Hisashi Tenmyouya is a Japanese artist whose work deliberately straddles a line between contemporary popular culture and art history. In 2001 he proposed a new style of art he called 'neo-Nihonga', or 'new Japanese-style', which combined traditional Japanese painting with sharply contrasted modern imagery. This style led to what is probably his most famous painting: two samurai playing football, in a commissioned piece for the 2006 FIFA World Cup (pictured below the cut).
Tenmyouya works extensively with gold leaf in his neo-Nihonga works, laid down onto wooden boards in a traditional Japanese style. He then paints over the top of the leaf in acrylics. There is a huge amount to love in these works: the blending of style, the combination of realist art, manga/anime and graffiti-style imagery, and a sort of deliberately absurd humour caused by the cultural clash that results.
In 2010 he proposed a new art style labelled 'Basara', which further refined the neo-Nihonga works into a clash between samurai and contemporary youth culture. He remains one of Japan's most active and commercially popular contemporary artists. His Mobile Suit Gundam tribute "RX-78-2 Kabuki-mono 2005 Version", for example, sold at auction for US$600,000.
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| Hisashi Tenmyouya, RX-78-2 Kabuki-mono 2005 Version, 2005. (Acrylic on wood.) |
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| Hisashi Tenmyouya, Nine Kamakura Samurai, 2001. (Acrylic on wood.) |
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| Hisashi Tenmyouya, Football, 2004. (Acrylic and gold leaf on wood.) |
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| Hisashi Tenmyouya, Black Helmet in the Shape of a Cloaked Robot, 2016. (Acrylic, black gesso and gold leaf on wood.) |
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| Hisashi Tenmyouya, Cicada with Vermilion Lacquered Helmet in the Shape of Three-Horned Beetle, 2013. (Acrylic on wood.) |
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