Wandering painter “Kiyoshi Yamashita” once again

Since my last post about Kiyoshi Yamashita, I recently went to see the "100th Anniversary of Kiyoshi Yamashita's Birth" exhibition in Shinjuku for the first time in 17 years.

It was crowded with visitors, and this was the exhibition I was most looking forward to this year.

The exhibited works were mainly collages and paper cutouts, but also included a wide range of other works such as watercolors, pen drawings, pottery, and oil paintings.

The number of exhibits hadn't changed much since 17 years ago, but last time I was amazed at the intricacy of the collages.

Since then, I have read and watched many books, movies and TV dramas, including his collections of works, diaries and films.

This time, I was once again impressed by the scale and detail of the original artwork.

In "Sakurajima" and "Nagaoka Fireworks," the line right up to the water surface is expressed with tiny shredded paintings less than 1 mm in size.

Kiyoshi said he put glue on his middle finger and stuck it on with his thumb and index finger with incredible speed, but it takes an extraordinary amount of concentration to stick something this size on.

It's amazing that even the large size was completed in just 2 to 3 months.

He wandered around in an era when photography was not yet available, and when he returned home or to school he would work on the memories of his travels, and he says that he had a huge stockpile of memories from one to two years ago.

As an artist, when I start painting again, it feels like I'm traveling again, and memories come back to me, giving me a high.

It is said that in his later years he traveled with a video camera.

His oil paintings of flowers are also impressive. They were painted on plates, but I was reminded that this artist's drawing and painting skills are a natural talent, due to his keen observational skills.

His talent blossomed even more as he traveled abroad to Europe.

It is a work that is well worth seeing, with its sense of color, scale, and technical maturity.

Sadly, Kiyoshi Yamashita passed away at the age of 49, but around the same time, Mitsumasa Anno passed away in 2020 at the age of 94. This painter was also known as a traveling painter, and his works can still be viewed at any time in museums.

I hope that the Yamashita Kiyoshi Museum will be built soon so that we can view his work whenever we want.

But why is it that paintings of travel scenery, like those by Yamashita and Anno, are able to move people's hearts so much?

I can't help but imagine how Kiyoshi Yamashita would have portrayed the current era if he had lived to be 100 years old.

"Why is everyone walking so quickly? If people just took their time and looked at beautiful things, there would be no wars ."

When I look at Kiyoshi Yamashita's paintings, they remind me of things that Japanese people have forgotten in this day and age. Perhaps these paintings are just that.

"I-I don't just like