Kawai Gyokudō (1873–1957) created richly lyrical paintings of Japan's natural environment and its people's manners and customs. To commemorate the fifty-fifth anniversary of the Yamatane Museum of Art, we are delighted to present a retrospective exhibition spanning seven decades of Gyokudō's work.

Born in Aichi and raised in Gifu prefecture, Gyokudō studied in Kyoto before moving to Tokyo at the age of twenty-three, where he further polished his art under the guidance of Hashimoto Gahō. Building on the Maruyama Shijō tradition he had acquired in Kyoto, he also incorporated the Kanō school style, developing his domain from traditional landscape painting to a distinctly modern vision. Gyokudō became a central figure in the Tokyo art world, and in 1940 was awarded the Order of Culture. Our museum's founder, Yamazaki Taneji (1893–1983), was good friends with Gyokudō and frequently visited his home in the remote Okutama district even during the war. The museum's collection of seventy-one works by Gyokudō reflects that close relationship. This exhibition traces his artistic path from early Meiji-period masterworks such as Cormorant Fishing through the essence of his mature art in Spring Breeze, Spring Stream and Young Ladies Planting Rice, and also spotlights Breeze in the Pines, the Sound of the Waves, the celebrated work he showed at the Japanese Art Exhibition in Rome in 1930, on special display here.

We hope this exhibition will be an opportunity to savor the intense gaze with which Gyokudō addressed nature, the warm character that led so many people to admire him, and the compelling appeal of his art.