Two of my favorite Japanese painters are Soga Shohaku(1730-1781) and Ito Jakuchu(1716-1800). Contemporaries, their paintings are very different from each other but share an extraordinary dynamism and ecstatic eccentricity that lands them solidly in my Hall Of Fame. My taste often runs to a more quiet austerity, but I find these two artists’ work so...

This is a restoration of an earlier post. The first paragraph and first photo are new. Damien was up for Thanksgiving and we had our usual fine time with lots of conversation ranging from shop-talk to the Simpson’s and much comparing of Australian culture to American(good for more than a few laughs). He brought along...

This is a restoration of a post from 2011: Among the highlights of all my trips to Japan was the opportunity June 2011 to see an exhibition of metalwork of many, many of the great metal artists from the Meiji period at the Okayama Prefectural Museum in Okayama, including works of Shoami Katsuyoshi, Unno Shomin...