Perhaps there are two types of Japanese people: those who stay in Japan, and those who leave for foreign shores. Distance means the two rarely interact, and it's just as well, because the results can be fiery.

Such was the case in 1986, when the then New York-based, Japanese artist Nobuyuki Oura participated in a group exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Toyama. His contribution was "Holding Perspective," a series of collages, each featuring a cutout photograph of the late Emperor Hirohito. He was shown, for example, tipping a bowler hat among a maze of tattooed bodies.

It was obvious that Oura's Westernized sensibilities had taught him (unless he had been like this from the start) that when it came to art, nothing was sacred.