Tamura Kazuo was born and raised in 1904 in what is now Nakano Ward, Tokyo. Aspiring to be a painter, he worked as a live-in employee at a picture frame shop while attending an art school, and when he was in his 20s, he was impressed by the grandeur of the Tateshina Plateau in Shinshu. After a 10-month research trip to Europe, Tamura realized that the subject of his paintings was Japanese culture, and he traveled all over Japan, continuing to paint mainly mountain and plateau landscapes.

Tamura's works are distinct from realistic landscape paintings, and are like portraits of mountains, clad in "solitude" and "purity," as if Tamura himself were projected onto the canvas. It is because Tamura continued to create his works outdoors, even in the harsh winter, that he was able to express the aspects of nature that he felt with his eyes, ears, skin, and heart.

In commemoration of the 120th anniversary of his birth, this exhibition will introduce Tamura's work from his early period to his final years, focusing on his representative works from the museum's collection. Please enjoy the dialogue between the artist, who loved the mountains and plateaus of Shinshu and the Japanese landscapes, and nature.

• List of works