[Obuse Hokusai-kan Museum] Miran Fukuda's Latest Works, Hokusai Art Pieces Unveiled! Special Exhibition "Hokusai vs. Miran Fukuda: A Message to Obuse" to be held from April 11 (Sat) to June 7 (Sun)

Highly Anticipated Contemporary Artist Miran Fukuda Challenges Hokusai!

This special exhibition commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Hokusai-kan Museum, located in Obuse, where Katsushika Hokusai created masterpieces in his later years. It will unveil a collection of new Hokusai art pieces created by contemporary artist Miran Fukuda, who offers her unique interpretation and expression of Hokusai's representative works held by the Hokusai-kan Museum, including the "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" series, as well as his late masterpieces painted in Obuse, such as the "Uwamachi Festival Float Ceiling Paintings: Male Wave and Female Wave" and the "Gansho-in Temple Ceiling Painting: Phoenix." You can enjoy these art pieces as a message to contemporary people, born from the collaboration between Miran Fukuda and Hokusai. (Approximately 15 new works, all exhibited for the first time, in addition to Hokusai-kan collection pieces)

Hokusai-kan Museum 50th Anniversary Special Exhibition

Hokusai vs. Miran Fukuda: A Message to Obuse

【Period】April 11 (Sat) - June 7 (Sun), 2026

【Hours】9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (Last admission 30 minutes before closing)

【Venue】Hokusai-kan Museum (485 Obuse, Obuse-machi, Kamitakai-gun, Nagano)

【Admission Fee】General 1500 yen, High school/University students 700 yen, Elementary/Junior high school students 500 yen

【Closed】Open daily during the exhibition period

Special Website Here

Featured New Works

Miran Fukuda "Roto-zu (Angry Waves)"

Miran Fukuda "Roto-zu (Angry Waves)"

The two swirling patterns painted on the paulownia ceiling boards of the Obuse Uwamachi festival float are "recently popularly called 'Male Wave' and 'Female Wave,' and both are referred to as 'Roto-zu' (Angry Waves)" (Note 1). From this, I associated "Roto" with something fierce and powerful, an aggressive attack. Also, "the swirling patterns diving deep into the seabed of 'Roto-zu' reveal Hokusai's obsession with approaching the origin of life residing in the waves" (Note 2). Therefore, I combined the two images, creating an image where the spray of the Male Wave dives into the Female Wave, giving concrete form to Hokusai's obsession with the origin of life. The fact that "it is not known in which orientation the wave patterns were originally placed..." (Note 3) allowed me the freedom to reconfigure the waves, quoting Hokusai's waves as they are without alteration. It seems that the popular names for the waves in recent years came from shapes implicitly suggested within the original imagery. (Comment: Miran Fukuda)

(Note 1.2.3.) Toshinobu Yasumura, "Katsushika Hokusai's Roto-zu, Dragon and Phoenix Ceiling Paintings" ("Kokka" No. 1506, Reiwa 3)

Uwamachi Festival Float Ceiling Painting "Male Wave" (Hokusai-kan Museum Collection)

Uwamachi Festival Float Ceiling Painting "Female Wave" (Hokusai-kan Museum Collection)

Miran Fukuda "Gansho-in Temple Main Hall Ceiling Painting: Phoenix"

Miran Fukuda "Gansho-in Temple Main Hall Ceiling Painting: Phoenix"

The idea of transforming the Gansho-in Temple ceiling painting "Phoenix" into the water expression depicted in Hokusai Manga came from a phrase in an essay about Hokusai (Note 1): "The depiction of receding waves in Hokusai Manga is unique, resembling the tail feathers of a giant phoenix." Following the subsequent discourse (Note 2), here, I composed the eternally living phoenix in monochrome ink, using the wave shapes from Hokusai Manga as they are, in imitation of the dragon god who controls water and is depicted on the ceilings of wooden temples vulnerable to fire. Hokusai's Phoenix painting aimed to recreate the Pure Land based on Nissokan (Note 3) by using soot ink that changes with the light entering the main hall and gold leaf in the background, which cannot be separated from the architectural structure. Therefore, I imbued the water expression with a prayer to protect this ancient temple from fire. (Comment: Miran Fukuda)

(Note 1) Toshinobu Yasumura, "Hokusai, the Visionary of Water and Waves" (Katsushika Hokusai: The Genius Artist Who Charmed the World, 2016, Kawade Shobo Shinsha) (Note 2) "Hokusai envisioned water and waves, and saw life in them. Water and waves, possessing life, change shape freely and move... He must have envisioned a mysterious life force within the waves." (Note 3) A Buddhist practice of contemplating the Pure Land by gazing at the setting sun in the western sky.

Miran Fukuda "Nisshin Joma-zu (Daily Exorcism Paintings)" (All 52 works)

Miran Fukuda "Nisshin Joma-zu: January 18, Patriot Interceptor Missile / First Use in Combat"

Miran Fukuda "Nisshin Joma-zu: February 8, Trump's Decline / Low Approval Ratings"

Miran Fukuda "Nisshin Joma-zu: April 11, Radiation Protection Suit / Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant Fire Accident"

Miran Fukuda "Nisshin Joma-zu: May 3, Plastic Waste Separation / Garbage Day"

Miran Fukuda "Nisshin Joma-zu: August 26, Smallpox Exorcism / Owl Day"

Miran Fukuda "Nisshin Joma-zu: November 15, Hemp Leaf Pattern / Pattern for Amulet on Shichi-Go-San Kimono"

The Nisshin Joma-zu are works Hokusai created almost daily from Tenpo 13 (1842) to the following year, when he was 83, depicting lions and lion dances on hanshi paper, wishing to "exorcise demons anew each day." A testimony (Note 1) states that he "drew a lion on a small piece of paper every morning and threw it outside his house," and when asked why he threw them away, he replied, "They are a forbidden spell to ward off my grandson, the devil" (Note 2). This indicates that these were not created as appreciation paintings but were works driven by extremely private motives. Here, I have drawn what came to mind, from traditional exorcisms of evil spirits and worldly desires to wishes for health and peace from modern daily disasters and illnesses, attaching related dates. I have created an installation where these works are discarded from Hokusai's studio "Hekii-ken" (Note 3) and can be picked up and taken home by visitors. (Comment: Miran Fukuda)

(Note 1) Gen-tan Sugita's testimony in Kyoshin Iijima's "Katsushika Hokusai Den" (Biography of Katsushika Hokusai).

(Note 2) Hokusai's grandson (his eldest daughter's son)'s dissolute behavior troubled Hokusai in his later years.

(Note 3) There is a small room reminiscent of Hokusai's studio at the Takai Kozan Memorial Museum.

Miran Fukuda "Hokushin Gogaku (Five Mountains of Northern Shinshu), Obuse Town, Shinshu"

Miran Fukuda "Hokushin Gogaku (Five Mountains of Northern Shinshu), Obuse Town, Shinshu"

The imposing presence of the tall giant tree in "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji: Koshu Mishimagoe" overlaps with the impression of the metasequoia, which spreads its branches widely as a symbol tree in the center of Obuse Town, welcoming visitors. Behind it, I depicted the連なり of the Hokushin Gogaku (Five Mountains of Northern Shinshu) that can be viewed from the highlands of this town. While it is wonderful that all five mountains can be seen together, like Mount Fuji, they are single peaks. However, since they are shorter than Mount Fuji, I incorporated the autumn chestnut confection "Suzaku" from Obusedo into the landscape, representing the mountains as taller Mont Blanc. During the delicious season of Suzaku, someone sweeps the large amount of fallen metasequoia leaves daily, and the triangular shape behind that person and the shape of Suzaku became a characteristic similarity in Hokusai's screen. (Comment: Miran Fukuda)

Miran Fukuda "Tatsuta River with Autumn Leaves"

Miran Fukuda "Tatsuta River with Autumn Leaves"

In the first volume of "Katsushika Hokusai Den," there is an anecdote that when the 11th Shogun Tokugawa Ienari, having heard of Hokusai's reputation, summoned him and requested an impromptu painting (sekiga), Hokusai drew a blue line with a brush on a long piece of paper, then had a chicken with red paint on its feet walk on it, likening its footprints to autumn leaves, and said, "This is a scene of the Tatsuta River." According to records of recreating "Tatsuta River with Autumn Leaves" using live bantam chickens, the chickens sometimes walked on the paper for a while, and sometimes immediately went off the paper (Note). I was strongly drawn to the unpredictability of whether the chicken would move as desired, which is just as interesting as Hokusai's eccentric ideas, if not more so, in its ability to surprise people. So, here I recreated the situation where a wind-up toy chicken walks in an unpredictable manner instead of a real chicken.