Collection Exhibition
Small Special Selection; ASAI Kan’emon’s Streets and People

ASAI Kan’emon (1901-1983) had a studio in the Taura district of Yokosuka shortly after the end of World War II. There he continued to paint for two decades, becoming a Western-style painter closely associated with Yokosuka. After his death, his heirs donated many of his works and related materials to the city of Yokosuka, in 1996. That donation inspired the founding of the Yokosuka Museum of Art. Since its opening, the museum has introduced Asai Kan’emon’s distinctive world through exhibitions of his work, on themes changing with each season.
This Small Special Selection introduces, in association with the Riken Yamamoto Exhibition underway, Asai’s cityscapes and works in which he depicted people who live and work in cities.
From Twelve Views of Tokyo is a series painted by Asai, in his thirties, when he was borrowing an older artist’s studio in the Ginza. Broader skies and waterfronts than today brought a rich variety to the urban landscape. The motif in his powerful Landscape with Power Line is the multilevel railroad crossing viewed from his studio in Taura. In the background of On the Street, the Enlisted Men’s Club is in the background next to Shiori Station, while the foreground is filled with bustling crowds of people. In the rooftops lined up in the distance of An Honorable Man and Dolls, we see hints of the gorgeously flamboyant style of Asai’s later years.
Documents related to the exhibition await you in the library just ahead. Do feel free to examine them at your leisure.