The Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum is the first museum of its kind in Okinawa, being the first prefecture-run art museum in the pre-and-post-war eras. Its mission is to serve as a hub of artistic and cultural activity for the region. While stimulating creativity and offering the residents of Okinawa Prefecture and its visitors a myriad of opportunities for art appreciation, the Art Museum also seeks to become an international center. Through its arts and cultural activities, the Art Museum seeks to contribute to the development of the wider Asia-Pacific region.

Furthermore, the Art Museum aims for the very heart of our humanity and encourages artistic endeavors. In doing so, it seeks to support societal growth and development through its enrichment of the aesthetic sentiments of Okinawa Prefectural residents.

Currents of Art in Okinawa

Introduction

In the autumn of 2007, Okinawa Prefecture’s first Art Museum — the first of its kind in the entire pre-and-post-war era — opened its doors to the public. Visitors to the Art Museum can expect to find an excellently organized collection of artworks spanning the whole history of Okinawan art from the Meiji Period to the present. Okinawa’s artists are not widely known outside of the Prefecture and in the rest of Japan. The Museum aims to create a place where the distinctive culture of Okinawa — developed in a climate and history different from that of mainland Japan — can be expressed and celebrated.

Artists of the Ryukyu Kingdom and Nihonga (“Japanese-style”) Painting

The royal Ryukyu government was the patron of artists for several hundred years. When the Kingdom was abolished in the Meiji Period, practicing artists lost their patron. Among these court artists were NAGAMINE Sokyo, known for his ink wash paintings of the landscapes of the southern islands, and HIGA Seisei, a genre painter. When the Kingdom ceased to exist and artists such as these lost their patronages, the traditions of the Ryukyu court art began to be absorbed, as it were, into the traditions of the early modern period of Japan. Ryukyuan artists working in the nihonga style (“Japanese-style”) began to appear with more frequency toward the end of the Ryukyu Kingdom era. 

The nihonga style of painting maintained its popularity until later generations started to lose interest in it during the Showa Period. In the end, only a few prominent artists emerged from this time. YAMADA Shinzan studied sculpture and later the nihonga style with famed Japanese sculptor TAKAMURA Koun at the Tokyo Fine Arts School before returning to Okinawa. Yamada’s major works include the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery’s “Establishment of the Ryukyu Han”, and the great Kannon (Buddhist “Goddess of Mercy”) statue at the Okinawa Peace Memorial Hall in Itoman City. 

The best-known Okinawan Nihonga artists following Yamada include KINJO Yasutaro, known for his elegantly flowing illustrations, and YANAGI Kokan, known for his tranquil portraits of women.

Opening up to Western Art Traditions Towards the End of the Meiji Period

Art teachers from mainland Japan sent to teach in Okinawa Prefecture are credited with introducing the western art world to the people of Okinawa. In 1901, Okinawan artist YAMAMOTO Morinosuke was a member of the first graduating class of the Western Art Department of the Tokyo Fine Arts School. YAMAMOTO came to be associated with the Hakuba-kai (“The White Horse Society”), a group of Meiji period practitioners of western-style painting. While in Tokyo, he produced works based on Okinawan forms and exhibited them with the Hakuba-kai. Yamamoto’s artworks represented Okinawa Prefecture’s first debut into the world of western-style art.

HIGA Keijo, born and raised in Okinawa, became an art teacher at the Daini Prefectural Middle School in 1922. Until his death in 1941, Higa sent numerous students to the Tokyo School of Art and trained a host of artists who later became leaders in the Okinawan art scene.

Pre-war Art

Around 1910, two of Higa’s former students, NADOYAMA Aijun and OMINE Seikwan, arrived on the art scene. These two artists remained active into the post-war period, and are prominent representatives of the Okinawan artists of this period.

Both of these men were imbued with a passion for their beloved homeland and created timeless portraits and paintings of natural landscapes. Nadoyama spent his career illustrating simple, happy times in Okinawa/Ryukyu as portrayed through his portraits of women. Omine made the Shunyokai (春陽会, a western-style painting association established in Japan in 1922) his base of operations, and sought to capture the essence of Okinawa in his art works.

In addition to these two artists, other alumni of Higa’s Daini Prefectural Middle School left their mark on Okinawan art. Later in life, alumnus OSHIRO Kohya began to depict Okinawa’s religious practices and rituals. Alumnus YAMAMOTO Keiichi is attributed with bringing surrealism to Okinawa. Other artists who deserve mention from this period include ADANIYA Masayoshi, KANESHIRO Kensho, and KOJO Koichi.

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  Anata wo Aisuru Toki to Nikumu Toki
  "When I Love You and When I Hate You"
  Artist: YAMAMOTO Keiichi
  (1951)
  Oil on veneer

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  Okinawa Fuukei
  "Okinawan Scenery"
  Artist: OMINE Seikwan
  (1970)
  Oil on canvas

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  Kyoshu
  "Nostalgia"
  Artist: NADOYAMA Aijun
  (1946)
  Oil on canvas

The Avante-Garde and Its Okinawan Expression

In the 1960s, three artists  —  SHIROMA Kiko, OHAMA Yoko, and OMINE Jissei  —  formed the avant-garde art group called Kou. These three artists, in addition to others, were heavily influenced by the Japanese Gutai and French Art Informel avant-garde movements that were cutting-edge in Japan at the time.

Around the time of Okinawa’s reversion to Japan, artists NAGAYAMA Nobuharu, MAKISHI Tsutomu, and ARAKAKI Yasuo launched a series of outdoor exhibitions featuring large-scale objets d’art, the size of which seemed to reflect the degree of their anger at the political realities they experienced. In contrast to these avant-garde movements that reflected global art trends, a hyper-local trend of exploring Okinawa’s uniqueness began to simultaneously develop around this time. Artists like FUTENMA Bin and KIYUNA Choki began to emerge. Futenma was known for using a plaster print technique to depict Okinawan scenes. Kiyuna painted pictures of the Shinto rituals of his hometown.

Entering the 1980s, key figures of the Okinawan art scene had “digested” modernism, as it were, and began to unleash powerful and provocative art works. Artists like TOYOHIRA Yoshio incorporated American military scrap into his art pieces in an effort to capture the material circumstance of his lived reality; YAMASHIRO Kenshin created abstract works with a magnificent darkness; and NAGAYAMA Nobuharu became known for his paintings in monochrome.

As the Okinawan art scene became ever more lively into the 1990s and beyond, the work of young Okinawan artists started to gain attention from outside of Okinawa Prefecture. These include painters CHIBANA Hitoshi and YONAHA Taichi, and sculptors AGUNI Hisanao and MAKISHI Nami, known for their three-dimensional art works and installations.

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  Hikari no Nioi: Haru no Koe de Utau Tame ni
  “The Passage of Shine — To Sing With the Voice of Spring”
  Artist: YONAHA Taichi
  (1999)
  Oil on Canvas

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  Annettai no Shima kara
  “From the Subtropical Island”
  Artist: SHIROMA Kiko
  (1968)
  Fragments of Fighter Plane and Paint on Panel

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  Chinmokunosono
  “Silence Garden”
  Artist: YAMASHIRO Kenshin
  1992
  Acrylic and Pastel Crayon on Board

Emigration and Expression

Compared with every other prefecture in Japan, Okinawa Prefecture has the highest number of emigrants. Both before and after the war, a large number of people from Okinawa moved to North and South America. 

Born in the USA, KOBASHIGAWA Hideo was a kibei-nisei (second-generation Japanese-American who went to Japan for his education and then returned to the USA afterwards) who spent his youth in Okinawa.  Kobashigawa, who painted until almost 90 years of age, created huge paintings distilled from the memories of his childhood in Okinawa. TAKAEZU Toshiko was a second-generation Japanese-American living and working in New Jersey. She was one of the twentieth-century’s greatest potters. Born in Argentina to a Japanese émigré family, artist GOYA Julio is a sculptor who now resides and works in Okinawa. He has won prizes for his work at the Fujisankei Biennale and the Rodin Prize Exhibition. 

The number of Okinawan artists who have not emigrated but who are living and successfully pursuing their work abroad has also steadily increased. HIGA Yoshiharu is a photographer and artist based in New York. KOTANI Setsuya makes woodcuts in North Carolina. KOCHI Manabu is a painter and sculptor living in Paris who gained recognition as the official artist for the 1996 Grammy® Awards. New York-based contemporary artist TERUYA Yuken has always been fascinated by social systems and has become known for his sophisticated ideas and beautiful forms. He is a regular participant in international exhibitions.

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  Tsuchi no Ue
  “Above the Earth”
  Artist: KOCHI Manabu
  (1996)
  Acrylic on Canvas

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  YUI-You-I
  Yu-i, (You-I)
  Artist: TERUYA Yuken
  (2002)
  Pigment on linen

Into the Future

Since the Meiji Period, Okinawa has come into contact with diverse cultures and been caught up in drastic changes. Out of this protracted period of turbulence and change has come a vigorous artistic response. Nowadays, the expressive arts of Okinawa are largely considered to be centered around intangible cultural forms like music and the performing arts. However, in the past, lacquerware, paintings, and other tangible arts and crafts with their exquisite beauty and elegance were equally as well-regarded as the performing arts. Looking at the contemporary arts scene in Okinawa today, though still somewhat obscure, we can glimpse an inkling of the potential for Okinawan art forms to be restored to their former level of vitality and glory. The Art Museum seeks to support those efforts which bring the elegance of Okinawan arts into full view once again.

 

Timeline of Modern Art History in Okinawa

The Collection

To assure the creation of an art museum that truly reflects Okinawa’s individuality and uniqueness, the Art Museum will establish a collection of contemporary art works produced by Okinawan artists and other artists who have a connection with Okinawa. This includes artists from other parts of Japan as well as artists from Asia and beyond. The collection includes plane surface pictorial art works (paintings, woodcut printings, design, and photography) and three-dimensional art pieces (sculptures, objets d’art, designs, etc.). Video arts such as film and other multimedia creations also make important contributions to the collection. Contemporary works of art that cultivate and deepen our understanding are essential, and they hold a prominent place within the collection.