The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto's "Potter Kawai Kanjiro: Works from the Kawakatsu Collection" is just the fourth time it has presented such a substantial selection of works from its renowned Kawakatsu Collection of over 400 pieces.

The recent focus on the vibrant idiosyncratic works of the Edo Period (1603-1868) eccentric painters has left the achievements more traditional masters in neglect. "Road to Shijo School" at the Otani Memorial Art Museum, Nishinomiya City, is a welcome reparative.

An overachieving infant, Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-89) sketched at age 3, studied ukiyo-e from 7 and joined a branch of the Kano school of painting at 10. He offended officials, was shunned as an ex-convict, applauded by Josiah Conder and then forgotten after WWII. Now, ...

From perfect replicas of fruit to tiny articulated dragons, Japan's ceramic, metal, wood and other craft industries excel at making decorative items that are so detailed and realistic, they can fool the naked eye.

Memories eroded, recovered, or forged from or for other peoples and times are the major themes of "Christian Boltanski: Lifetime," the artist's first full-scale Japan retrospective at The National Museum of Art, Osaka.

As the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art's final Heisei Era (1989-2019) exhibition, this ambitious and somewhat provocative show looks back on the socio-political roles art played in the midst of the past 90 or so years.

Gentaro Komaki (1906-89), the son of a Kyoto Prefecture silk crepe wholesaler, lived a decadent youth of literature and philosophy, until seeing the work of Max Ernst and Yves Tanguy inspired to pursue surrealist art.

The Museum of Kyoto's latest exhibition presents a promising cast of 45 emerging local artists working in miscellaneous mediums from lacquer to small-scale mixed-media installations.

Despite being among the least popular, revered or symbolically loaded of zodiac animals, the boar still holds an aesthetic presence.

M.C. Escher's preoccupation with perspective was like that of the Renaissance, his early intricate stone topographies were in the vein of Andrea Mantegna and his mesmerizing architectures recall Giovanni Battista Piranesi — yet his fans were mostly from outside the art world.