Akita is a prefecture situated in the north of Japan. Ms. Ohtani says “Since I started living in the Akita region, coming in contact with the scenery, history and lifestyle of the people there, I became more strongly aware of my own identity as a Japanese person”. The work she created is a room decorated all over with Akita cedarwood, and is a fusion of Japanese and Western styles. Past the cedarwood forest painting at the room entrance, right in front, there’s a cedarwood window frame, and through it, a moat with glorious lotus flowers in bloom. On the left wall, in the guise of a sliding screen, there are camellia japonica flowers, while the ceiling has a “cracked ice” pattern, often used for pottery or designing Japanese-style rooms, but here fashioned in cedarwood. In the guise of the upper closet, there’s a painted window frame, and through it, “Nishimonai Bon-Odori” summer festival dancers, while in the closet are painted pole lanterns of the “Akita Kanto Festival”. This room offers guests a myriad of images testifying to the beauty of the Akita region of Japan.
We hope that in the Artist Room Beauty of Akita with its cedarwood fragrance, you will enjoy the exquisite beauty for which Japan is famous.
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Since I moved my creative base to Akita City in 2013, I had an opportunity to come in contact with the scenery and history of Akita, as well as the lifestyle of the people there. This reminded me even more strongly of my Japanese cultural identity, and I began painting a series of works which depicts flowers, entitled “Floral Figures”, which embodies the Japanese sense of beauty and aesthetics. Acknowledgment Yuka Ohtani |
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