Our policy is to share beauties of art with as many people as possible by pursuing our philosophy; joy of possessing paintings, happiness to enjoy paintings, excitement to discuss paintings.
The special selection of highly valued art works and the masterpieces of well-known artists are found in our permanent collections. On the other hand, our exhibitions feature unknown pieces of art truly expected by the modern society without stereotype or just the sense of trend. Our goal is to be the art gallery which discovers brand-new concepts of beauties and offers them to the world so that people find ways to see and enjoy art from different angles. We have various exhibitions planned based on our 4 keywords below. We are happy to welcome various guests from art collectors to those who are willing to own paintings for the first time in their lives.
For contemporary art, we are looking for works representing the spirits of the modern society rather than just following the current trend. Paintings of Katsushika Hokusai are highly evaluated nationally and internationally even 160 years after his death because his works illustrate the time and society he lived through. We believe that real paintings exist beyond the boundaries of times and countries. One of our missions is to discover remarkable works of art hidden somewhere at this moment.
When I was on a business trip in Morioka, I stayed at a hotel room where I saw paintings of Matsumoto Shunsuke and Funakoshi Yasutake’s on the wall. The two had strong connections with Morioka. While I was impressed with the hotel’s hospitality, I was thrilled with the power of messages art could deliver. Ever since, I believe that we should introduce local part of Tokyo to visitors who traveled to Ginza from various towns in Japan or from overseas. Meanwhile, we encourage people living in Tokyo to rediscover and appreciate the beauty of Tokyo culture. “Grew up in Tokyo”, “Works of your schoolmates” and “Contemporary Tokyo” are a few of our exhibitions.
During the one and half years of my stay in Paris in 1990-1991, I found myself realizing that I was truly Japanese. As I struggled to see who I was and what it meant to be Japanese, I came across the idea of “Asia”. Japan has had close connections with China and Korea for a long time in the history and our culture is significantly influenced by the Asian countries. However, we have tended to put more focus on relationships with Western countries after the Meiji Restoration. The time has come to remind ourselves that Japan exists as one of Asian countries. We introduce Asian artists of all time, especially Chinese, Korean and Indian, for the discovery of new culture.
I am truly grateful that the TV program has been popular and supported by many people since it started in 1994. I cannot help appreciating the capacity of Japanese culture, represented by the paintings, Kakejiku (hanging scrolls), potteries, antiques and toys found all over Japan through the program. While being one of the connoisseurs in the program, I am impressed with the number of art works that have not been recognized in the art world. There should be many magnificent painters and works we have yet to know. We plan to feature unknown artists including the ones who showed up in the program as well as to offer opportunities to reconsider modern art.