These works document the transit and inflection of four Japanese diasporic artists who settled in Brazil and travelled through Latin America. Sachiko Koshikoku, Akinori Nakatani, Massao Okinaka, and Yuji Tamaki arrived in Brazil in different moments of the twentieth century, either as youngsters accompanying their families before the Second World War or adults searching for new environments for their artistic practices during the 1960s and 70s.

Okinaka and Tamaki met in São Paulo through the activities of Seibi-Kai, an artist association founded by Japanese immigrants in 1935. Alongside painters trained in local schools, they adopted oil painting and gathered to paint outdoors, participating in an artistic modernity that expanded among working class artists. In the 1970s, they travelled through Bolivia and Peru, painting Andean landscapes. Some are presented here alongside a set of watercolours painted by Okinaka in his homeland, which he carried with him when he left for Brazil: Província de Shiga (1928–29) and three of his Untitled (Shijo-ha) (1928–32), studies of Japanese flora undertaken as a teenager.

Koshikoku and Nakatani, who arrived in Brazil in 1965 and 1974, respectively, inscribe their works with traces of their encounter with Mesoamerican and Andean architectural ruins, ceramics, and textiles. Before settling in Brazil, Nakatani migrated to El Salvador in 1971, where he taught ceramics classes and travelled through Central America and Peru. Koshikoku, in turn, departed from Brazil to visit cultural heritage sites in Peru and Mexico. Their works share an interest in graphic inscriptions, animal motifs, and the geometric forms of pre-Columbian art, projecting an extra-European space for an intercultural dialogue infused by the codes of language and spirituality in transit.

Conceived and assembled by Yudi Rafael

Works in the exhibition:
Massao Okinaka, Província de Shiga (1928–29), Sumi and gansai ink on paper, 36.5 × 55 cm. Roberto Okinaka Collection / Courtesy of the artist’s estate and Gomide&Co
Massao Okinaka, Andes (1975), oil on burlap,116 × 89 cm. Roberto Okinaka Collection / Courtesy of the artist’s estate and Gomide&Co Yuji Tamaki, Paisagem Boliviana (1973), oil on canvas, 50 × 50 cm. Gomide&Co Collection / Courtesy of Gomide&Co
Akinori Nakatani, Untitled (1983), glazed ceramics, 38 × 34.5 × 9 cm. Gomide&Co Collection / Courtesy of the artist's estate and Gomide&Co
Akinori Nakatani, Untitled (1980), glazed ceramics, 33 × 19 cm. Gomide&Co Collection / Courtesy of the artist's estate and Gomide&Co
Sachiko Koshikoku, Untitled (c.1990s), acrylic on canvas, 135.5 × 150 cm. Roberto Okinaka Collection / Courtesy of Gomide&Co
Akinori Nakatani, Untitled (c.1981), glazed ceramics, 23 × 7 × 6 cm. Gomide&Co Collection / Courtesy of the artist's estate and Gomide&Co
Sachiko Koshikoku, Untitled (1977), oil on burlap, 60 × 50 cm. Fabio Frayha Collection / Courtesy of Gomide&Co
Yoshitaro Amano and Yukihiro Tsunoyama, Textiles of the Andes: Catalog of Amano Collection (South San Francisco: Heian / Dohosha 1979), book
Massao Okinaka, Untitled (Shijo-ha) (1928–32), Sumi and gansai ink on washi paper, 37 × 25 cm (unframed), 56.5 × 45.3 cm (framed). Roberto Okinaka Collection / Courtesy of the artist's estate and Gomide&Co
Massao Okinaka, Untitled (Shijo-ha) (1928–32), Sumi and gansai ink on washi paper, 37 × 25 cm (unframed), 56 × 45.3 cm (framed). Roberto Okinaka Collection / Courtesy of the artist's estate and Gomide&Co
Massao Okinaka, Untitled (Shijo-ha) (1928–32), Sumi and gansai ink on washi paper. 37 × 25 cm (unframed), 56.5 × 45.3 cm (framed). Roberto Okinaka Collection / Courtesy of the artist's estate and Gomide&Co