Otherdimensional Space Museum

Facing Mount Mizugaki (reminiscent of Mount Huangshan), this sky-high museum, a wooden Showa-era school building, exudes a lonely presence behind a declining village, but it also serves as a place of refuge for the people. Born on January 5, 1939 (Showa 14), on Rishiri Island, Hokkaido, Kudo Kenji is 86 years old. A graduate of the Department of Oil Painting at Musashino Art University, he resolved to abandon his past mid-life and, from 1986 to 18 years later, lived in Huangshan, Anhui Province, a town boasting the breathtaking scenery of a Chinese immortal village, where he dedicated himself to expressing ink. The culmination of his efforts was the first solo exhibition by a Japanese artist, held in October 1996 at the National Art Museum in Beijing, with the support of the Japanese Embassy. Three years later, a documentary titled "Kenji Kudo's Ten Years" was broadcast on CCTV's Central Television Programme, "Starry Sky of Art." In 2004, worried about his mother, who was over 90 years old at the time, he decided to return to Japan. He rented the abandoned Masutomi Junior High School and produced a series of works, one after the other, depicting the local Mount Mizugaki, the Jindai Cherry Blossoms, the Takeda Shingen series, and the Waves and Women series. The true essence of his overflowing vitality and free-spirited imagination was revealed in 2017 as a gigantic ceiling painting, a three-dimensional space filled from the gymnasium ceiling to the walls with paintings. The murals featured Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and Mozart's Requiem, as well as otherworldly and fantastical ceiling paintings of elusive dragons and divine beasts from the world of mythology that has been the foundation of culture and that people have admired since ancient times, as well as beautiful celestial maidens and goddesses who inspire kindness and hope for us modern people. His work offers a glimpse into a radiant cosmic view that transcends time and space, ancient and modern, East and West. I hope this work conveys something about the current times. Thank you.