Viet Nam through Toba Mika’s katazome paintings

A Katazome painting exhibition of Japanese artist Toba Mika will take place at Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture from October 20th to November 12th, on the occasion of the 29th APEC in Da Nang city.

Visiting Viet Nam for the first time in 1994, Toba Mika saw the invisible relationship between Katazome with the beauty of nature and Vietnamese cultural heritage. She started creating many large paintings of the Vietnamese landscape.

After the visit, she organized exhibitions about Viet Nam, attracting the attention of many arts lovers, including an exhibition to mark the 30th anniversary of Japan-Viet Nam diplomatic ties in 2003, an exhibition on Hue ancient capital in 2005, an exhibition on Nara and Ha Noi to mark the 1,300th anniversary of Heijo - Nara and 1,000 years of Thang Long Ha Noi in 2010.

Toba Mika said that this year’s works are inspired from the beauty of Vietnamese nature and deep artistic feelings at ancient relic sites.

To make the works, she used a traditional Japanese dyeing technique called katazome which uses a resistant paste applied through a stencil.

Born in Aichi Prefecture and graduating from Kyoto city University of Arts (M.A.) she has brought in katazome, a traditional dyeing method in Japan, to the world of painting, and has created new contemporary art. She has won 19 prizes, including Kyoto Arts New Artist Prize and Urban Culture Incentive Award.