In a quiet corner of the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, a small group of elderly dementia patients accompanied by relatives and caregivers gathered in December in front of a work by French avant-garde painter Pierre Bonnard.
Yoko Hayashi, representative director of Arts Alive, the organizer of the event, served as guide and moderator to help stimulate conversation among the group. "What do you see in this one?" she asked, pointing at the portrait of a woman.
"(She) looks like a ghost," a 62-year-old male participant with dementia replied. Hayashi prods him further: "Would you like to go on a date with someone like her?"