Tamura Kazuo was born in what is now Nakano Ward, Tokyo in 1904. He always intended to be a painter and entered a private art school while working as a live-in laborer at a frame shop. He was impressed by the majesty of the Tateshina highlands when he visited Shinshu in his twenties. After 10 months' travelling in Europe he realized his subject matter lay in the Japanese landscape, especially plateaus, and he toured Japan to depict them.

Like no other realistic paintings, we can look at the works of Tamura as portraits of mountains, which also reflect the artist's solitude and purity as if Tamura himself were projected onto the canvas. Because Tamura worked outside even in the harsh winter months, he was able to express the natural forms that he felt with his own eyes, ears and skin, and with his heart.

This exhibition will showcase the representative works from the museum’s collection by Tamura, from his early active years to his final years. Please enjoy the dialogue between nature and the artist who loved the mountains and highlands of Nagano and the Japanese landscape.

• List of works