Skip to Navigation Skip to Content

Endless Possibilities Ahead 

Help us create more transformative, artful experiences in your community!

Asami Yoshiga

Narrow Road to the Interior: Contemporary Japanese Artists

The months and days are the travelers of eternity. The years that come and go are also voyagers. —Matsuo Bashō (1644-94), from Oku no Hosomichi (Narrow Road to the Interior), 1689 The 17th-century Zen Buddhist masterwork of prose and haiku, Narrow Road to the Interior, takes readers on a pilgrimage—both worldly and immaterial. The contemporary artists in this […]

Sep 21 - Jan 12, 2014

The months and days are the travelers of eternity. The years that come and go are also voyagers.
—Matsuo Bashō (1644-94), from Oku no Hosomichi (Narrow Road to the Interior), 1689

The 17th-century Zen Buddhist masterwork of prose and haiku, Narrow Road to the Interior, takes readers on a pilgrimage—both worldly and immaterial. The contemporary artists in this eponymous exhibition also evoke the idea of earthly and spiritual passage with artworks that use private experiences as entryways to universal themes. Quiet, patient observation and elemental materials prove central to these artists’ practices. These photographs, sculptures, paintings and installations incorporate humble materials such as light, water, wood, paper, ash, stone, ink and mirrors. The subtlety and frankness of the art epitomize the precision and rhythm of haiku while the exhibition’s meditative nature reflects the ritual and ceremony that has persisted over centuries at the heart of Japanese culture.

ARTISTS: Noriko Ambe | Hiroshi Senju | Yoshiko Shimano | Shinji Turner-Yamamoto | Masao Yamamoto | Motoi Yamamoto | Asami Yoshiga

Newsletter Sign Up