Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu:

On the occasion of the 51st anniversary of Takikawa Association of Fine Art, sixty-year-old Takashi Miyake, a retired secondary art teacher, wanted to do something different. He decided to exhibit paintings by Japanese artists in Nepal. He arrived to Nepal with 60 paintings by 24 renowned Japanese artists. He was anxious if an exhibition could be organised here in Nepal. “I cannot believe it. It is a dream come true for me,” said an elated Miyake from the dais at the inauguration ceremony at Nepal Association of Fine Art on March 23. Tsutomu Hiraoka, Japanese Ambassador to Nepal, also expressed his happiness: “This show is also a matter of pride for the citizens of Hokkaido.”

Hokkaido is mountainous like Nepal. Fuji Yama is nearby. When Miyake had visited Nepal 20 years ago, he was drawn to the land. “Snowy mountains and Nepali people attracted me the most,” he said. In his eighteenth visit to Nepal, he succeeded to open his own art gallery. He named it ‘Chautari’, a resting place in Nepali vocabulary.

Miyake has visited almost all mountain regions of Nepal. His paintings include mountain pictures only.

“This is the first exhibition in the country with paintings by so many artists at a time,” said artist Gajendra Man Shrestha, coordinator of the exhibition. The mediums of the paintings are water colour, charcoal, acrylic. The paintings in the exhibition are mostly landscapes and few of them are portraits.

All the paintings in the exhibition are ‘realistic’. It is not only vague lines and randomly splashed colour in canvas. The paintings give you a lively picture of Hokkaido citizens. Many of the paintings are the resemblance of Nepali rural life. The exhibition will continue till March 28.