will be installed near the B1 exit of Nihonbashi Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line from 1st July.

Tokyo Metro is promoting the installation of public art in line with the new construction and renewal of stations to create a comfortable and moist cultural space. Renewal of 7 stations from Asakusa station to Kanda station in 2017, 5 stations of Nihombashi station, Kyobashi station, Ginza station, Aoyama 1-chome station, Gaienmae station in 2020, and now 9 stations on the Ginza line are public artworks Is installed.

"Nihonbashi Minamizume Shengsei No Kei", which is about 2.1m long and 6.0m wide, is a work that depicts the cityscape of Nihonbashi Minamizume, which has developed as a commercial town, in a mixture of space and time from Edo to the present. It is said that about three years were spent producing the original drawings.

When expressing it as stained glass work, almost all the glass pieces used are painted with special paint and baked, and depending on the location, lines less than 1 mm thick are drawn or baked 15 times. It is said that some parts have been colored. The work is composed of about 75 types of 1182 pieces of glass and was produced by six craftsmen at Creare Atami Yugawara Kobo over a period of about one year. Planning and production by the Japan Traffic Culture Association, sponsored by Takashimaya.

Yamaguchi possesses the most refined skill of any artist in Japan. How good at his painting, for example, accurately depict virtually any object in the world without reference to photographs, through the sheer power of his imagination and memory. While his technique is based on the traditional Oriental method of painting sharply defined outlines with the brush, having originally studied oil painting at art school he is equally in command of Western methods such as perspective and shading. There are some ‘fine artists’ in Japan who have abandoned the disciplined training of artistic skill, and who thus tend to be held in contempt by people as if they were simply manga artists or illustrators. It is Yamaguchi alone who has earned their particular respect.

Photo by Dawid Zawiła on Unsplash