The typical white cube gallery is not unlike a sumo ring. Both are bare, sanctified spaces, where we can stare intently at the participants' strenous efforts to impress. While the dohyo is purified by salt, the antiseptic agents in the case of the white cube gallery are white paint, light and an attitude that ignores the history of the venue. Coming as quite a contrast to this sterility is the exhibition by Ryoichi Yamazaki at the Nakaochiai Gallery in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Instead of the usual selection of disembodied artworks floating on soulless white walls that you get elsewhere, this exhibition makes full use of the venue's offbeat characteristics. The gallery was once a typical shop-house in a shotengai (small shopping street) and still has much of that feel. There is a commercial space fronting the road and normal tatami mat rooms upstairs with shoji doors. This setting is skillfully used to create a small but fascinating site-specific exhibition.

"When the Nakaochiai Gallery approached me, I found it interesting that they were going to use the whole house," the artist says. "In my concept, I like to live with the artworks, and I've been living here on site for the last few days setting up the works. It's easier to get inspiration as I also want people to live with my artworks afterward."

Yamazaki's art centers on a small, hooded child figure that he produces in drawings and plaster sculptures. "Hoodie" — my nickname for him — is a timid and melancholy little creature, but he occasionally exhibits a sharp sense of irony, expressed in the titles of works, which usually read like the character's words or thoughts.

Some viewers might be reminded of the cute, slightly sinister kids that inhabit the paintings of the internationally acclaimed pop artist Yoshitomo Nara. But Yamazaki's works are more soulful and genuine. They also have a more telling sense of humor, all aspects that are strongly highlighted by the setting.

The first thing you see when you enter is a traditional sweet shop, reconstructed for the occasion. This pays tribute to the former function of the gallery space, but it also reminds us that we are in a childlike world. Small artworks of Hoodie are positioned amid the candy and nostalgic toys so that they can be discovered rather than just observed.

Upstairs, a plaster figure of Hoodie can only be seen by peering through a tiny pinhole in the shoji, emphasizing his reclusiveness; while in another room the same lonely little fellow waits patiently for his dinner with a solitary clump of rice on his cheek.

So, how did he come to create Hoodie? Was he, like Nara, just tapping into Japan's perennial obsession with all things kawaii (cute)?

"It developed around five years ago," Yamazaki explains. "I was creating adult sculptures with sad faces. I was always trying to express myself in the artwork. But then I realized I had to have more of myself in there. I am shy and I am not really comfortable with people I don't know very well. In Japanese there's a word hitomishiri (stranger anxiety), which means those who are not very good with meeting people for the first time. We're extremely shy, and that's very me. It's mainly kids who suffer from this, rather than adults, so that's why I thought a child motif would be better to express this side of me."

The title of the exhibition — "Do you remember me? Culture-bound syndrome V" — is a reference to the hikikomori (acute withdrawal) syndrome, which many consider to be a social problem specifically rooted in Japanese culture. The exhibition's press release pushes the idea that Yamazaki's art is in some way tackling this problem.

But that doesn't ring entirely true as it gives the impression that the art is somehow didactic and overburdened with message, which, I feel, is a slightly arid way of viewing it. It's much better to just make friends with Hoodie, and to enjoy his charm and humor — even if you suspect that he'd much rather be left well alone.

"Do you remember me? Culture-bound syndrome V" at Nakaochiai Gallery runs till June 5; currently open by appointment only. For more information, visit www.nakaochiaigallery.com or call (03) 5988-7830, e-mail [email protected]