Tuesday 16 April 2019
6:00pm – 8:00pm

Private View: JIZAI by Haruo Mitsuta

13/14 Cornwall Terrace, Outer Circle (entrance facing Regent's Park), London NW1 4QP

Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation

The Private View was an opportunity to have a first look at the works of the acclaimed Japanese artist Haruo Mitsuta. Dr Clare Pollard, University of Oxford, gave an introduction to Jizai Okimono during the evening.

Mitsuta is the only living artist who makes contemporary Jizai Okimono (“articulated animals”) – flexible animal figures made from metal pieces, which can replicate the movements of the original animals. Originally they were made by armourers in the late Edo and the Meiji period.

Inspired by traditional figures, Mitsuta creates a new kind of Jizai Okimono, based on the concept of 金属による命の再現 (Reproduction of life with metal).

Jizai Okimono have gained some recognition within Japan in recent years, but still belong to a very minor area of traditional Japanese metallic handicrafts. The vast majority of these items were sold abroad, so this exceptional form of art never had the chance to develop its roots within Japan, where it originated. Its presence may have been long lost in the Japanese art scene, but these objects have been collected and cherished by many people outside Japan.

Mitsuta will be showcasing some of his most impressive and startlingly realistic pieces in this exhibition.

About the contributors

Haruo Mitsuta (満田晴穂)

Haruo Mitsuta (b. 1980) was born in Yonago, Japan. He has won several awards, including the Grand Prize of “The 2nd Art Plaza Grand Prize – Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music” in 2007. Mitsuta’s solo exhibitions include: “JIZAI”, Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi, Tokyo (2010, 2012, 2014). Group exhibitions include: “Moeglichkeit II”, Radium von Roentgenwerke AG, Tokyo (2009) and “KOH-JUTSU”, Spiral, Tokyo (2010).

Dr Clare Pollard

Clare Pollard is Curator of Japanese Art at the Ashmolean and an associate member of the Faculty of Oriental Studies. After gaining her doctorate at Oxford University in 1996 on the subject of Japanese potter Miyagawa Kozan (1842–1916) and the development of Meiji ceramics, she worked for seven years as Curator of the East Asian Collections at the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. In 2004 she became Curator of Japanese Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, before returning to the Ashmolean in April 2006.

Tsutomu Ikeuchi

CEO of Röntgenwerke AG, Tokyo.