Each Day is a Gift

2010
Gold and silver leaf and acrylic on Japanese washi paper
43 x 82 inches
109.2 x 208.3 cm

Harmony

2010
Gold and silver leaf and acrylic on Japanese washi paper
43 x 82 inches
109.2 x 208.3 cm

Telepathy (detail)

2010
Gold and silver leaf and acrylic on Japanese washi paper
43 x 82 inches
109.2 x 208.3 cm

Each Day is a Gift

2010
Gold and silver leaf and acrylic on Japanese washi paper
43 x 82 inches
109.2 x 208.3 cm

Putting Snow in a Silver Bowl (detail)

2010
Gold and silver leaf and acrylic on Japanese washi paper
43 x 82 inches
109.2 x 208.3 cm

Message from the Void I

2006
Acrylic on canvas
80 x 50 inches
203 x 127 cm

Message from the Void II

2006
Acrylic on canvas
80 x 50 inches
203 x 127 cm

Ming Vase

2008
Acrylic on canvas
47.2 x 19.7 inches
119.8 x 50 cm

Samurai

2008
Acrylic on canvas
47.2 x 19.7 inches
119.8 x 50 cm

Totem

2008
Acrylic on canvas
36 x 47.75 inches
91.5 x 121.3 cm

Prayer

2008
Acrylic on canvas
47.75x 36 inches
121.3 x 91.5 cm

Missed Message I

2008
Acrylic on canvas
55.75 x 43.75 inches
141.6 x 111.2 cm

Missed Message II

2008
Acrylic on canvas
47.75 x 71.75 inches
121.3 x 182.3 cm

A Stream of Light I

2009
Japanese washi paper and silver leaf
35.25 x 22.0 inches
89.5 x 56 cm

A Stream of Light II

2009
Japanese washi paper and silver leaf
35.25 x 22.0 inches
89.5 x 56 cm

A Stream of Light III

2009
Japanese washi paper and silver leaf
35.25 x 22.0 inches
89.5 x 56 cm

It’s coming

2010
Japanese washi paper and silver leaf
20.5 x 13.1 inches
52.1 x 33.3 cm

More haste, less speed

2010
Japanese washi paper and silver leaf
21.7 x 16.4 inches
55.2 x 41.5 cm

The moon over the river lights my heart

2010
Japanese washi paper and silver leaf
20.5 x 13.7 inches
52.2 x 34.9 cm

He is rich that has few

2010
Japanese washi paper and silver leaf
21.7 x 16.4 inches
55.2 x 41.5 cm

Blue

2010
Japanese washi paper and silver leaf
20.5 x 15.5 inches
52.1 x 39.4 cm

My way

2010
Japanese washi paper and silver leaf
21.7 x 16.4 inches
55.2 x 41.5 cm

Pulsar I

2002
Japanese washi paper and silver leaf
27.8 x 20.5 inches
70.6 x 52.1 cm

Pulsar II

2002
Japanese washi paper and silver leaf
27.8 x 20.5 inches
70.6 x 52.1 cm

Pulsar III

2002
Japanese washi paper and silver leaf
27.8 x 20.5 inches
70.6 x 52.1 cm

Look 49 Emma

Look 49 Emma — Back

Look 50 Anastasia

Look 50 Anastasia — Back

Look 51 Karen

God of Wind, God of Thunder, 2008

Method: Kyo-hanga
Painter:TAWARAYA Sôtatsu
Period: Edo, 17th Century
Owner: Kennin-ji Temple, Head Temple of the Kennin-ji School, Rinzai Buddhism
Designation: National Treasure

Description:
Each God, holding his attribute, a rod for thunder, left, and billowing fabric for wind, right, gives us an impression of moving, turbulent air. In ancient India, people worshipped the God of Wind to wish for healthy children and the God of Thunder for a rich harvest. Gold leaf applied by Hiroto Rakusho to Japanese washi paper on a pair of two folding screens.

Flowering Plants of Autumn, 2008

Method: Kyo-hanga
Painter: TAWARAYA Sôsetsu
Period: Edo, 17th Century
Owner:Tokyo National Museum
Designation: Important Cultural Property

Description:
This painting depicts clusters of flowers and plants representing autumn; white chrysanthemum, silver grass, bush clover, and bellflower. Japan’s over 1200-year-old classical sense of beauty, is spectacularly expressed. Space, colorful depictions and smooth lines are effectively used to produce the breadth of a limpid autumn field and create the serene, but richly expressive atmosphere as well. Gold leaf applied by Hiroto Rakusho to Japanese washi paper on a pair of six panel folding screens.

Bugaku Dancers, 2008

Method: Kyo-hanga
Painter: KANÔ Tanshin
Period: Edo, 17th Century
Owner: Zuishin-in Temple, Head Temple of the Zentsû-ji School, Shingon Buddhism

Description:
BUGAKU is a combination of dance and music played at the Imperial Court. In the 17th century, performances were done topray for bumper crops, sound health or to welcome guests from afar. It has a tradition that is more than 1000-years old, as indicated in the NIHON SHOKI, the oldest history book in Japan, and also has historic value and artistic quality as one of the world’s oldest music anddance forms. Gold leaf applied by Hiroto Rakusho to Japanese washi paper on a single six panel folding screen.

Flowing Plants of Summer and Autumn, 2008

Mathod: Kyo-hanga
Painter: SAKAI Hôitsu
Period: Edo, 18th Century
Owner: Tokyo National Museum
Designation: Important Cultural Property

Description:
This is a masterpiece of SAKAI Hôitsu. The right screen has summer plants hit by a heavy shower and a stream of water caused by sudden rain; while the left, has autumn plants and ivy in autumn colors, blown by a strong wind. Silver leaf applied by Hiroto Rakusho to Japanese washi paper
on a pair of two panel folding screens.

Kabuki Drama, 2008

Method: Kyo-hanga
Painter: HISHIKAWA Moronobu
Period: Edo, 17th Century
Owner: Tokyo National Museum
Designation: Important Cultural Property

Description:
A theater including its entrance, stage, and audience
is pictured on the right screen, its backstage and a teahouse are on the left, and 285 energetic people are painted in detail on both. This was painted during the beginning of the Edo Shogunate (Government), which was a transition period to peace after long civil wars. At this time when the future was still uncertain, people
became enthusiastic about a newly formalized KABUKI performance that pre-defined the significance of omissions, exaggerations, and many of the actors’ movements. Gold leaf applied by Hiroto Rakusho to Japanese washi paper on a pair of six panel folding screens.

NEW YORK — Onishi Gallery is proud to present “collaboration”, a two-person show of artworks by Kyoto Gold Leaf Master Hiroto Rakusho and New York fashion designer Ralph Rucci. Four large scale works painted in acrylic by Rucci on gold, bronze or silver leaf panels created by Rakusho, mark a rich, nuanced, cross-cultural understanding. Each artist’s recent personal works express his unique artistic vision: Rucci’s works with hidden layers of meaning and bold, kinetic dynamism; Rakusho’s reflecting a continuing fascination with the moon and the many colors of heated silver metal leaf – which change over time.

Ralph Rucci (bio, cv) was born in Philadelphia in 1956. He majored in Philosophy at Temple University, and studied Fashion Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. For almost 30 years, he has been working with the most luxurious fabrics and specialized collaborators in the world, creating women’s clothing considered by many to be wearable art. He has been a painter for more than 30 years, with four solo shows since 2005.

Hiroto Rakusho (bio, cv) was born in Kyoto in 1962. He apprenticed with his father, Jisaku Nishiyama, winner of the City of Kyoto Award for Outstanding Technical Contribution to Traditional Handicrafts, and was certified by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as a Master of Traditional Handicrafts in 1997. He has worked to expand metal leaf design as an art form, collaborating with artists and students from diverse backgrounds in Japan and abroad. Since 2005, he has held three solo shows, two in Kyoto museums and one in New York. Rakusho is an integral part of digital archive projects in Kyoto, which use digital techniques to reproduce aged ancient artworks on paper stored away in Kyoto’s museums, shrines and temples. This has taken him to American museums, making reproductions which return famous Japanese artworks back for public viewing. (Non-profit Kyoto Culture Association which administers this program, will receive 10% of the proceeds from sales of this exhibition.)

View Artworks:

Gallery of Collaboration between Rucchi and Rakusho

Gallery of Hiroto Rakusho’s artworks

Gallery of Ralph Rucci’s artworks

Gallery of Ralph Rucci’s fashion works

Party Event:

NEW YORK —For this Asia Week in New York, Onishi Gallery is pleased to import Gold Lead Kyoto, Hiroto Rakusho another important exhibition sponsored by The Kyoto International Cultural Foundation and other cultural and government groups in the area, which highlights both the historical and contemporary uses of gold and silver metal leaf in Japanese art, in a unique cultural preservation program that uses high tech, high definition digital printing techniques to reproduce centuries old National Treasures and other major art works, stored and rarely on view in the temples and shrines of the former capitol city of Japan and permits them now to be seen by a wider international audience. Hiroto Rakusho, a Master of Traditional Handicrafts, known for his skill in metal leaf design and the creative production of patterned gold and silver leaf as an art form, has been a part of this project since its inception, applying the gold leaf that animates and gives soul to the digital images generated from deteriorating byobu (folding screens).

Hiroto’s meticulous application of gold leaf, on one such digital reproduction on traditional handmade washi paper at “Releasing the Spirit of Kyoto” exhibition at Artexpo, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center here in 2006, demonstrated how a traditionally trained artisan of today, could meld with the creative spirit of outstanding artists from centuries ago to reproduce their work in a thoroughly unconventional way.  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/04/arts/04shri.html

The Kyoto International Culture Foundation, a private, non-profit body tied to both the central and Kyoto municipal governments, is putting millions of yen into digital reproductions of Kyoto art from the 13th to 17th centuries, hoping to preserve works at 3,500 temples and shrines in their current state. Because traditional Japanese art was done on wood or washi paper, the effects of environmental factors such as climate, light and pollution, have made many very fragile and vulnerable. The Masterpiece Archives Series Kyo-hanga reconstructs works and styles of great masters in Kyoto with high definition techniques and gold leaf processing techniques developed by Hiroto. Kyo-hanga is an innovative new form of artisanship that revives masterworks by retracing the footsteps of tradition. Gold Leaf Kyoto uses the products of local handicraft practitioners in Kyoto for the supplies it uses every day and returns its business profits back to collectives and local handicraft industries. This helps to insure that the traditional beauty and techniques of Kyoto artisans will continue to be passed down to future generations.

“Having been born in Nishijin (The district famed for brocade textile production in Kyoto.), I was born into a world of gold and silver, Japanese washi paper and India ink,” Hiroto said, “a world where polished crafts and beauty were taken to the absolute limit. I tried every so often to leave it all behind (His father, Jisaku Nishiyama, was a winner of the Kyoto City Award for Outstanding Technical Contribution to Traditional Handicrafts.), but every time the “Nishijin” in me grew and expanded,” he explained. Given my location in Nishijin, where the formal beauty of Ogata Korin has for so long held sway, it was a fateful moment for me when I reproduced “Wind and Thunder Gods” (Fujin Raijin) by Tawaraya Sotatsu, the founder of the Rimpa style.

The reproduction of those powerful Gods on a pair of two panel folding screens will be in the exhibition, along with more contemporary works from Hiroto’s The Original Artworks Series. These show the range and colors of silver the silvery moon is one of the most fascinating things in the universe and expresses the dynamic flow the changing universe. The change to silver leaf from heat, which brings out the colors, or from over time, shows up in examples worked in tapestry, on wood and washi paper.

The technical side of the art works was begun by Hewlett Packard Corporation, which used a 60 wide model HP Designjet 5500ps UV printer to transfer the ancient images to washi paper. In 2007, Canon Inc. began a three year Cultural Heritage Inheritance Project, also called The TSUZURI Project, which uses Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III digital single-lens reflex cameras for delicate nuances of color that are so true that they are indistinguishable from the original. Later on this Spring, visitors to the Itochu International, Inc. New York office, will be able to see a six panel screen of Flowering Plants of Autumn 2008, painted by Tawaraya Sosetsu, Edo period, 17th century, owned by the Tokyo National Museum in the lobby. Hiroto Rakusho will demonstrate his technique at the Onishi Gallery on March 12th and 13rh. For artistic beauty and innovative technology that links masterpieces of the past with today, Gold Leaf Kyoto, Hiroto Rakusho will give new meaning to a digital copy.

Four large scale works painted in acrylic by Rucci on gold, bronze or silver leaf panels created by Rakusho, mark a rich, nuanced, cross-cultural understanding.

Each artist’s recent personal works express his unique artistic vision: Rucci’s works with hidden layers of meaning and bold, kinetic dynamism; Rakusho’s reflecting a continuing fascination with the moon and the many colors of heated silver metal leaf – which change over time.

Onishi Gallery, 521 West 26th Street, NY 10001
Nana Onishi | 212.695.8035
nana@onishigallery.com
www.onishigallery.com

10% of the pro­ceeds of sales will go to the Kyoto Cul­ture Asso­ci­a­tion for its pro­gram to reproduce aged cen­turies-old art­works in the city’s shrines, tem­ples and other cul­tural properties.

Party Event:

Video Production: Alessio De Vecchi

View the Press Release:

Announcing “collaboration”

View Artworks:

Gallery of Collaboration between Rucchi and Rakusho

Gallery of Hiroto Rakusho’s artworks

Gallery of Ralph Rucci’s artworks

Gallery of Ralph Rucci’s fashion works

Attributed to Ogata, Korin
Owned byTokyo National Museum
Era Edo Period, 18C
Style Pair of two-fold screens, color on gold paper
Size 164.5*182.4cm
Image Source TNM Archives, Japan

Wind God and Thunder God control the wind and thunder. In India, Wind God was believed to give fertility to every living creature. This piece has glittering gold leaves, a silver coating that has darkened over the years, and clouds painted with a unique ink technique. It looks as though both Wind and Thunder Gods, divine images of the power of nature, appear suddenly, out of nowhere. With striking color combination and well-balanced gold leaves, this mysterious piece shows an infinite depth of the space.

Tawaraya, Sotatsu (unknown ~ 1643?)
Sotatsu is a painter who represents the early Edo Period. While his popularity and influence was great, his personal records are not well known. He worked on large-scale decorative pieces such as Wind God and the Thunder God, and produced many ink paintings. He was known as a top painter whose clients included members of the Imperial Family and famous cultural figures. His decorative and bold composition style became a new form of painting, which later influenced modern Japanese paintings.

Hawks in Pine Trees

Attributed to Kano ha (Kano School)
Owned by Nijyo Castle
EraEdo Period, 17C
Style Three screens, color on gold paper
Size207.0*478.5cm (as a set of three screens)
[credit] © Nijyo Castle DA

This piece is placed on the south side of the Fourth Room. A huge pine tree is depicted diagonally with a glaring goshawk. This figure overwhelms the spectator with its dynamic composition. Between the clouds in the background, one can see a powerful waterfall with abundance of water. The water eventually flows horizontally to the left and right toward the west and east side of the room, uniting the entire painting as a single piece.

About the Artists
The Kano School, the largest in the history of Japanese art, was in the center of the art scene for 400 years from the 15th century (the Muromachi Period) through the 19th century (end of the Edo Period). They served as art professionals for Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Shogun Tokugawa, and placed themselves at the center of the art scene by associating with powerful figures of the time. They strongly influenced the Japanese art scene as a professional painting group that dealt with a variety of genres: from wall paintings for Emperor’s residences, castles, and large scale temples, to industrial art such as decorative fans.

Flowering Plants of Summer and Autumn

Attributed to Sakai, Hoitsu
Owned by Tokyo National Museum
Era Edo Period, 19C
Style Pair of two-panel folding screens, Japanese paper with silver leaf
Size 166.9*184.0cm each
Credit[Reproduction]

This is a well known masterpiece of Sakai Hoitsu. Originally it was painted on the back side of Ogata Korin’s “Wind and Thunder Gods”. Both screens are painted on silver leaf on Japanese washi paper. The right screen has summer plants hit by heavy shower and water stream caused by sudden rain, while the left has autumn plants blown by strong wind and ivy in autumn colors.

About the Artists
Sakai Hoitsu, a son of the Lord of Himeji, was born into one of most highly aristocratic families of Japan. He first studied painting in the Kano school, and then turned to the Rimpa school, under the influence of more delicate and decorative style of Ogata Korin, whom he strongly admired. Hoitsu published illustrated works on Korin and gathered a large and important collection of Korin’s works. Hoitsu’s own work was notable for softness, delicacy, and elegance. Among his best works are exquisitely painted screens with both gold and silver backgrounds. He was also a master of the painted scroll. The scroll “Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons” (1808) is one of his most highly regarded works, as is the screen “Flowering Plants of Summer and Autumn” (1821).

Carp at the Gateway

Attributed to Maruyama, Oukyo
Owned by Daijyoji, Kyoto
Era Edo Period, 18C
Style Hanging scroll, sumi-ink
Size 107.3*48.5cm
Credit [Reproduction]

According to a myth from China, Dragon Gate is a gateway to success. Carps gather below a waterfall of the Huang River and wait to swim upstream. Those few carps that swim up successfully become dragons. The piece captures the scene well, using symbolic shadows and modern sensitivity. It is surprising to see an old theme such as Carps at Gateway made fresh and lively by Oukyos painting. This piece was originally designed as a set for two hanging scrolls.

Maruyama, Oukyo (1733–1795)
Oukyo is a painter from mid Edo Period. His characteristic is his sketching technique. He focused more on the sketch of the painting than other modern Japanese painters. He sketched many objects in the nature including animals, insects, and plants from various perspectives. His characteristic resides in painting traditional objects in Japanese art by using basic techniques of sketching while creating decorative pieces. His outstanding technique and approachable style became popular among his pupils. His school, the Maruyama Shijo School, has become one of the main schools that led to contemporary Kyoto paintings.

Seventy years ago, famed Marxist philosopher Walter Benjamin published his essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” to analyze the concepts of originality and creativity in a world still coming to terms with new technology in the form of photography, mimeographs and other modes of reproduction. Benjamin wanted to know if the copy of a work of art still maintained the aura of the original. Did the copy provoke the same reaction in the viewer? Did it maintain the same aesthetic integrity? Did it, in the end, reveal the soul of the artist in the same way as the original?

Today, we are forced to ask these same questions more and more each day as the cutting-edge technologies of our time continue to blur the line between reality and imitation to such an extent that we must always examine the validity of what we see before us. In an age where technologies such as Photoshop and high definition digital scanning far outshine the now antiquated technologies of which Benjamin wrote, we must begin to rectify the presence of exact copies of famous works of art in our midst and decide for ourselves if these works carry the same message as the original.

In “Cultural Preservation for the Next Generation” at Onishi Gallery in Chelsea, viewers have the opportunity to experience just this kind of high quality reproduction with their very own eyes. Originally formed by the City of Kyoto as a way of sharing the city’s and Japa’s art masterpieces with the world without having to worry about damage or loss of the originals and indeed as a way to preserve the ideas and images of the original works the Kyoto International Culture Foundation spent years working with top experts in the field of digital reproduction to find the perfect way to exactly copy such famous works as the National Treasures Pine Trees by Hasegawa Tohaku from the early 17th-century and Birds and Flowers by Kano Eitoku from the late 16th-century, both painted at the height of Japan’s Golden Age of the Momoyama Period. Using mammoth scanners, multi-color inkjet printers and a litany of highly developed techniques, the technicians that carry out the copying process do not depend on technology alone to perfect their craft. For, once the main copying process is complete, highly skilled artisans, fully familiar with the traditional technique of gold leaf application, are called to duty to apply layer upon layer of gold to the reproduced images, creating a copy that, when placed next to the original work, is nearly indistinguishable from the actual work.

Hailed by the organizers as the ideal way to preserve actual works of art located in temples and museums across Japan, these hybrid reproductions might best be viewed as goodwill proxies that provide a visual representation of the original work so that viewers who might not otherwise be able to travel to Japan can still experience the work in close proximity. As a counterpoint, certain temples in Japan have, in addition to preserving their historic treasures, invited contemporary artists to create wholly new works, such as famed nihonga painter Hiroshi Senju’s major installation at the Annex of Daitokuji-Jyukoin in 2003. Projects such as these breathe new life into Japan’s sacred spaces, and perhaps more importantly ensure that temples and their treasures remain important in the public’s eye.

In closing, for all of their beauty and technologic advancements, the reproductions exhibited in the Onishi Gallery show might be all the more interesting thanks to the philosophical debates they arouse, exactly in line with Benjamin’s now all too important queries on the true essence of a given artwork in an age when technology brings with it the promise of flawless reproduction in all areas of our lives. Facing the glittering gold of these beautiful creations, the viewer must make up her own mind where the original ends and the copy begins.

Eric C. Shiner, Independent Curator

Eric C. Shiner is an independent curator and art historian specializing in Japanese contemporary art. He holds two Masters degrees in the History of Art, one from Yale University and the other from Osaka University, and focuses on the concept of bodily transformation in Postwar Japanese photography, painting and performance art. Shiner was an assistant curator of the Yokohama Triennale, Japan’s first ever large-scale exhibition of international contemporary art, held in 2001. He has also organized exhibitions in Chicago at Julia Friedman Gallery (2002), and in New York City at Ise Cultural Foundation (2004). In addition to his own exhibitions, Shiner has also worked on large shows at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto. He is an active writer and translator, and is a contributing editor for Art AsiaPacific magazine. He is currently organizing a large-scale group show of contemporary art by Japanese artists living in New York City titled “Making a Home: Japanese Artists in New York” that will be held at the Japan Society from September 2007 through January 2008.