With postwar Nihonga’s departure from traditional historical narrative and beautiful nature paintings came artists trying their hands at vital expressions of emotion for a new age, work never seen before. Paintings fully conveying Romantic sensibility and personal reflection evidence the postwar generation’s intense emphasis on individuality. Highlighted artists are Toshio Tabuchi, Sawato Fukui, Susumu Maki, Reiji Hiramatsu, Nobutaka Oka, Hirohiko Hiraiwa, Masaru Matsumoto, Goro Naito, Shigeaki Kuromitsu, Kiyokazu Yonetani, and Noriyuki Matsushita.

Women started to advance in postwar Nihonga and society, with the notable emergence of many pioneering women artists who were active in their genres. Works created with a woman’s perspective and sensitivity brought something of a rebirth to Nihonga. We present for your viewing pleasure an exhibit of representative works by the following twelve living women and men artists—Kazuho Hieda, Fumiko Hori, Reiichi Tsuchiya, Rieko Morita, Yoshiyuki Nakano, Toshihiko Maemoto, Hitoshi Kobayashi, Hajime Ogasawara, Kazuyuki Futagawa, Ikuyo Yasuda, Teruko Yoshizawa, and Kazuo Yoshizawa.

Success as a Nihonga artist is ascribed to being attained usually after middle age. There are those talented few, however, who pass away at an early age before achieving a goal recognized by society or those who don’t seek fame but spiritual truth, fully sticking to a personal aesthetic. On exhibit here are representative works by the following deceased artists who reached high, for a new Nihonga: Ikuo Hirayama, Matazo Kayama, Yoshihiko Yoshida, Kenji Yoshioka, Yuki Sekiguchi, Junsaku Koizumi, Takehiko Mōri, Tadao Okazaki, Komei Kondo, Takeshi Ushio, Kojin Kudo, and Junzo Yotsuda.

Shown are works by stellar Nihonga artists who left their names and influence in the annals of Japanese art and who received the Order of Cultural Merit. These works are timeless masterpieces by the following modern and contemporary giants: Togyu Okumura, Seison Maeda, Nanpu Katayama, Shinsen Tokuoka, Kaii Higashiyama, Kyujin Yamamoto, Yasushi Sugiyama, Tatsuo Takayama, Toshio Matsuo, Benji Asada, Takashi Asada, Eizo Kato, Kazuo Kakurai, Sho Ishimoto, and Kazuo Omori.