This exhibition presents works by Masato Yanagisawa of historical buildings and the natural heritage of countries around the world depicted with a lively palette and dynamic expression. Among works on display are two seven-meter-long masterpieces—a northern Italian Alps landscape and a Florence townscape, as well as representative works based on his research and far-flung travels to European countries, China, North America, South America and South Africa. Also on display is Tokyo, a 2021 masterpiece in which Yanagisawa focuses for the first time on a familiar cityscape due to limited travel during the global pandemic.

Masato Yanagisawa 1955~
Born in Saku, Nagano Prefecture. Completes graduate studies in Nihonga at Tokyo University of the Arts. National artist trainee for the Agency for Cultural Affairs (1983). Awards: 10th-13th Yamatane Museum of Art Award Exhibition, participant; Studies in Florence, Italy, after receiving the Most Promising Young Talent Award in Fine Arts, in the 2nd Gotoh Memorial Cultural Awards; Grand Prize, in the 2nd Suga Tatehiko Grand Prix Awards. His work conjures a new Nihonga world with unique and bold compositional elements that embrace both time and space.

Many works of contemporary Nihonga characterize flowers with a sense of life that enables viewers to feel a natural atmosphere. Such works of floral vitality are a hymn to all living things in nature. Paintings replete with feeling and ambience, centering on seasonal flowers, are shown, including those by Nobutaka Oka, Tadao Okazaki, Shigeaki Kuromitsu, Komei Kondo, Reiji Hiramatsu, Fumiko Hori, Susumu Maki, Masaru Matsumoto, Takehiko Mori, Rieko Morita, and Kyujin Yamamoto.

Select works from the Narukawa Art Museum Collection include three works not only by Kyujin Yamamoto that convey the feeling of the wind—Kisetsufu (Seasonal Wind), A Day When the Evening Wind Blows, and Fuei (State of the Wind). Exhibited are works by such brilliant stars as Sho Ishimoto, Takeshi Ushio, Hajime Ogasawara, Kazuo Kakurai, Matazo Kayama, Yasushi Sugiyama, Tatsuo Takayama, Somei Tsubouchi, Ikuo Hirayama, Kyujin Yamamoto, Kenji Yoshioka, and Yoshihiko Yoshida.