Home Studio Made into Memorial Museum
In 2008, the work of Taro Okamoto ”Myth of Tomorrow” appeared in the concourse at Shibuya station. An enormous mural, dozens of meters long, it made people stop in awe. Many people visited Shibuya from all over the nation just to see the mural.
We visited the Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum located in Aoyama Tokyo, which opened in 1998. It was originally Taro Okamoto’s home studio, which was later renovated into a museum. You could still feel the unique ambience of this artist who had lived here.
Stepping into museum, you have a view of the sculpture in the garden. It is asymmetrical and looks different depending on the angle. The sculpture is enticing, almost leading you away from the entrance.
Because it was a studio
On the day of our visit, the museum was holding an event, ”50 years of Taro Okamoto”, and his pieces from 1947 until his final days were on display, divided by decades. In the 1947 section were post-war pieces, some of the oldest works of Taro Okamoto left in Japan. There were only 5 painting on display for each period. Even then, you could observe the transition in his style. Large exhibitions have their merits, but a focused display of a single artist’s work is possible only in a memorial museum.
Many of the pieces at Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum are incomplete pieces. ”You can feel the artist’s existence from his unfinished work,” our guide Fuyama commented.
Taro Okamoto lives on quietly in Aoyama, Tokyo to this day, and his pieces will continue to charm people.
