

Dates | October 8 (Tuesday) – 27 (Sunday), 2024
Venue | MEM map
Hours | 13:00 – 19:00 ( No regular viewing on October 12 from 14:00-17:30 due to a talk event.)
Closed | Monday (Open if Monday is a public holiday, closed the following weekday)
Panel Discussion: “Between the Hoe and the Paintbrush”
October 12 (Saturday), 3:00 PM –
Participants: Meiji Hijikata (Director of the Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki), Kiyoshi Ejiri (Deputy Director of Ashikaga City Art Museum), Kazunori Ikeda
Participation fee: 1,200 yen
Venue capacity: 20 people
Live streaming and video archives will also be available.
Please refer to our website for reservation details.
A reception will be held after the discussion, starting at 5:30 PM (Free admission).
We are pleased to present a solo exhibition of Kazunori Ikeda, whose artistic practice has developed alongside his long-standing work as a farmer in the mountainous region of Shimane Prefecture. The title of the exhibition, Prayer to Ākāśagarbha, is also the name of an oil painting developed for many years by Ikeda that we will be unveiling for the first time.
Born in 1942 in Asahi-cho, Naka-gun, Shimane Prefecture, Kazunori Ikeda began teaching himself oil painting when he joined the Hiroshima Branch of the Japanese National Railways. His artistic endeavors continued even as he took over his family’s rice fields; this lived experience as a farmer is deeply embedded into his perspective, manifesting in his works that seamlessly inweave the landscapes and people of his mountainous homestead, local history and folklore, and Buddhist themes.
In 1965, philosopher Takeshi Umehara was conducting research in Shimane and was profoundly shocked when he encountered a painting hung in the Asahi-cho town hall. Titled Guardian of the Homeland, the oil painting was produced by Ikeda when he was 19 years old. Umehara later remarked, “I doubt there will be another painting in my lifetime that will move my soul as deeply as the one I saw in that town.” Umehara introduced Ikeda to the art world, which led to a solo exhibition at Aoki Gallery in Tokyo. In 1975, art critic Terukazu Suenaga wrote in Bijutsu Techo, “Ikeda’s works, which depict the harshness of nature, the life of the farmers, and imagery of folklore, hellscapes, and supernatural fantasies, are rendered with meticulous detail and a contained linear perspective.” Around the same time, art dealer and writer Toru Sunouchi traveled to the remote village of Hikimi in the mountains of Shimane and described Ikeda as “an extraordinary individual” in his serialized column Kimagure Bijutsukan (“Whimsical Museum”) in Geijutsu Shincho magazine.
Although Ikeda has always positioned himself at a distance from the commotion of the art world, he continues to devote himself to his chosen themes and daily practice confronting the canvas.
This exhibition will showcase the captivating world of Kazunori Ikeda’s paintings, including Guardian of the Homeland, a critical early piece; Walking, a large-scale painting depicting the broad back of a farmer (presumably his father) set against a fantastical terraced field; and his new work Prayer to Ākāśagarbha.
Kazunori Ikeda
Born in Shimane Prefecture in 1942, Ikeda graduated from the Agricultural Department of Imaichi Branch of Shimane Prefectural Hamada High School in 1962. After graduation, he joined the Japanese National Railways and was assigned to the Hiroshima area, where he began oil painting. Ikeda has participated in various Prefectural Art Exhibitions, Shokuba Bijutsu[1] Exhibitions, and Peace Exhibitions. After leaving the company in 1966, he devoted himself to painting while farming in the mountains of Shimane. Ikeda met philosopher Takeshi Umehara through one of his works, which he donated to the town hall of his hometown. In 1975, he held an exhibition at the Aoki Gallery in Tokyo, and in 1978, an exhibition at Ginza Central Annex. In 1984, he completed his work of ten drawings, The Ten Principal Disciples of Shakyamuni. His publications include Mitsui’s Evening Bell (1981, text by Takeshi Umehara) and the collection of poetry and paintings titled Natural History (1982, text by Shintaro Goda). His major exhibitions include the 1988 exhibition, My Ten Principal Disciples of Shakyamuni, held at Seibu Department Store (Ikebukuro, Tokyo); the 1990 solo exhibition, Kazunori Ikeda Exhibition at Tawaraya Gallery (Kyoto); the 2008 solo exhibition, Iwami Artist Exhibition – Kazunori Ikeda at the Hamada City Sekisho Art Museum Gallery (Shimane); the 2017 exhibition, Second Period Hirose Collection Kazunori Ikeda and Saeko Wakabayashi at the Hirose Collection; and Here / Hereafter – Visionaries 2 – at MEM (Ebisu, Tokyo).
[1] Shokuba Bijitsu Kyougikai (or Shokubi) can be translated as “Workplace Art Council.” The national organization was founded to organize art exhibitions, hold art lectures, and invite professional artists to give technical instruction for workers of companies large and small throughout Japan.
Photo by Kenji Takahashi