July 20-Sept. 8 The son of a Western-style painter father and a Japanese-style painter mother, sculptor Hiroshi Kobatake (1935-96) studied at Tokyo University of the Arts. After graduation, he taught art at several universities, until he established his own art school, Kobatake Sculpture Studio, in ...

July 19-Nov. 4 Though insects are integral to environments and affect our everyday lives, due to their variety, surprisingly little is known about them. Their vibrant colors, physical features and other characteristics and habits, however, often go beyond our imaginations, making them a great inspiration ...

July 20-Sept. 16 Born in the Goto Islands of Nagasaki Prefecture, the animation art director Nizo Yamamoto is renowned for his background illustrations for numerous Studio Ghibli films, including "Grave of the Fireflies" (1988), "Princess Mononoke" (1997) and "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" (2006). In ...

July 13-Oct. 20 Born in 1947 in a village in Tyrol — a mountainous region of Austria — Lois Weinberger grew up drawing plants and animals. As he developed as an artist, he continued to be inspired by the uncontrolled growth of nature, making it ...

July 13-Sept. 23 Highlighting the materials, techniques and expressions of 60 eye-catching works selected from the Ashiya City Museum of Art and History's contemporary art collection, this exhibition presents pieces by numerous artists, including painter, printmaker and photographer Ei-Q (1911-60), mixed-media artist Yoshinobu Nakagawa and ...

July 13-Jan. 13, 2020 Izumi Kato began his career as a painter during the 1990s and later focused on wooden sculptures from the 2000s. Now based in Tokyo and Hong Kong, he is internationally recognized for his series of unusual humanoid figures that, in style and ...

July 6-Oct. 6 Born in Granada, Spain, raised in Rome and Paris and based in Venice, Italy, the fashion designer Mariano Fortuny (1871-1949) was famed for his Delphos series of elegant and intricately hand-pleated lightweight silk gowns. First designed and introduced during the early 1900s, ...

July 6-Sept. 23 Yōkai — supernatural demons, spirits and monsters of Japanese folklore — were originally depicted as menaces to be feared by humans. During the Edo Period (1603-1868), however, poet and ukiyo-e artist Toriyama Sekien (1712-1788) began to show them in a more humorous ...

July 6-Sept. 29 The most highly valued utensil of the Japanese tea ceremony, chawan (tea bowls) are prized possessions of tea masters. Carefully selected for size, shape, color, pattern and texture, every tea bowl is handmade, unique and considered a work of art. In a comprehensive ...

July 2-Oct.6 Since "The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun" (1968), the first animated movie he directed, Isao Takahata (1935-2018) has been regarded as one of the great pioneers of Japanese anime. In the 1970s, he worked on anime TV dramas, such as "Heidi, ...