Image: Yamatane Museum of Art, Tokyo
The Yamatane Museum of Art in Tokyo is presenting ‘Okumura Togyū — A 100-Year Journey Through Masterworks’, a survey tracing the Japanese painter’s career from its early stages to his final years. The exhibition, part of the museum’s 60th-anniversary programme, brings together approximately 60 works from the institution’s collection and runs through 4 October 2026.
Born in 1889 and active until 1990, Okumura Togyū is represented through paintings spanning the full course of his practice. The selection includes major works such as ‘Naruto’, depicting the whirlpools of the Naruto Strait, and ‘Daigo’, based on the weeping cherry tree at Kyoto’s Daigoji temple. The museum also highlights paintings of animals and flowers, subjects to which Togyū brought what it describes as a warm and attentive gaze.
The exhibition draws on a collection of 135 works by Togyū, described by the museum as one of the most significant collections of his art in Japan in both quality and scale. The holdings were shaped by the close relationship between Togyū and Yamatane’s founder, Yamazaki Taneji, who maintained a friendship with the artist for more than 50 years, beginning in the early period of Togyū’s career.
Among the works on view are ‘Kōshū Kaidō’, ‘Biwa and Girl’, ‘Feeding’, ‘Sacred Bull’, ‘Water Lilies’, ‘Castle’, ‘Purification of the Mind’, ‘Cormorant’, ‘Viewing Three-Coloured Ceramics’, ‘Mount Fuji from Lake Yamanaka’, ‘Yoshino’, ‘Sea’, ‘Mount Fuji from Fujinomiya’ and ‘Calf’. The museum notes that the list may change, but all works included in the exhibition are from its own collection.
A major section is devoted to Togyū’s participation in the Inten exhibitions, the principal setting for much of his professional activity. Yamatane is showing all 35 Inten-related works in its collection: 32 from the Autumn Inten, two from the Spring Inten and one from the Inten members’ exhibition. The display also includes materials connected with the museum’s history, including illustrated letters sent by Togyū to Yamazaki and an original design for a commemorative item associated with a tea gathering once held at the museum.
The Yamatane Museum opened in 1966 as Japan’s first museum devoted specifically to Japanese painting and is marking its 60th anniversary with a series of special exhibitions. A related lecture by art historian Michinobu Satō, titled ‘The Path of “Togyū” — From Ishida to Mita’, is scheduled for 30 August from 2pm to 3:30pm; registration has closed after reaching capacity. The exhibition is open daily from 10am to 5pm, with last admission at 4:30pm, except for the stated holiday schedule, at the Yamatane Museum of Art, 3-12-36 Hiroo, Shibuya, Tokyo, until 4 October 2026.
