Kahitsukan - Kyoto Museum of Contemporary Art
Opened in 1981. A private art museum located in the heart of Gion, Kyoto. The museum’s name, ‘What is necessary” means “People are bound by fixed theories.
Whether in academia or the arts, people are bound by fixed theories and lose their freedom. The museum was named after the desire to maintain a spirit of freedom by questioning the established theories.
The collection includes a wide range of domestic and international modern and contemporary paintings, crafts, and photographs, with special exhibitions featuring works by Japanese-style painter Murakami Kagaku, Western-style Yamaguchi Kaoru, and Kitaoji Rosanjin, an artist active in all fields and crafts, including ceramics. Kajikawa is the first one to spot Shiraga Kazuo, Lee Ufan and Paul Klee.
The building was designed by Kajikawa Yoshitomo, and has a clean, modern interior made of Xuan Jingshi, but the exhibition space is based on and natural light is used through shoji screens. On the top floor, the 5th floor, there is a tea ceremony room with a beautiful light garden of mountain foliage, where visitors can enjoy a moment of calm and tranquillity in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the city, with the light streaming in from above and the mountain foliage changing with the seasons.
