Hokusai’s fan paintings — three works painted in the shape of a fan

Hokusai’s paintings from his own brush are not confined to hanging scrolls and albums. Fan paintings survive too, painted on paper in the shape of an open folding fan. On a surface bounded by arcs, wide at the top and narrowing towards the bottom, what did Hokusai place, and where? We look at the three fans the gallery handles, one at a time.

Supervised by Yoshihisa Endo, Representative Director, Japan Art Academy

The provenance of Picasso’s L’enfant à l’orange — from the artist’s family onward

When you are deciding whether to bring a painting home, the road it has travelled deserves checking alongside the painting itself. Whose hands has Picasso’s L’enfant à l’orange passed through, where has it been shown, and in which books has it appeared? Here we set out, in date order, only what is recorded in the documentation that accompanies the work.

Hiromitsu Kato: The Japanese Spirit, Between East and West

In February 2019 an exhibition of Hiromitsu Kato’s work was held in the Aula Magna “S.M. la Emperatriz Michiko”, the Empress Michiko Hall, of the Hispano-Japanese Cultural Center at the University of Salamanca, Spain. Here we present the essay that the art critic Satoru Yamada wrote for the occasion, together with the reviews his work received abroad from 2009 onwards.

A Lecture by Yukio Shakunaga — Ecchu-Seto Ware: “The White Clay of Tateyama”

A hundred years since the revival of Ecchu-Seto ware. A talk on the skill and spirit cultivated over long years of potting, and on the appeal of clay itself. From his official website, here is the announcement of the 22nd public course on the culture of tea, at which Yukio Shakunaga was the lecturer on 28 June 2026.

Buying a Hokusai painted by his own hand

Hokusai is known for prints. He also painted directly with the brush — one sheet, one hand, no block between. The gallery currently holds twelve album leaves, five hanging-scroll works in six scrolls, three fan paintings — twenty paintings in all, one of them sold — and three Thirty-six Views reprinted and mounted as scrolls.

Supervised by Yoshihisa Endo, Representative Director, Japan Art Academy

Encounters That Change Creation

Steve Jobs and his wife visited the first Kyoto solo exhibition of the Ecchu-Seto ware potter Yukio Shakunaga, and he came three times in all while it was on. The notes in which, it is said, he asked about nothing but the clay; and what became of a black half-cylinder tea bowl. Here, just as it was written, is the essay by 金木 静, a friend of forty years.

Hokusai's Colours, Brought Back

The colours Hokusai meant us to see can no longer be seen as they were. The International Hokusai Society of the Japan Art Academy supervised the colours, the prints were pulled again with techniques unbroken since Edo, and the three were mounted as hanging scrolls. Here are the colours and the handwork, in pictures.

Supervised by Yoshihisa Endo, Representative Director, Japan Art Academy