Courtyard of famous paintings on tiled board

type

status

date

slug

summary

category

icon

password

😀

The Kyoto Prefectural Museum of Painting, designed by architect Tadao Ando, is the world's first garden of painting.

With its unique outdoor open-air design, the Litopan Famous Paintings Court combines the viewing of famous paintings with the experience of outdoor gardening, perfectly interpreting the harmonious coexistence of man and nature in Eastern philosophy.

The site is laid out in a rectangular shape, adjacent to the street on the east side and closely connected to the park on the west side. Standing at the entrance, the eye is drawn to the interlocking abstract concrete walls, inspiring a strong desire to explore the mysteries of the park.

Built in 1994, this is the world's first terracotta garden with a corridor design that accurately reproduces the shapes and colors of famous paintings. The ceramic panels were first exhibited at the International Flower and Green Fair in Osaka in 1990. After the exposition, Mr. Taichi KAIYA proposed to transfer the ceramic panels to Kyoto and created a modern garden for this purpose, so that the public could enjoy the world famous paintings from the East and the West at any time, thus giving birth to this unique building.

The terracotta garden displays many of the world's most famous paintings, including Monet's Water Lilies, Monk Toba's Birds, Animals and Figures, Zhang Zeduan's Along the River During the Clearing, Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Great Bowl, Michelangelo's The Last Judgment, Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, Van Gogh's The Pathway with Cypresses and Stars, and Renoir's On the Balcony. These works are displayed in a unique way, from the traditional wall display to underwater, in water or next to water, and the combination with water gives them a new visual experience.

The Kyoto Prefectural Taban Meikyo Garden is not a building in the traditional sense of the word, but it exhibits the qualities of a modern garden with its smooth corridors, open tops, and simple peripheral walls. The design is centered on the veranda, which not only carries the function and flow of the garden, but also integrates with nature through its openness.

The architects have skillfully used the water element in this project, especially the spectacular 4 to 5 meter high water screen, to create the illusion of being in nature, while providing a tranquil experience away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

The shallow water, only about 10 centimeters, covers the water lilies appropriately, not interfering with the viewing of the painting, but adding variety and interest to the viewing. The ripples on the water seem to ripple through the painting. This skillful use of detail allows the concrete structure to emanate the warmth of life as well, reflecting a profound translation of the sense of life in the creation.

The interspersed streams are creating encounters between people, are they merging or colliding? While providing multiple paths, it maximizes the perspective of appreciating the paintings, you can not have to just sit in front of the paintings, but in a process of walking, changing to see them in different ways.

Water and concrete, motion and stillness, emptiness and reality, Tadao Ando has found the access point between Japanese tradition and modernity, and this “motion and stillness, emptiness and reality” is exactly the characteristic of Chinese space, which is the root of Chinese philosophical thought “to the extreme of emptiness, to keep the quietness and certainty”, and has found the access point in this building. In this building, the access point has been found.

Its exterior is as unassuming as a street corner. But who would have guessed that there is something else inside? This is where Tadao Ando's mastery comes in, creating a relatively independent and enclosed space, where the breeze and sunshine, and the sky's cloudy skies are all natural decorations for the garden. Surrounded by plain concrete walls and a slight flow of water, the combination of movement and static creates an excellent space for viewing art treasures.

A courtyard like this is definitely worth experiencing on site.

japan guides