Coming to America

By: Jim McClelland

March 2007

PHILADELPHIA—Hiroshi Senju, one of Japan’s most revered and internationally acclaimed

Hiroshi Senju ►Born in Tokyo in 1958. ►Renowned for his series of paintings, “Waterfall,” that were awarded an Honorable Mention at the 1995 Venice Biennale, where he represented Japan. Holds graduate degrees from Tokyo National University of Fine Art and Music, has won numerous awards for his artwork and has held exhibitions all over the world. ►Started post 9/11 art space TriBeCa Temporary in New York City (since 1992, Senju has spaces in both Tokyo and New York). His atelier became an oasis for collaboration by local artists in “ground zero” to share their views and restore the downtown community through art.  ► Currently Director of Kyoto University’s International Research Center for the Arts and Professor and Vice-President of Kyoto University of Art and Design. ►Most recent works include murals for Terminal 2 in Tokyo International Airport; murals at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo; and for Milano Salone in Milan, where Lexus commissioned a mural to introduce its new model.

contemporary artists, showed 27 murals (syohekiga) at Japan’s Yamatane Museum of Art through March 4. The works, however, are ultimately bound for the United States. On May 1 of this year, the murals will be installed on the fusuma (sliding doors) and tokonoma (writing hall) alcove at Shofuso (“Pine Breeze Villa”), the Japanese house and garden in Fairmount Park.

For his new murals, Senju expresses modernism created with a painting style called Nihon-ga, the origin of which dates back more than a thousand years. The artist makes pigment from natural materials—minerals, shells and semi-precious stones—mixes with nikawa (hide-glue) and water, then applies to special, hand-screened, Japanese rice paper. Senju’s works will replace original murals by Japanese 20th-century painter Kaii Higashiyama (1908–99). The murals were vandalized and later replaced with plain paper during the restoration project for the country’s 1976 bicentennial celebration.

Custom-made and built by the Japanese government, the artistic and architectural masterpiece is the only villa of its kind outside of Japan. Yoshimura Junzo, one of Japan’s foremost architects, designed Shofuso in 1953. It was presented by the America-Japan Society of Tokyo to the Museum of Modern Art in New York for exhibition as part of the World War II reconciliation between Japan and the United States. Given to Philadelphia and reassembled in 1958, Shofuso occupies a site that has been home to Japanese structures and landscaping almost continuously since the 1876 Centennial Exposition, when a Japanese bazaar and garden were in the area.

In designing and executing this new, permanent installation, Senju is honoring Shofuso with the ancient Japanese tradition of a master painter giving a splendid gift to the community. Senju also is donating all copyrights from sales of reproductions of the murals to support the preservation of the Pine Breeze Villa. For more information, call 215.878.5097.