[Special] Report from Behind the Scenes of the Ryushi Memorial Museum Special Exhibition!

Ryushi Kawabata was a painter who was born in 1885 in Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture and lived in Ota City, Tokyo until his passing in 1966, living through the turbulent times of the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa eras. He owned a residence and studio in Ota City since 1920, which is now maintained as the “Ota City Ryushi Park.” The Ryushi Memorial Museum was built right next to this residence.


Ryushi Kawabata
One of the most distinctive features of Ryushi’s style is that many of his works are large, mural-like paintings. At that time, the mainstream format of Japanese painting was small works called tokonoma geijutsu (alcove art). In the midst of all this, Ryushi insisted on kaijo geijutsu (venue art) and launched his own organization called Seiryu-sha. He continued to paint works with strong and bold brush strokes, and before the war, he attracted attention as a revolutionary prodigy of the art world and established a solid position.
In fact, when you visit the museum, you will surely be overwhelmed by the impact of his large, powerful works.


Exhibition room at the Ryushi Memorial Museum. The large works on display are very powerful. A statue of Ryushi also stands in a prominent place near his works.

The Ryushi Memorial Museum was designed and established by Ryushi himself, who loved architecture. It is said that the construction costs were paid from the assets Ryushi had built up with nothing more than a brush. At that time, a painter building a museum based on their own design had never been done before in Japan.
It is said that after receiving the Order of Culture in 1959, Ryushi was inspired to complete the museum by the time he reached 77 years of age. Construction of the Ryushi Memorial Museum finished on June 6, 1962, which was his 77th birthday. He was awarded the Order of Culture in recognition of his achievements in overcoming the turbulent mid-war and post-war periods and continuing to produce works for large canvases. In response, Ryushi decided to leave his own works to posterity so that more people would be able to appreciate them.
Ryushi’s attention to detail can be seen throughout the design, but the most noteworthy feature is the shape of the building from above. Ryushi’s real name is Shotaro, but his gago* (pseudonym) is Ryushi with the kanji meaning child of a dragon. The building itself was shaped like a seahorse or a rising dragon, in honor of this gago. As you enter the museum, there are a series of twists and turns, and the fact that you can’t see everything at once seems to have the effect of stimulating your excitement for the next work.
*Gago: Elegant pseudonyms that painters and artists call themselves.

“This kind of idea and imagination is one of the great things about Ryushi. The exterior of the building is shaped like a temple, so I feel that it was built with the vision of looking at an auspicious Buddhist painting inside the hall,” said Mr. Kimura.


Inside the museum

The pandemic forced cultural facilities and event venues to close or limit the number of visitors, and the Ryushi Memorial Museum was no exception. In addition, even during the period when the museum was open due to thorough infection control measures, there were many people who could not visit the museum because they were worried about COVID-19 infection. Mr. Kimura felt that most of the visitors to the museum during these trying times were people with a strong will.
“There were repeat visitors who really love Ryushi and others who came to the museum because they thought they may be able to monopolize the space they liked because it was not crowded with people due to the pandemic. Some visitors mentioned they were really cheered up by coming to the space. There were so many people who came to the museum with a clear purpose or thought in mind.”

Given this situation, Mr. Kimura decided that he wanted to give something back to the passionate fans that came to the museum despite the pandemic, and he also felt that the museum would get a good response if a questionnaire was circulated among the visitors.
This is why we planned the “Masterpieces from the Ryushi Memorial Museum Collection Chosen by Visitors.” We displayed 100 major works from our collection on large panels and asked visitors to fill out a questionnaire for a period of time.
“When we conducted the questionnaire, about 400 out of 2,000 visitors, or about one in five people, filled it out. I think that’s a good percentage for a survey. Moreover, there were many people who wrote their passionate impressions in the optional comment field.”

This was a popularity contest filled with so many thoughts. We were very curious about the results.
“The first and second place winners in the overall category were somewhat predictable, but the first place winner in the ‘kappa drawn by Ryushi’ category was a bit unexpected. Ryushi left behind many works depicting kappa, and 20 of the 140 works in the collection are kappa paintings. Some of them are large canvas kappa works, which are typical of Ryushi, so I thought the votes would go to those works...” said Mr. Kimura.
Please come to the museum to see which one it is!

The works are displayed together with the enthusiastic comments from everyone. We think one of the main attractions of this exhibition is that we can learn about the thoughts and feelings of everyone.
“The comments from visitors included recollections about when they first learned of Ryushi, to their impressions of certain works such as ‘I was overwhelmed by the color and size of this work.’ This was very interesting to me as it helped me understand the work from the opposite perspective. There was also one person who wrote the ‘Ryushi Memorial Museum’ in the ‘best work’ column. The comment said, ‘I love this museum and visit it every time there is a change of exhibition,’ which was very encouraging for us during this pandemic,” said Mr. Kimura.
Indeed, when we were in the museum, we started feeling that the Ryushi Memorial Museum itself was one big, wonderful work of art.

What are everyone’s favorite works?
Here are some of the comments from everyone. There are many more than what is displayed here, all of which warm our hearts so much! Please check them out along with the actual works.

Among the collection in the Ota City Ryushi Memorial Museum

[Uzushio]

Among the collection in the Ota City Ryushi Memorial Museum

[Ryuansenseki]

Among the collection in the Ota City Ryushi Memorial Museum

[Tatsumaki]

Since many of Ryushi’s works are large, it is very difficult to change the exhibits. This time, they also showed us how it was done. A company that specializes in transporting and displaying works of art carefully moves each piece and puts them on display.

Exhibition in the process of being changed. Because the pieces are large and heavy, it looked like a difficult process and a large group of people worked carefully to handle them.

This project shows the love that everyone has for Ryushi. We became so excited to see all of the popular works on display accompanied by everyone’s comments.
“This is the first time for the museum to hold an interactive exhibition in the form of a popularity contest. This year, we had some collaboration projects where we combined Ryushi’s works with Hokusai Katsushika’s works or contemporary art. While these projects were distinctive and very fulfilling, it was also true that many of the exhibits were so large that you had to look carefully to appreciate them all. However, this exhibition is just a collection of your favorite works. We hope that people will stop by on a whim and enjoy the exhibition. Both the selection of the pieces and the comments to be added were all done by the visitors, so in a sense, this event is like a big ‘thank you event’ for the visitors. We would be happy to welcome both repeat visitors and those who have never been to the Ryushi Memorial Museum before.”

Lastly, we asked Mr. Kimura what his recommended piece is.
He answered, “It’d have to be ‘Tora no ma.’ Since 2022 is the Year of the Tiger, I’d like everyone to check it out.”
“Tora no ma” is of course on display in this exhibition. Please come to the Ryushi Memorial Museum to check out Ryushi’s works which overwhelm the viewer, as well as the passionate comments gathered from visitors!


In front of “Tora no ma,” which Mr. Kimura himself recommends