The shrinking Pacific

For the best in Japanese visual art in the U.S., the West Coast is the place to be. A new generation of Japanese artists is creating stunning works of intricate detail and optimistic light, transcending previous distinctions between the East and West by seamlessly combining elements of Japanese traditions with contemporary ideas.

Japanese art has traveled to the West Coast more rapidly than it has to other parts of the U.S. Throughout the 20th century, American artists have been influenced by Zen and Japanese culture, particularly the Northwest school of painters based in Seattle that includes Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, and Kenneth Callahan. In the same time period, a number of avant-garde Japanese artists such as Saburo Hasegawa, Paul Horiuchi and Sueo Serizawa moved to the West Coast.

San Francisco artist Misako Inaoka sees the creative potential in the tiniest piece of moss growing out of a crack in the side of a building. Inspired by city parks and urban nature, she creates micro-worlds of splendor with materials such as sticks, peepholes and toy birds.

Inaoka’s recent installation at Blankspace Gallery in Oakland, Calif., Secret Nature, offered viewers a new perspective on life as they climbed ladders and peered into captivating view holes. This show provided an intimate view of small dioramas, moving parts and microscopic worlds filled with hope and light. In her sparse placement of sticks, birds, plastic moss and other paraphernalia, Inaoka resists clutter and embraces emptiness. Growing up in Kyoto, Inaoka was exposed to Japanese tradition at an early age. She cites the influence of bonsai and ikebana, Japanese flower arrangement, on her precise arrangements that incorporate empty space.

Kyoto is also home to Japan’s most famous Zen gardens. Zen gardens can be experienced at Portland’s own Japanese Garden, one of the most authentic of its kind outside Japan.

“The fundamental aim of landscape gardening in Japan is to produce a fresh sensation conducive to full enjoyment of aestheticism of nature,” said Takuma Tono, the designer of Portland’s Japanese Garden.

A Japanese garden is a peaceful environment where we can experience tranquility apart from the business of the outside world. Sharing much in common with Inaoka’s installations, a Zen garden is simply to be enjoyed, taken in. If you haven’t been to see Portland’s garden yet, this Saturday there will be a special New Year’s celebration with mochi (a Japanese food made of glutinous rice), sake and treasures.

Portland artist Yoshihiro Kitai draws so many miniature circles on top of each other that his paintings can be dizzying when you stand too close. The paintings on display at his recent exhibit in the Portland Art Center were packed with emotion and calm purpose. The gold and silver leaf in his work is inspired by the folding screens and sliding doors he saw in temples and shrines as a youth growing up in Osaka.

Kitai’s untraditional career began with ceramics study in high school, where he learned the traditions of Japanese pottery. Eventually he started doing drawings inspired by clay forms and traded clay for graphite. He also studied printmaking, but eventually became obsessed with making one-of-a-kind objects and thus turned to painting.

Looking at Yoshihiro Kitai’s paintings, it is easy to feel like you are being lifted into a bird’s path of flight, observing cloud whisps from up close and losing sight of the earth below. Although both artists share bird themes in their work, they serve very different purposes. Inaoka was inspired by the songs of birds that she could hear outside her graduate studio in California. Kitai works with birds on an abstract level, giving the viewer a simulated experience of flying through the air.

Yoshihiro Kitai and Misa Inaoka are both from the Kansai region of western Japan, an area known as a seedbed of alternative thought. Continuing this tradition on the West Coast of the U.S., they offer a fresh perspective on the little things that we often pass over in life. Kitai and Inaoka transform ordinary shapes and objects into lively compositions with glowing radiance and optimism.