This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/japantravel by /u/ConnelyCat on 2024-10-23 16:10:52+00:00.

Hi everyone,

My wife and I went to Japan around springtime this year, and are planning to return about a month from now. Although we were a bit familiar with Japanese woodblock prints ever since a Tsukioka Yoshitoshi exhibition took place here several years back, we became even more enthralled with Japanese woodblock prints once we got to Japan for our honeymoon. We did some research a week before the trip and devoted a full day to visiting woodblock print art stores that had prints from several periods. Although we like a lot of artists from the Ukiyo-E, Shin Hanga and Sosaku Hanga periods, we also noticed some captivating contemporary samples we would’ve liked to learn more about. Some of the stores we visited in Tokyo include places like Mokuhankan in Asakusa and Yamada Shoten in Chiyoda, both of which had some contemporary woodblock prints for sale.

In Kyoto, we only went to Daishodo, a store in Nishiki Market that was amazing and where we got a lot of Shin Hanga prints.

Since then, we kinda made a mental note to look for examples of contemporary art and also try not to limit ourselves to woodblock prints, even though that remains a focus. The only thing that we don’t enjoy for personal, subjective reasons is installation art.

We are very ignorant on this topic. One of the few high profile, contemporary artists that we are aware of and really like is Akira Yamagushi, who we know does mostly paintings.

Another contemporary artist that my wife discovered in Mokuhankan was Shinji Tsuchimochi, who, if I’m not mistaken, is a digital artist that has had some of his work carved and printed.

Other than that, we’ve looked up some galleries in both Tokyo and Kyoto with the hopes of seeing some contemporary, lower-profile art, but we’ve found it somewhat difficult to do a search on this that yields fruitful results. Which is why we thought it might be helpful to also ask around the forums for tips on small museums or galleries in Tokyo and Kyoto that might have, for the most part, drawings, woodblock prints, silkscreens, lithographs and paintings, or names of contemporary artists that work with these mediums. Although we are interested in buying, we are mostly interested in discovering and learning.

We have had this same experience of drawing blanks when it comes to searching Chinese contemporary art, but I know that is off-topic, as this is for Japan travel.

Hopefully this is in the correct subreddit, but I’m sorry if it isn’t.