Tourbillon is the first major Italian exhibition by the Japanese artist Masaaki Miyasako. Curated by Junji Ito and presented last year at the Budapest History Museum and the Oriental Museum of Lisbon, the show will now run in Florence up to 29 June.

One of the most striking features of ancient Japanese art – whether in the form of prints, ceramics, fabrics, lacquers or screens – is the delicacy and mastery of the execution. It is a quality that Miyasako entirely adheres to, reaching heights of minimalist sophistication. At the same time the artist is decisively a part of the contemporary scene, even touching on the Informel, in his revisiting of traditional harmony, of the forms and colour matches, which he proposes in a manner all his own.

In the West the influence of Japanese art was immense. The Japanese prints reached Holland through the Dutch East India Company, and from there spread throughout Europe. The scenes of everyday life, and their two-dimensional representation with a flat application of colour totally devoid of chiaroscuro, gave rise to the artistic phenomenon of Japonism, which had an enormous influence on the nascent Impressionism. The Ukiyo-e woodblock prints were a source of inspiration for Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Pisarro and also Klimt and later even for Art Nouveau. Since then, however, it appeared that Japanese art had come to a halt, without finding the courage to break into the contemporary world. Not so for Masaaki Miyasako.

A professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts, where he also specialised in restoration, Miyasako has a total mastery of the artistic techniques. The effects that he succeeds in achieving are subtle and nuanced, and the techniques used are complex and very ancient. Emblematic of this is his use of Urazaishiki, a technique generally used for painting fabrics, which entails applying the colour to the rear of the canvas or paper too.

The rivers and landscapes, the details that indicate the passing of the seasons, recall the masterful teaching of Hokusai and even more of Hiroshige, but the artist’s figurative culture does not distract his gaze from the myriad opportunities offered by everyday life. Thus alongside the traditional Japanese landscapes we find close-ups of men, women, animals, fruit and flowers appearing, painted with such fine nuances of colour as to be almost redolent of Bonnard.

The exhibition proposes 30 works, most of them of large dimensions or made up of panels. They come from the most prestigious Japanese museums, and also partly from private collections and from the artist’s most recent work. These paintings fully represent the aesthetic of Miyasako, who is considered in Japan the leader of the retrieval of tradition and at the same time one of the most innovative artists of the time. It is an aesthetic that is presented with particular joy in Florence, where the modern conception of art first came to birth.

Masaaki Miyasako, a painter of Japanese style, is a Member and Councillor of the Japan Art Institute and a Professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School. He was born in 1951 in the prefecture of Shimane and, after graduating at the Faculty of Design of the Tokyo University of the Arts, he specialised in restoration at the same institute under the guidance of Ikuo Hirayama. He has worked and done research for the Agency for Cultural Affairs, and has been in charge of the scenery in numerous theatrical productions and films. He is also Director of the Centre for Cooperation at the Tokyo University, dealing with forging links between art and society. Among the many awards he has received are the Prize of the Ministry of Education of the Japan Art Institute, the Prime Minister’s Prize and the Seison Maeda Award.